Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade
Reading Policy
Reading development is one of the basic goals of primary education. The concept of reading in Czech primary schools has changed since 1989. While in the past only reading skills were stressed, the current curriculum focuses on the functional use of reading—reading literacy development as a necessary means of communication and continuing education. Reading is understood not only as a means for acquiring a skill and its use, but also in a wider sense as an important prerequisite for individual cultural and personal development.
Summary of National Curriculum
The Education Act of 2004 set a two level structure for educational programs. Since September 2007, teaching according to the Framework Educational Programme for Basic Education (FEP BE) has been binding. The FEP BE, produced at the central level, specifies the objectives, form, length, and content of education and some general conditions for implementation. The school head draws up an educational program in accordance with the FEP BE and the school’s conditions. The FEP BE defines nine main educational areas (consisting of one or more educational fields), cross-curricular themes, and supplementary educational fields.
The content of the educational fields includes the expected outcomes and subject matter. Within Stage 1 (Grades 1 to 5), the educational content is subdivided into Period 1 (Grades 1 to 3) and Period 2 (Grades 4 to 5). Expected outcomes are activity-based, practically focused, applicable in everyday life, and verifiable. They specify the expected capability of utilizing the acquired subject matter in practical situations and everyday life. The FEP BE sets the expected outcomes at the end of Grade 3 (Period 1) as not binding and at the end of Grade 5 (Period 2) as binding.
The Language and Language Communication educational area occupies a pivotal position in the education process. The content of the educational field Czech Language and Literature is complex and interconnected in instruction, but for the sake of clarity has been separated into three parts: Communication and Composition, Language, and Literature. By Period 1 (at the end of Grade 3), students are expected to:
- Read texts of adequate length and difficulty fluently with comprehension
- Understand written and oral instructions of reasonable difficulty
- Read age appropriate literary texts and recite them from memory with proper phrasing and pace
- Express personal feelings about a text
- Distinguish prose from verse and fairy tales from other types of narratives
- Work creatively according to personal abilities with a literary text following the teacher’s instructions
By Period 2 (at the end of Grade 5) students are expected to:
- Read texts of adequate difficulty with comprehension silently and aloud
- Recognize the main ideas and details in age-appropriate texts, taking notes on the main ideas
- Assess the completeness of a simple text
- Reproduce the content of a text of adequate difficulty and remember the main ideas
- Recognize manipulative communication in an advertisement or commercial
- Express and record personal impressions from reading
- Reproduce a text freely according to personal abilities and create an original literary text on a given topic
- Distinguish between various types of artistic and nonartistic texts
- Use elementary literary terms when performing a simple analysis of literary texts
The Czech Language and Literature subject matter for Periods 1 and 2 includes:8
- Practical reading (e.g., reading technique, attentive and fluent reading, recognition of orientation elements in a text) and factual reading (e.g., reading for information, scanning, recognizing key words)
- Listening to literary texts
- Experiential reading and listening
- Creative activities with a literary text (e.g., recitation of adequate literary texts, creative reproduction of a text that the student has read or listened to, dramatization, creation of original accompanying illustrations)
- Basic literary terms pertaining to literary styles and genres (e.g., counting rhyme, riddle, nursery rhyme, poem, fairy tale, fable, short story; writer, poet, book, reader; theater performance, actor, director; verse, rhyme, simile)
Development of functional reading is realized through the use of reading materials in all subject areas. The goals defined by the FEP BE stress new approaches and elements in reading instruction (e.g., active work with texts, reading and understanding, critical thinking). Although general awareness of the shift from technical reading toward functional reading has been growing, many Czech schools still follow the traditional approach.