Development of reading literacy during first four grades of the primary school

Abstract

Reading literacy is one of the basic competencies, significant for learning and development. Apart from the skill of decoding a text, this complex competency enhances a set of functional skills, such as identifying basic ideas of the text, connecting data from one or many sources, bringing conclusions, etc. This paper deals with the development of reading literacy during the first four grades of the primary school, when its development is very intense. The aim of the research was to describe reading literacy at the age between seven and ten and to point at the difficulties children are facing during mastering this competency. The research included three hundred twenty children - 149 first graders and 171 fourth grades. We used 77 tasks taken from the task collection Jezicke skolice 1 and Jezicke skolice 4, and Razumem da citam 5. The tasks were grouped, so that a group for the first graders had between four and six tasks, and the group for the fourth grades between six and nine tasks. The groups were equalised according to the requirements, and their organisation was balanced. Each child did a test which included two groups of tasks (incomplete research design). Applying IRT analysis and logical analysis of tasks, we got the scale of reading literacy, consisting of six levels. We are able to see in which aspects of the read materials students have the most difficulties, i.e. in which they mostly need teachers support, through its analysis. The results we came to, point at the fact that most children at the end of the fourth grade are not completely ready to use the competence of reading as a tool for learning and development, which should be its function and educational aim in the first cycle of education, when children are expected to transfer from the phase of learning how to read into the phase of reading for the purpose of learning.