If previously the reading ability, which was taught in elementary school, was considered sufficient to obtain information from the text, then modern ideas about the reading process include a combination of skills that improve throughout life. Reading literacy helps a person to be critical of the knowledge gained, easier to navigate in political and financial institutions, enrich personal life and effectively engage in self-education.
The concept
Traditionally, literacy is understood as the degree of mastery of reading and writing skills. The term "reader literacy" appeared in Russian pedagogy in the early 2000s. Then, domestic educational institutions for the first time took part in international student assessment programs PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study).
Currently, this concept refers to a more applied ability to operate with texts. Reader literacy is not a synonym for well-read or good reading technique, but the ability to understand, use and analyze what is read. The information that a person receives from a text should expand his knowledge and capabilities in life.
The developed reader has 2 large groups of skills:
- the ability to receive information from the text and build judgments on its basis;
- the ability to build logical conclusions and assessments based on personal knowledge.
The last skill involves greater independence of thinking and imagination.
Constituent elements
Reader literacy consists of a system of the following aspects:
- fluent reading;
- literal interpretation of the text;
- assessment of language and form of communication;
- search for information and its extraction;
- data transformation from particular phenomena to generalized;
- formulation of the main ideas and conclusions;
- general understanding of the text;
- reflection on the content and assessment, correlation with non-textual information.
All these skills are interconnected. Work on reading literacy is not only based on the text itself. It means the ability to extract additional information, draw conclusions, see the “gaps” between the author’s presentation of thoughts.
Text Types
The text for checking reader literacy can be of 2 types: continuous (description, narration, explanation, argumentation, instruction) and not continuous. In the latter case, various types of images are included (illustrations, tables, graphs, maps, completed forms). Visual materials can be offered separately.
By style, texts of the following types are used:
- scientific;
- business;
- art;
- technical;
- journalistic and others.
Most often, narratives, explanations and descriptions are used to diagnose reading literacy. The most important quality parameters of texts are their sequence and coherence.
The complexity of the text and questions is selected depending on the age category. The task for second graders can be a short story about a forest animal, in which you need:
- determine who it is;
- find the cause of any phenomenon and emphasize it in the text;
- note in what type of sources you can find this kind of text (a collection of fairy tales, a book of stories about animals, an encyclopedia).
For students of the fourth grades an informational description from the field of natural sciences is provided. Part of the knowledge from such a text is already known to children from the school curriculum. To solve the task, the student may need to combine previously acquired knowledge with new knowledge that is implicitly stated in the narrative.
Reading objectives
When conducting research in tasks, the purpose of reading is also taken into account. In accordance with it, a certain type of text is selected. There are several such goals:
- personal (letters, works of fiction, biography);
- public (official documents, news);
- workers (instructions, rules);
- educational (popular science texts, educational literature).
Assessment Methods
Tasks for the diagnosis of reading literacy are offered in 2 main formats - in the form of tests with ready-made answers to choose from and freely designed, in which there are no restrictions on the form and content of the answers. The latter help to better assess the cognitive performance of students.
Assignments with a free presentation are evaluated according to the political system. The final score depends on how fully the answer is given. Reader literacy is graded differentially for the right, partly right and wrong decision.
Information Retrieval
To obtain certain information from the text necessary to solve the task, the following skills need to be developed:
- fluent reading;
- highlighting the part of the text where the answer is contained;
- establishing the relationship between the details of the question and the text.
The relationship between the task and the answer can be literal (literal) and indirect (synonymous). An example of the first type is finding the time or place of action in the text.
Searching in a synonymous form is more complex, and such tasks are offered to students at an older age. To solve this problem, the reader must be able to attribute similar phenomena to one category or, conversely, to identify differences between similar concepts. The complexity of these types of tasks is also determined by the volume of text (the number of pages) and the size of the message to be found.
Integration and Interpretation
One of the components of the diagnostic work on reading literacy is the assessment of the student's ability to interpret what he read. The easiest task of this type is to identify the main topic. Such an activity requires the reader to determine the hierarchy of thoughts set forth by the author, and to separate the main from the secondary.
To understand the general meaning of the text, the student must also be able to connect individual information (integrate it) and understand its internal meaning, which is not communicated directly.
The interpretation is the ability to perform the following mental actions:
- drawing conclusions;
- brief formulation of the main thoughts of the author;
- making conclusions about any events;
- determination of causal relationships.
All these skills help to develop a holistic understanding of the information contained in the text.
In practical terms, this can be expressed in the following tasks:
- write an introduction to the text;
- come up with a name;
- explain why the picture is attached, the meaning of one of the episodes;
- restore data in a table from information from text;
- to characterize the main character of the story and other tasks.
Comprehension and Evaluation
Assessment of the text is related to the knowledge and experience that the student had before reading it. Such an activity involves comparing, contrasting or making assumptions. In most cases, the answers should be in any form, and the tasks are as follows:
- express your point of view on any issue;
- agree or disagree with the proposed statement;
- determine the author’s tasks in the text or his attitude to the main character;
- evaluate whether the author achieved the goal when using this type of storytelling.
The development of these skills helps the student develop a critical analysis of the information received and identify the biased judgment of the author of the text.
Reading literacy
She, like other skills, can be developed. Since some of the questions involve logical conclusions, improving logical thinking and its speed also contributes to this process. On the basis of international tests, methodological manuals have been developed, compiled for students of different ages in the domestic fiction and science literature.
As independent developmental techniques in relation to any text corresponding to the age group, the following can be used:
- determine where in the textbook (or other book) the object depicted in the figure is verbally described;
- make questions to the story;
- write your judgment on the main idea of ​​the author of the text;
- highlight key phrases, arrange them in a logical sequence, make a story on them;
- develop a text plan;
- make a table or diagram of the information studied;
- find a logical mistake in the story;
- simplify the text, make it shorter without losing the main meaning;
- crossword on the read.
Levels
When diagnosing skills, there are 3 levels of reader literacy:
- Low. The student does not perceive the author’s feelings expressed in writing, thoughts and knowledge. Lack of self-education ability.
- Middle. To receive messages from the text and build their own judgments, the student needs some help from the teacher. This is especially true for information that contradicts previous experience. This level is typical for readers who have not fully mastered the basics of reading skills.
- Tall. The student can continue to study at the next educational level. He can evaluate the text on his own, without outside help.
Age norms
The necessary reading literacy skills according to the age of the student are distributed as follows:
- Grades 1-6 - highlighting the main idea in the text, the ability to find the answer to the question in it, retelling of what was read;
- Grades 7-8 - the development of a plan and the reproduction of the text read on it, the solution of problems according to the proposed sample, the ability to remember formulas and terms;
- Grades 9-11 - taking notes and thesis presentation of the material studied, the use of new theoretical information in other educational situations, confirmation of scientific facts.
Starting from the fifth grade, it is necessary to gradually complicate the skills of independent reading and understanding of the text using the techniques described above. The sooner reader literacy is formed, the easier it will be developed at an older age.