READING: BETWEEN COMPULSORY READING AND FREE CHOICE
Keywords:
education, society, teacher, teaching of literature, school curriculum, the reading list, textbook, additional texts, free choice,Abstract
Education is the most important activity for the development of a society, the identity and survival of a certain nation. Mother tongue and literature is, in pre-university education, in all education systems, the most important subject. This subject contributes to acquiring the reading habit, it fosters consistency, cultivates taste, develops empathy. Therefore, the organisation of the curriculum for this subject, apart from its narrow specialist meaning, has a wider social significance. The most important segment of teaching mother tongue and literature is reading, which highlights the importance of how much reading students do and what they read, as well as the possibility of their participation in selecting reading materials. This paper deals first with compulsory and optional (additional) literary texts – those which are prescribed curriculum and those which are part of the author’s free choice in junior textbooks regarding their availability in the textbooks, and subsequently, it deals with the real use of optional texts in class, as well as the criteria applied when selecting these texts. In this paper, by conducting a survey involving 255 junior teachers, it was examined: a) to what extent teachers rely on the texts that the authors of junior textbooks select for optional reading; b) which criteria they consider to be the most important while they choose additional texts for reading in class; c) which are the main features of the texts they select in the first place. For the purpose of creating a questionnaire, the curriculum for junior classes was analysed, and so was the content of all the approved reading textbooks for this age in the school year 2017/2018. The results of the survey show that junior teachers use the offered additional texts in junior textbooks to a large degree, that the most important criteria when choosing the additional texts are the students’ reception, their interests and sensibilities. The least important criteria are those related to the teacher’s reading taste and interpretative skills, or his or her competence to present a text in an adequate way in class, which suggests that teachers erroneously exclude themselves as important factors in the selection of texts. When introducing texts independently, teachers have similar expectations to those regarding the texts which are the prescribed curriculum.References
ÐranÄ‘elović, Ðœ. (2015). ÄŒitanka za Äetvrti razred osnovne Å¡kole. Beograd: BIGZ.
Arent, H. (2016). Kriza u obrazovanju. ReÄ, 86 (32), 177‒193. (tl. Slobodanka GliÅ¡ić)
But, D. & Lari, S. (2009). UspeÅ¡no Äitanje i pisanje, tehnike za razvoj pismenosti.
Beograd: Kreativni centar.
Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Bearne, E. & Goodwin, P. (2008). Exploring teachers'
knowledge of children's literature. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38 (4),
–464. DOI: 10.1080/03057640802482363
Clark, C. & Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for pleasure: A research overview.
London: National Literacu Trust.
Flowerday, T. & Schraw, G. (2000). Teacher beliefs about instructional choice: A phenomenological approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 634‒645.
Gambrell, B. L. (1996). Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation. The Reading Teacher, 50, 14–25.
Hodges, G. C. (2010). Reasons for reading: why literature matters. Literacy, 44 (2), 60–68.
Hunt, C. L. (1970/1997). The effect of self-selection, interest, and motivation upon independent instructional, and frustrational levels. The Reading Teacher, 50, 278–282.
Ivić, I., Ðna, P. & Slobodanka, A. (2009). VodiÄ za dobar udžbenik, opÅ¡ti standardi kvaliteta udžbenika. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike.
Janićijević, V. (2015). Teorija književnosti u razrednoj nastavi. Beograd: UÄiteljski fakultet.
Johns, J. & VanLeirsburg, P. (1994). Promoting the reading habit: Considerations and strategies. In Eugene Cramer and Marrietta Castle (eds.), Fostering the love of reading: The affective domain in reading education. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 91–103.
KovaÄević Gavrilović, V. & Stevović, N. (2007). Knjiga kao sredstvo za podsticanje jeziÄkog razvoja dece mlaÄ‘eg Å¡kolskog uzrasta. Zbornik instituta za pedagoÅ¡ka istraživanja, 39 (1), 134–147. DOI:10.2298/ZIPI0701134K
Krashen, D. S. (1993). The power of reading. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
Krnjajić, Z., Stepanović, I. & Pavlović Babić, D. (2011). ÄŒitalaÄke navike srednjoÅ¡kolaca u Srbiji. Zbornik instituta za pedagoÅ¡ka istraživanja, 43 (2), 266–282. DOI: 10.2298/ZIPI1102266K
Marković, B. & Mitrović, T. /eds./ (2017). Piknik za Irmu. Beograd: Dom kulture Studentski grad.
Маrinković, S. & Marković, S. (2015). ÄŒitanka za Äetvrti razred osnovne Å¡kole. Beograd: Kreativni centar.
Mikkonen, A. and Vakkari, P. (2016). Readers’ interest criteria in fiction book search in library catalogs. Journal of Documentation, 72 (4), 696‒715.
Moss, B. & Hendershot, J. (2002). Exploring sixth graders' selection of nonfiction trade books. The Reading Teacher, 56, 6–17.
Mrkalj, Z. and Plut, D. (2007). Kvalitet Äitanki za mlaÄ‘e uÄenike osnovne Å¡kole. In Dijana Plut (ed.), Kvalitet udžbenika za mlaÄ‘i Å¡kolski uzrast. Beograd: Institut za psihologiju Filozofskog fakulteta, 51‒59.
Mrkalj, Z. (2016). Оd bukvara do Äitanke (metodiÄka istraživanja). Beograd: UÄiteljski fakultet.
Nikolić, M. (2007). Fenomenološki pristup udžbeniku. In Branisalva Marković (ed.), Udžbenik i savremena nastava, Zbornik povodom 50 godina Zavoda za udžbenike, Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike, 17‒26.
Nusbaum, M. (2012). Negovanje ÄoveÄnosti: klasiÄna odbrana reforme u liberalnom obrazovanju. ReÄ, 82 (28), 247‒276. (tl. Slobodanka GliÅ¡ić)
Nusbaum, M. (2012). Ne za profit: ZaÅ¡to je demokratiji potrebna humanistika? ReÄ, 82 (28), 349‒364. (tl. Ana Jovanović & Rastislav Dinić)
O’Sullivan, O. & McGonigle, S. (2010). Transforming readers: teachers and children in the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Power of Reading project. Literacy, 44 (2), 51–59.
PeÅ¡ić, J. & Stepanović, I. (2004). Å kola kao sredina za uÄenje: uÄeniÄka percepcija i njihove strategije, u: Dijana Plut and Zora Krnjaić (ur.), Obrazovanje i druÅ¡tvena kriza: dokument o jednom vremenu. Beograd: Institut za psihologiju, 24‒69.
Pravilnik o nastavnom planu i program za prvi i drugi razred osnovnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja (NP). Prosvetni glasnik, Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, br. 10/2004.
Pravilnik o nastavnom planu za prvi, drugi, treći i Äetvrti razred osnovnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja i nastavnom program za treći razred osnovnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja (NP). Prosvetni glasnik, Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, br. 1/2005.
Pravilnik o nastavnom program za Äetvrti razred osnovnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja (NP). Prosvetni glasnik, Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, br. 3/2006.
Pravilnik o standardima kvaliteta udžbenika I uputstvo za njihovu upotrebu. Prosvetni glasnik, Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, br. 42/16.
Purcell, J. (2001). Creating a ʼLiteracy Clubʼ in a First Grade Classroom: One Teacher's Balanced Approac. URL: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED454499. accesed: December 20th 2017.
Sanacore, J. ( 1999). Encouraging children to make choices about their literacy learning. Intervention in School and Clinic, 35, 38–42.
Schraw, G., Flowerday, T. & Reisetter, F. M. (1998). The role of choice in reader engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 705–714.
Žeželj Ralić, R. (2016). Маša i RaÅ¡a– Reka reÄi, Äitanka za treći razred osnovne Å¡kole. Beograd: Klett.
