Formando leitores: como melhorar o desempenho na leitura através do desenvolvimento da competência leitora nos alunos dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental?

Abstract

This research analyzes the development of reading among students from the Elementary School early years in a school from the state education system of Minas Gerais, located in Juiz de Fora. The institution assists students from first to third grade of Elementary and High School, in addition to offering the modality Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA), operating in morning, afternoon and night shifts. The identified issue refers to the frailty in the reading learning, especially in early years classes, in which students still present a syllabic, slow-paced reading and struggle with interpretation, compromising school performance as a whole. From this finding, the research poses the following question: “How can school management operate in the reading development in early years classes of Elementary School?”. The main aim is to comprehend how the pedagogical team can operate in the development of the reading competence of students in the Elementary School early years. The specific aims are: (1) to describe what the possible obstacles are to the formation of the reading competence in students; (2) to analyze the different possibilities for implementing proposals aimed at improving students’ reading performance; (3) to propose measures for improving the performance and the reading competence formation. This study is justified by the need to ensure the right to reading comprehensibly, an essential condition for school success and the exercise of citizenship. As evidence to the problem, data from external evaluations conducted between 2017 and 2024 were analyzed, like SIMAVE, PROEB and Saeb. Although there are recovery signs followed by the return to in-person classes after the COVID-19 pandemic, the results still reveal a drop in average proficiency and an increase in the number of students presenting underachievement. These data indicate the urgent need for interventions coordinated by the pedagogical management. The conceptual framework of the research is based on authors who discuss reading as a social and cultural practice, such as Magda Soares (2005), Paulo Freire (1996), Angela Kleiman (2005), Alexander Frade (2017), Maria Ely Alves (2021), Francisco Sousa (2020), Michéle Petit (2008) and Teresa Colomer (2007). These authors address themes such as literacy, reading competence, teacher mediation, student protagonist and the transformative role of reading and good pedagogical management. The methodology here adopted is a qualitative one, analyzing the school PPP documents, the BNCC (2017) and CRMG (2018) guiding documents, and the results of the external evaluations, in addition to conducting semi-structured interviews with teachers and administrators. An internal reading diagnostic assessment was also applied to fifth grade classes of the Elementary School. The data triangulation attempted to provide subsidies to elaborate proposals that both strengthen reading practices and broaden students' access to the reading culture. Finally, pedagogical intervention practices were proposed to improve and enhance students’ reading competence. As an educational product, an Educational Action Plan (EAP) was developed, based on the Theory of Change, which organizes the intervention path starting from diagnosis, continuing through professional development, pedagogical actions, and monitoring, articulating these stages with the expected results and the impact on improving reading competence and consolidating a culture of reading in the school.