Dubai, UAE

Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

Reading Policy

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education’s national charter outlines the national literacy standards and expectations for all grades starting in kindergarten, including expectations regarding appropriate educational standards. The charter includes skill levels, distributions of curricular standards, and assessment criteria. It also provides teachers with guidance regarding teaching strategies and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in teaching Arabic language.

Summary of National Curriculum

Dubai public schools use the UAE national Arabic language curriculum. Private schools use different curricula based on their own curriculum standards for the large proportion of students attending private schools.

• United Kingdom schools—The reading program for Year 4 (Key Stage 2) in private schools using the UK curriculum includes knowledge, skills, and understanding in the following areas: reading with fluency, accuracy, understanding, and enjoyment; developing phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge to decode and encode words; using grammatical understanding and knowledge of the content and context of texts; reading for information; reading texts with greater accuracy, understanding, and familiarity with the characteristics of different types of text; developing understanding of a wide range of literary genres; and reading nonfiction and other nonliterary texts, including print and ICT‑based informational texts, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials.¹⁰
• International Baccalaureate schools—Expectations for achievement in reading at International Baccalaureate (IB) private schools consider the range of language learning situations that exist in IB Primary Years Programme schools, which include Grade 4.¹¹ The reading strand of the language curriculum is summarized through a list of overall expectations comprising generic statements that broadly encapsulate the expected learning. Like the other strands, reading is considered from both the receptive aspect (receiving and constructing meaning) and the expressive aspect (creating and sharing meaning).
• United States schools—Based on the English Language Arts (ELA) standards of the state of California, the Grade 4 reading program for US private schools focuses on the following areas: word analysis, fluency, and systematic vocabulary development; reading comprehension; and literacy response and analysis.¹² Schools in Dubai following a US curriculum may use the standards of a state other than California, but each school uses the same core reading competencies. Many schools in Dubai still base their reading curricula on selected textbooks rather than on specific and defined state reading standards.

Indian schools—The reading program for Grade 4 in Indian private schools aims to develop students’ communication skills and improve their command of language. In addition to classes in English (language and literature), students also may study Arabic, French, and Hindi. The curriculum, considered both from a receptive and an expressive aspect, focuses on the following areas: word analysis, fluency, and systematic vocabulary development; reading comprehension; and literacy response and analysis.¹³