Emphasis in Early Grades on Reading Skills and Strategies
Exhibit 6.4 provides information about the reading curricula in fourth grade schools. Principals were given a list of the reading skills and strategies assessed by PIRLS 2016 and asked to indicate at what grade these skills were first emphasized for at least 50 percent of the students. The grade shown in Exhibit 6.4 for the reading skill or strategy is the median grade reported by the principals in each country. For example, at least half the students in every country are in schools emphasizing the first three skills by first grade—knowing letters of the alphabet, letter-sound relationships, and reading words. In many countries, at least half the students are in schools emphasizing locating information and finding main ideas by the second grade. By the third grade, at least half the students in a number of countries are in schools emphasizing comparisons of texts with personal experience or other texts, and by the fourth grade are emphasizing looking at text structure and author’s perspective.
