Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

Reading Policy

Israel is known for having many lifelong readers, and one of the country’s main educational goals is to develop student reading literacy. Separate reading curricula are used for Hebrew speaking students and Arabic speaking students. Part of the linguistic education curriculum for native speakers of each language, the curricula include similar benchmarks and standards.

Reading is presented as the foundation for student learning. The focus is more on teaching the language than on teaching about language, emphasizing self‑experience and communication over theoretical knowledge of the language. Both the Hebrew and Arabic curricula focus on the importance of reading a variety of text genres (e.g., expository, descriptive, argumentative, procedural, narrative) to expand the types of written and spoken discourse to which students are exposed in school. Works of classical and contemporary literature as well as traditional texts have been selected to suit the cognitive level of students within each grade and introduce them to their culture. Development of students’ literacy and linguistic skills continues throughout primary school within all subject areas.

The Hebrew and Arabic reading curricula include three complementary and interrelated components of linguistic education: linguistic knowledge; reading, speaking, listening, and writing practices; and the spoken and written discourse represented by a variety of text genres. Each component is believed to support the development of a “literate discourse,ˮ the discourse required to study different subject areas and communicate appropriately in daily life as active, responsible, and critical participants.

Reading development is an important goal of the preprimary literacy curriculum, and students are expected to master the Hebrew or Arabic orthographic code. Initial reading instruction in support of language development begins in the first grade using a phoneme-grapheme correspondence approach in a rich spoken language environment to support the curriculum’s goal of providing students with opportunities to experience both written and spoken language. Texts are selected according to their relevance to students’ lives in and out of school, and are adapted to their cognitive level in each grade. The learning program uses two interrelated frameworks to classify the types of texts for students: discourse and genre. The curriculum differentiates between five “worlds of discourse,ˮ or the knowledge, values, perspectives, and patterns of discourse that are typical of a given discipline: expository or academic; interpersonal; mass media; literature; and traditional heritage resources. The genre framework refers to the following major text genres: Students are assigned expository or descriptive texts, argumentative texts (to present arguments or persuade), procedural texts, and narratives. Each of these genres includes subgenres with similar social goals and structural elements.

Classroom lessons are organized around theme contexts, and texts from different genres and worlds of discourse are used to teach particular themes. For example, “waterˮ is one of the themes that uses expository texts, while the theme of Jewish holidays uses narrative texts. This allows specific themes that are classified into different worlds of discourse to enhance students’ linguistic knowledge; to practice reciprocal interactions among reading, writing, listening, and speaking; and to increase students’ awareness of different genres.

Summary of National Curriculum

Israel’s national curriculum defines expected competencies of students using selected texts adapted to their cognitive level toward the end of Grades 2, 4, and 6. The curriculum has been in use since 2003, and the implementation of its benchmarks was evaluated in 2007. Schools are encouraged to tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of their student population. The following list gives an overview of the curriculum content and learning objectives for students at the end of Grade 4:

Listen and speak for different purposes—Tracking the sequence of events; locating ideas; interpreting, evaluating, and taking a stance about ideas; participating in a discussion; presenting an established idea in a lecture; choosing the correct tone and using appropriate language; giving a practical report; telling a story following a personal experience; presenting an argument and supporting it with logical structures
Write texts for different purposes and recipients—Writing a story presenting reflections; reports; description and explanation; writing instructions; expressing a reasoned opinion; writing for communicating reflections
Produce written texts that are linguistically correct and communicably appropriate—Correct spelling and legible writing; writing grammatically correct sentences; proper use of punctuation; using an appropriate vocabulary; title creation and paragraph division; writing that is subject-focused; organizing ideas in appropriate structures; using logical conjunctions
Read various kinds of texts for different purposes—Reading continuously, fluently, and accurately along with mastering the alphabetic code; understanding overt meaning (understanding words in context, understanding chronological sequences, identifying logical conjunctions, lingual components and modes of organization and design, linkage to disciplinary content knowledge); understanding of hidden meanings (detecting the relationship between the structure and content of the text, drawing conclusions); interpretation, evaluation, and taking a stance
Retrieve information and knowledge from various types of texts and subject domains—Retrieving information from textbooks on various subjects, digital information, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and childrenʼs magazines, based on verbal as well as visual information (e.g., illustrations, photographs, maps, charts); retrieving information relevant to the topic being studied from various information sources; evaluating information credibility by type of source, author characteristics, and publication date
Read literary works from various periods and genres—Independent reading of 20 more books; familiarity with the works of 10 authors from different periods, and from Hebrew or Arabic as well as translated literature; read aloud fluently, accurately, and accentually a given literary work that fits the age level; identify characters, recognize their descriptions, and expressing a personal stance toward the characters; understand the connections among events in a plot; identify the supernatural elements in the plot (e.g., legend, tale, allegory, imaginary story); identify the main characteristics of a poem (e.g., rhyme, rhythm, tonality); express a personal opinion on a literary work
Read texts from Jewish sources (only for Hebrew-speaking students)—Read fluently, accurately and accentually; understand issues, ideas, and messages; master idiomatic phrases, idioms, and expressions
Recognize and understand the linguistic system—Recognition of letters (their sounds, their names, and their order); understand use of vowels; search the dictionary; understand word format; understand extensions for male and female, and for singular and plural; use terms that refer to pronouns; identify and use verbs in different tenses and grammatical persons; correct usage of prepositions; recognize conjunctions; perceive the relationships between synonyms and reversals; recognition and use of expressions, idioms, and common proverbs

The curriculum points to the importance of initiating “reading communitiesˮ at schools to encourage social interaction among readers. Nurturing the social aspect of reading by taking regular visits to the library and conducting reading themed events is believed to promote students’ personal growth and enjoyment of reading.

The linguistic education curriculum for Arabic speaking elementary schools has been in use since 2009. The curriculum employs an approach to reading similar to that of the Hebrew reading curriculum, having adopted similar benchmarks and standards. The curriculum takes into account the unique characteristics of the Arabic language, especially the fact that native Arabic speaking children are born in a unique linguistic situation called diglossia.³ These children grow up using a spoken Arabic vernacular and later learn to read Modern Standard Arabic, which is linguistically related. The curriculum defines expected competencies for elementary school students similar to those in the Hebrew curriculum.