Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade
Reading Policy
The program of literary reading taught in all primary schools includes the following mandatory components:
- The techniques of reading and understanding texts, including reading of literary and scientific texts silently and aloud, understanding the content and main idea of texts, answering questions regarding the content of texts, and making a simple outline from which to retell texts
- A reader’s view and orientation to the world of books, including folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends of the people of Russia and the world; Russian classics (from the list of recommended titles of children’s reading) and modern Russian literature; foreign literature; children’s newspapers and magazines; bibliographic information (e.g., author, title, annotation, contents); and dictionaries and reference books
- Special literature knowledge, such as genres of works (e.g., story or fairy tale, fable, poem or rhyme, novel, play), the specific forms of folklore (e.g., riddles, patterns, songs, proverbs), the topic of texts (e.g., main idea, subject, character and behavior of the hero), and means of expression in texts (e.g., epithets, comparisons, sound and rhyme in poetry)
- Language development, including activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing; knowledge of text purposes (e.g., narration, description, reasoning); etymology of the Russian language; emotional and stylistic coloring of speech (e.g., expressive reading and storytelling, speech etiquette); and demonstrating understanding by retelling, creating a connected story about the main characters, and summarizing students’ own impressions of texts
Summary of National Curriculum
A broad goal of literary reading in primary school is to introduce students to literature as the art of writing and expose them to the world of human relations and moral values. Literary reading aims to develop students’ skills of conscious reading and understanding texts, as well as skills in oral and written speech. Reading also aims to foster students’ creative abilities and develop of a sense of self.
PIRLS 2016 students learned literary reading according to the Federal State Education Standard (FSES) of primary education issued in 2009 and enacted on January 1, 2010. Each educational institution develops the main curriculum independently in compliance with the FSES.
Within the area of literary reading, the 2009 standards have four sections of expected results: types of speech and reading activities, terminology of children’s literature, introduction to literary texts (literary propaedeutics), and creative activity (for literary texts). In a significant change, these new standards pay more attention to reading to acquire information.
According to the FSES, results after the completion of the reading curriculum for primary general education should reflect:
- Understanding literature as a phenomenon of national and world culture, and as a means of preservation and transmission of moral values and traditions
- Recognizing the importance of reading for personal development, for the formation of ideas about the world of Russian history and culture, original ethical ideas, concepts of good and evil, morality, successful learning in all academic subjects, and the need for systematic reading
- Understanding the role of the reader and the use of different types of reading (e.g., introduction, studying, sampling, searching) to be able to perceive consciously and evaluate the content and specificity of various texts, to participate in discussions, and to give and justify moral assessment of characters
- Achieving required continuing education for the reader’s level of competence in common speech development (i.e., to master the reading analysis and transformation of the artistic, scientific, and popular and academic texts using basic concepts of literary criticism)
- Being able to choose interesting books and use reference sources to understand and obtain more information
The FSES also specifies intersubject results requirements, which should reflect the acquisition of skills to read for meaning in texts of different styles and genres in accordance with the goals and objectives; the building of verbal expression consciously in accordance with the objectives of communication; and preparing of texts in oral and written form.
In the course of primary education, the FSES allow for learning the intersubject program Development of Universal Learning Skills, including the part called “Reading. Working with a Text.”
When working with a text, the following areas are emphasized: searching for information and reading comprehension, transformation and interpretation of information, and evaluation and application of information.