PIRLS 2006 Encyclopedia

PIRLS 2006 EncyclopediaSummary of the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum GuideThe Ministry of Education’s National Curriculum Guide establishes standards andobjectives for reading, writing, and computation skills for all nine grades of compulsoryschool. The goals of the curriculum guide for grade 4 include promoting literacy asa means of communication, education, and thinking; promoting values throughstrengthened ties with the Quran, learning some chosen sayings of the Prophet andmasterpieces from Arabic writing; enhancing knowledge and culture; and developinglanguage and self-education.The main objectives for students in grade 4 are:• Acquire knowledge of graphemes and phonemes and the correspondencebetween them;• Become familiar with the concepts of words, sentences, poem, rhythm, letters,message, telegram, news, stories, dialogue, and punctuation marks;• Read comprehensively and fluently, aloud in a clear voice, and silently at areasonable speed, using the rules of correct Arabic phonetics;• Read correctly, adding or deleting words or changing the emphasis on the lettersof a word;• Perform tasks that promote the acquisition of a broader vocabulary and linguisticunderstanding; and• Make use of a varied range of texts and understand them.In independent schools, Arabic as a school subject is divided into four major areas:writing, grammar, expression, and reading. The reading domain calls for students todevelop silent and oral reading ability to read freely and correctly in order to developthe mind and fluently express ideas.The Qatar Curriculum Standards for reading (and writing) performance by the end ofgrade 4, for students in independent schools, state that students will be able to:• Scan texts to identify key sections, paragraphs, and words;• Identify connectives that signal time and indicate sequence;Qatar• In prose fiction and poetry, recognize roles of theme, plot, setting, dialogue, directand reported speech, rhyme, rhythm, assonance, emotive language, and similes;• In nonfiction, identify instructions or procedure texts, identify typical languageand organizational features of information texts, and read and discuss a variety ofexplanation texts;• Read and understand the main ideas and details in a variety of texts;• Retell stories or relate information from reading; and• Write continuous texts, linking purpose to form, and write story openings,portraits of characters, short sequences of dialogue, and more extended stories.312