development of reading skills

WE NURTURE THE JOY OF READING IN CHILDREN

Reading literacy contributes to the development of pupils' cognitive abilities and is crucial not only in the whole process of education, but also in practical life.

Our school uses a variety of strategies and practices to motivate and inspire children to read.

In year 1, we have introduced the concept of 'reading for pleasure', where children are read to in lessons by teachers from a selected book. They draw them into the story, developing the children's imagination, the aim is to get the children excited about the experience itself.

The work with the text comes later, the focus is on active reading to the children, at first mediated, later the children read on their own.

Another strategy that promotes motivation to read is a project called "Živák". This offers direct inspiration from personal experience. The children share a book that caught their attention, say what they liked about the story, why it is worth reaching for it and reading it too.

Each classroom includes a classroom library, which helps to create a natural reading environment.

With year 5-8, we extend the concept of "reading for pleasure" to include reading for learning and working actively with the text. We focus on reflection and comprehension of what they have read, we discuss things. We have expanded our work with the text not only in Slovak language classes, but in all subjects, at least once a month.

Pupils have reading seminars, read their own books that they enjoy, create a reading portfolio. We also work with the town library, which our pupils visit and learn how to choose the right book.

We want to get the children excited,interested in books and to develop their reading comprehension skills. This is all part of our goal.

The proof of our efforts are the results of the last testing of eighth graders in Slovak language, in which we achieved excellent results in the subject area of "reading comprehension", even in comparison with other schools.