Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

When Macao became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China in 1999, the SAR government published a curriculum to cover the social and educational changes in the new era.
In 2005, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e Juventude, or DSEJ) formulated the Macao SAR Curriculum Reform and Development Plan, providing a blueprint for the establishment of a new curriculum framework and standards spanning the next 10 years.¹² The new curriculum was introduced in 2014 by the DSEJ and was composed of The Curriculum Framework for Formal Education of the Local Education System; The Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments of the Local Education System; and The Curriculum Guide.

The education reforms set out to establish regional curricula of high quality and diversity and comprehensively to enhance the quality of formal education in Macao. The new curriculum framework and the Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments for primary education were implemented in Primary 1 to 3 (Grades 1 to 3) in the 2016–2017 academic year and will operate in Primary 4 to 6 (Grades 4 to 6) in the 2017–2018 academic year.¹³

The rationale of the Primary Chinese Language Curriculum is as follows:

To target all students and comprehensively develop their Chinese language literacy
To enable students to master the basic functions of the Chinese language
To focus on the links between the instrumental and humanist qualities
To focus on the diversity and effectiveness of ways of learning Chinese language

In the area of reading, the Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments targeting Primary 1 to 3 (Grades 1 to 3) are as follows:

To like reading and find it interesting
To care for books and acquire a regular reading habit
To maintain focus and composure when reading and to sit properly
To enjoy reading extracurricular children’s literature and share the pleasure with others
To be able to locate reading materials that they need, in places such as libraries and via the Internet
To be able to read aloud rhythmically and emotionally in correct and fluent Cantonese and Putonghua
To be able to read in silence without finger tracking
To be able to use dictionaries to overcome comprehension difficulties
To be able to make use of illustrations in reading materials to understand the meaning of vocabulary and contents
To be able to link the context and life experiences in order to understand the meaning and functions of terms and sentences, and to acquire vocabulary through reading
To be able to read the content of text, understand the general content and main ideas in the reading material, gain insights into the feelings and emotions expressed in the material and the authors’ writing purposes
To be able to share their thoughts and comments about the reading material and to raise questions
To be able to integrate life experiences with text content to develop conceptual insights and imagination
To learn commonly used punctuation marks in the text, and understand the usage of full stops, question marks, commas, and speech marks
To be able to experience the qualities of well written text
To be able to recite 60 well known poems, including 30 classical poems
To be able to read extracurricular reading material no fewer than 150,000 words long

In the area of reading, the Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments targeting Primary 4 to 6 (Grades 4 to 6) include:¹⁴

To like reading outstanding Chinese and foreign literature
To be able to read extracurricular information in children’s and young adult literature
To be able to look up the meaning of words in reading materials on their own initiative and acquire the habit of reading extracurricular material
To be able to read aloud with emotions in correct and fluent Putonghua
Read no fewer than 250 words silently in one minute; skim and scan to get general ideas; read intensively to memorize and retrieve details and understand text
To be able to use dictionaries, a thesaurus, and the Internet proficiently to overcome reading difficulties
To be able to link the context and life experiences in order to understand vocabulary and sentences, to be able to identify the feelings and expressions conveyed in the vocabulary, and to be able to infer meanings and the functions of the keywords in a text
To be able to understand the key content and themes in literature, experience the expressions and messages told, and be able to learn writing skills; visualize images and appreciate the aesthetic use of language
To be able to evaluate the author’s writing skills through comprehending text
To be able to develop creative and critical thinking through reading and express one’s views
To be able to recognize the difference between written modern Chinese and classical Chinese
To be able to acquire proficiency in appreciating the features and writing style in basic text types, such as narrative, descriptive, informative, and argumentative text
To be able to use different reading strategies and ways of reading such as intensive reading, scanning and skimming, silent reading, and reading aloud according to different reading materials and their purposes
To be able to understand general ideas when reading classical Chinese
To be able to understand the general meaning when reading poetry
To be able to experience the aesthetics of tone, rhythmic meter, and rhythm when reading poetry aloud
To be able to understand different uses of commonly used punctuation marks when reading
To be able to acquire well written vocabulary and paragraphs from extracurricular reading and daily life
To be able to recite 140 outstanding poems, including 70 classical poems
To be able to read extracurricular reading material of no fewer than 800,000 words in length

The Primary Portuguese Language Curriculum states that students should achieve the following objectives in reading:

To know all the letters of the alphabet
To be able to read aloud a certain number of words in designated time set by the teacher
To be able to read different types of text
To be able to comprehend written information according to various contexts, genres, and textual typologies
To be able to establish relationships between the information contained in text and knowledge previously acquired
To be able to learn new vocabulary and know how to recognize its difficulties

In the area of reading, the Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments particularly designed for Primary 1 to 3 (Grades 1 to 3) include the ability to:

Understand written statements of a diversified nature, interpreting and retrieving the ideas in the materials
Formulate hypotheses based on any figures, tables, or images that accompany different types of text such as books, newspapers, magazines, letters, and pamphlets
Predict the ending of a story from information already read
Identify characters, actions, or events, referencing them in space and venue in written statements
Retell the text that has been read, such as stories, news, and other information
Distinguish main and accessory information
Distinguish main characters from secondary characters
Transpose written statements to other forms of expression, including dramatizations, simulations, drawings, and body language
Identify written words comprehensively, associating them directly with their meaning
Identify the meaning of different parts in a written text
Identify the functions, themes, and types of text in various texts

In the area of reading, the Requirements of Basic Academic Attainments particularly designed for Primary 4 to 6 (Grades 4 to 6) include the ability to:¹⁵

Identify the important ideas of a text and the relationships between them
Look up the information in a text necessary to complete a set task
Extract and summarize information
Check the degree of understanding of the text read
Read aloud so that the listener receives the meaning in a text
Underline and take notes for the purpose of study
Read for leisure and for information