Portugal

Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

Reading Policy

Teaching of reading is a major curricular goal of the first cycle of the basic education level. In Grades 1 to 4, the connection between orality and reading and writing assumes paramount importance. Reading and writing instruction constitutes a single domain in the Portuguese language curriculum because it supports abilities common to both skills. The Ministry of Education determines the minimum number of hours per week that instructors must devote to each of the major curricular areas during the first cycle.²⁴ Accordingly, out of a total of 25 hours per week devoted to the mandatory first cycle curricular domains (Portuguese, Mathematics, Natural and Social Environment, and Artistic and Motor Expressions), a minimum of seven hours per week must be devoted to the Portuguese language.²⁵ The National Reading Plan indicates that one hour per day, or five hours per week, should be devoted to reading.²⁶

Summary of National Curriculum

The Portuguese language curriculum for the first cycle of basic and secondary education has four major domains: Orality, Reading and Writing, Literary Education, and Grammar.²⁷ The domains are introduced in Grade 1 and are taught in order of increasing complexity until the end of Grade 4. Exhibit 1 summarizes the content and objectives of the Portuguese language curriculum for Grade 4.²⁸

Exhibit 1: Summary of the Portuguese Language Curriculum for Grade 4²⁹

Domain	Content	Learning Objectives
Orality	Discursive interaction Comprehension and expression Research and record information Oral production	Know and follow the rules of discursive interaction and build knowledge by listening Register and recall information given orally Write and deliver speeches with various objectives considering the context and the interlocutors Record and use oral information Participate in oral expression activities according to established rules and specifications
Reading and Writing	Reading fluency: speed, precision, and prosody Text comprehension Research and record information Orthography and punctuation Text production	Read texts aloud at a rate of 125 words per minute with proper articulation and tone Read a variety of nonliterary texts (e.g., narratives, news articles, advertisements, and encyclopedia entries); understand the meaning of new words encountered during daily activities; interpret the meaning of texts Identify the main theme and subthemes and summarize  texts Demonstrate an understanding of orthographic and punctuation rules through writing
Literary Education	Reading and listening Text comprehension Book discussion Literary expression (oral and written)	Read and listen to popular children’s literature Recognize the characteristics of literary texts (e.g., verse, rhyme scheme, sonority, onomatopoeia) Identify the main characters and settings of literary texts Identify the crucial parts of the plots of literary texts Make inferences from texts regarding characters, locations, and time Retell stories from different characters’ perspectives and propose different outcomes for the characters Respond orally and in writing to questions about texts and express in writing feelings and opinions about them Read for personal enjoyment, and express orally to the class feelings and opinions about the books Write original poems, plays, and short stories
Grammar	Word classes Morphology and lexicology Syntax	Distinguish common nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, and quantifiers  from other parts of speech Identify and organize nouns and adjectives ending in consonants and degree variation Conjugate regular and irregular verbs Identify and understand prefixes and suffixes, and simple and compound words Understand basic syntactic structure Identify different types of phrases (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase) Demonstrate an understanding of direct and reported speech Expansion and reduction of phrases