Materials and approaches in fourth grade reading instruction

1. Materials and approaches in fourth grade reading instruction

3. What are the «headings» for Grade 4 reading in the nordic countries’ documents? Denmark: Written language – reading Norway: Written communication Sweden: Reading and Writing Finland: Skills in interpreting and utilising various texts + text comprehension

4. Objectives for reading in the nordic countries - summarised: Denmark: Read age-appropriate literary, informational, and digital texts with good comprehension • Express an understanding of what is read orally and in writing • Conscious monitoring of their understanding Norway: Read texts in different genres with coherence and understanding. - Make reflections and talk about texts.

5. Objectives for reading in the nordic countries –summarised: Sweden (end of grade 3) : Read well known and age-appropriate texts with fluency. • Show basic comprehension through his or her commenting and summarising of main content. Furthermore, a wide array of literary and informational text types are mentioned as core content.

6. Objectives for reading in the nordic countries –summarised: Finland: Learn to read various texts fluentlyand become accustomed to observing and evaluating themselves as readers Text comprehension specified as: - Anticipating the content and structure of texts. • Distinguishing main issues from secondary ones, summarising, using headings, posing questions, taking notes, drawing conclusions and evaluating things read.

7. Analyses of the nordic Teachers’ Responsesabout Reading instruction in grade 4 1) Literary and nonfiction (informational) text types during instruction 2) Activities during reading instruction - fluency activities: Oral and silent reading - comprehension activities 3) Emphasis on formative assessment

8. Literary longer fiction books

9. nonfiction subject area books

10. Reading Activities:oral and silent reading in class

11. Basic comprehension activitiesweekly

12. More advanced comprehension activies weekly

13. Teachers on how much emphasis they place on different kinds of Formative assessment

14. Summing up – Objectives and definitions of Reading - Objectives vary from very broad outlines in Norway to more specific and clear goals in Finland. - Finland tends to have the most research-based objectives and core content for reading instruction.

15. Summing up - Texttypes • On a daily basis, the reading of fiction is used more in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden than in Finland. • Swedish teachers use longer fiction books more often than the other Nordic teachers. • Informational reading is less prioritised by Danish teachers compared to the other Nordic teachers.

16. Summing up – Reading activities • Less than 25 % of teachers in Sweden + Denmark have their students read aloud in class. This points to a lack of evaluation of reading fluency. This may impede the teacher’s ability to support student development • All Nordic teachers seem to give a lower priority to advanced comprehension activities during reading instruction compared to the international standard.

17. Summing up – Formative assessment • Formative assessment include daily informal observations, teacher developed classroom-tests and national testing • Danish 4th grade teachers seem to put less emphasis on formative evaluation than their Nordic colleagues. • Finnish and Norwegian teachers put major emphasis on both on-going evaluation and class-room tests

18. Conclusion and policy points • National objectives must correspond with empirical research on reading development. • Reading comprehension is not a general ability. Students need experience with a variety of text types. Each specific subject area needs to work with students’ reading comprehension by teaching text structure, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies. •  Formative observations and assessments of students’ progress are necessary as a means to monitor learning and adjust teaching strategies.