Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade
Reading Policy
The current competency-based curriculum for primary schools draws upon the principles articulated in the 1999 National Charter for Education and Training. The curriculum focuses on helping children develop the competencies required to read different types of texts fluently and confidently, such as informational and expository texts. Ministerial circulars, textbooks, and guidelines outline the skills that students must be able to demonstrate by the end of fourth grade, with the aim of helping them acquire those necessary for independent language learning. These include the ability to do the following:14
- Recognize and understand rhyme and rhythm, letters, words, sentences, and punctuation marks
- Read written texts aloud and silently at a reasonable speed
- Recognize and understand the main and supporting ideas in texts
- Infer word meanings using contextual clues, word analysis, multiple meaning words, and word analogies
- Recognize fiction and nonfiction text structure
- Differentiate between fact and opinion
- Look up the spelling and definition of words in the dictionary
A pilot study is being implemented to upgrade the teaching, learning, and assessment of reading.15 There is a general conviction that the ability to read is key to learners’ overall development inside and outside school.
Summary of National Curriculum
The national curriculum renewal and piloting process is underway and will continue through 2017–2018.16 The reading curriculum that had been applied was designed in 2002 and is oriented toward developing student reading skills through the use of real life situations, where students activate and integrate linguistic knowledge, strategies, and prior knowledge to solve real life problems. The teaching and assessment of oral communication, also termed oral competency, are to be prioritized through this pedagogy, reflecting the general tendency to integrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills to increase student language competence.17 The aims of the currently used reading curriculum can be summarized as follows:
- Nurture interest in words and their meanings
- Provide a wide range of opportunities for reading and emphasize the value of reading in everyday life situations and circumstances
- Help students become independent readers through appropriate focus on word, sentence, and text level knowledge
- Develop confidence in reading through a range of independent strategies for self-monitoring and correction
- Develop the skills to evaluate and justify individual preferences
- Develop imagination, inventiveness, and associative thinking
- Make students aware that we learn to read by reading
If the piloting of the revised curriculum yields fruitful results, it will be generalized nationwide with much effort to be invested in teacher training and textbook and materials publication, which will be overseen by the Permanent Curricula Committee to be appointed by the Higher Council for Education, Training, and Scientific Research shortly.