3rd Comenius Project Meeting

Mersin 2014

Reading situation in Poland: problems and solutions

Bolesław Chrobry Primary School in Lublin

1. Reading comprehension is assessed as early as the 3rd grade of primary school, both in Polish and a foreign language external tests.

2. Reading comprehension is a part of a graduation exam after each stage of education: Polish and English after primary school, Polish, English, History and Social Studies after middle and high school.

Reading as one of the major skills in Polish schooling system

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Challenges We Face or Why Students Do Not Read a Lot…

1. The Internet – most students are addicted to media

www.bezużyteczna.pl 2. Set books – more interesting at

the primary stage, often boring and irrelevant in the middle and high school;

3. Teachers lacking creativity while working on the set book;

4. Students are too busy to read (even to watch a movie!);

5. Reading is associated with Humanities (Maths & Science give job perspectives)

Reading at early stages of child’s development

1. School reform – children start school at the age of 6;

2. Children are not taught to read at preschool;

3. Pupils learn to read during the first year at school so some of them do not master the skill until they are 7!

The solutions we use in our school:

1. We try to make reading in class as much fun as possible combining it

with activities like drawing, colouring, acting, poster-making, dressing-up as favourite characters etc;

2. We do a lot of pre-testing -mock exams, contests – so our students are well-prepared to sit for their exams;

3. Since our school works from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. we are free to have a lot of extra-curricalr activities such as reading clubs, historical-reading club(!), drama clubs both in Polish and English, school newspaper editing club etc.

We use every chance to take part in different cultural projects encouraging reading:

The House of Words - one of cultural centres in Lublin, annual festival „The City of Poetry”

Storytelling contest won by our student Michał Serwa

Animation workshops – June 2014

*Our solution for young learners – Innovative School

*Extra Science and English classes – both multimedia and traditional;

*Introducing German in the first year of primary school.

*http://innowacja.sfera.lublin.pl/index.html

The results of our reading survey:

113 students aged 10-127 questions

Do you like reading?

81%

19%

yes

no

18

28

11

17

44

2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

  all  the time, Ialways have abook on me 

    every day     at weekends      only when thereis a set book at

school 

     whenever I havetime 

    I don’t read atall  

How often do you read ?

65

17

86

19

29

51

86

8

28

14

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

     Fantasy       sciencefiction 

  adventurebooks

   love stories      horrors     detectivestories

   teenliterature 

    science      travelbooks

    biographies

What kind of books do you like?

Would you encourage your friends to read?

75%

25%

yes 

 no

72

57

4348

44

58

38 39

75

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

 readingenrichesyour

vocabulary 

 readinghelps us

experiencevariousemotions 

 reading is atime-kil ler 

 reading isentertaining

booksbroaden ourknowledge

 readingteaches ushow to spell

 reading canhelp in l ife 

 reading canhelp atschool 

 readingdevelops

imagination 

Why should we read?

What is your favourite book?

Who is your favourite author?

Conclusions:

Reading should be fun, not an obligation;

Good reading habits should be developed as early as possible;

Teachers and parents ought to be role models enhancing positive reading experiences;

School of the XXI century is to be open to the possibilities modern technology offers;