In the following, we are interested in detecting signs of research-based elements in the objectives. We particularly search for the explicit mention- ing of reading comprehension strategies, reading fluency and the priority of various text types in the curricula.
7.6.1 Reading comprehension strategies
Research synthesized by the United States’ National Reading Panel (NRP) has clearly shown that teaching students to use comprehension strategies to guide their own meaningful interactions with text is important for read- ing achievement (NICHD, 2000). The National Reading Panel (NRP) was established in 1997 in the United States in order to evaluate existing re- search and evidence to find the best ways of teaching children to read (NICHD, 2014).
The NRP report showed that all the following strategies make an impact on students’ learning of content when taught independently as well as in combination with other strategies: monitoring understanding, generating and answering questions, summarisation of text, story mapping, and graph- ic organisers (NICHD, 2002). The strongest scientific evidence has been found for the effectiveness of asking readers to generate questions during reading (NICHD, 2000; p. 4–45). Moreover, the instructional activity recip- rocal teaching in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions has proven effective (NICHD,2000; Oczuks, 2003). The teacher models and helps students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: predicting, clarifying, generating questions, and summarising.
Reading comprehension strategies are targeted differently in the Nor- dic countries’ opbjectives for reading. In the Norwegian objectives, com- prehension strategies are not mentioned at all. In the Danish objectives, it is stated that the students will have acquired knowledge and skills that enable them to apply different reading comprehension strategies. Howev- er, specific kinds of strategies are not mentioned. The same is apparent in the Swedish descriptions. However, even though no specific strategies are mentioned, the Swedish descriptions emphasise the purpose of strategy
instruction. It says that reading strategies for comprehension and inter- preting texts from various media must be emphasised, as well as strate- gies for identifying the explicitly stated text message and the implicit mes- sage. The Finnish objectives actually mention activities that fit in to a re- search-based framework for reading comprehension instruction. It is specified that the students will become practised in using strategies to improve text comprehension, and in the descriptions of core content a wide array of strategy activities are mentioned: anticipating the content and structure of texts on the basis of illustrations, headings, prior knowledge, and reading experiences (i.e., predicting, story mapping); taking notes, drawing conclusions, evalutating things read (i.e., summaris- ing); posing questions (i.e., generating questions, clarifying); preparing outlines and schematics (i.e., graphic organisers).
7.6.2 Fluency
Fluent reading is a critical element in skilled reading. When fluent reading
is established, cognitive energy may be devoted directly to the compre- hension of text (NICHD, 2000; Rasinski, Rikli, & Johnston, 2009). This makes it relevant to identify whether reading fluency is mentioned as an objective in the Nordic countries’ descriptions.
As shown in table 1, both Sweden and Finland explicitly mention fluent reading as an objective at the level around Grade 4, however, without further definition of what that is. In the Norwegian text, an objective is “coherent reading”, which may be interpreted as a way to mention fluent reading. In the Danish text, fluent reading is not explicitly stated as a goal after the 4th Grade level. However, the Danish document states the ability to “apply efficient strategies for decoding known and unknown words” as an objective and furthermore the ability to “adjust reading speed, accuracy
and reading technique to match purpose, genre, and difficulty of text.” Both
are related to fluency development. The first is a prerequisite for develop- ing automatic recognition of words, and the second is a consequence of having developed fluent reading. Thus all Nordic countries have a mention of elements that may be interpreted as fluent reading, but it is only an explicitly stated goal in Sweden and in Finland.
7.6.3 Priority of text types in the countries’ objectives
In contrast to the other Nordic countries’ descriptions, the Swedish de- scriptions of the core content for Grades 4–6 are detailed regarding the specific literary and informational text genres with which students are expected to be acquainted, such as tales, myths, advertisings and letters to the editor. Finland mentions the reading of various texts, Norway men- tions texts in different genres and Denmark mentions literary, information-al and digital texts.
In addition to genre or text type, a specific focus on challenging texts in the teaching of English Language Arts has been launched with the Com- mon Core State Standards in the United States (CCSS, 2012). The idea is that in order to develop a high proficiency in reading, one must be guided in processing challenging texts (Shanahan, 2013). The objectives in a cur- riculum may seem ambitious, but the argument is that if the challenge level of the texts is ignored, then the goals may be reached at an embar- rassingly low performance level (Shanahan, 2013, p. 6). In the Nordic countries’ documents, there are no specific mentions of challenging texts. Age-appropriate texts are mentioned in the Danish, Swedish, and Finnish documents. However, the Swedish document also mentions a variety of specific text types, old and new literature, as well as texts for children and adolescents, which indicates that the difficulty level of texts is varied.
7.6.4 Hypotheses based on the analysis of official
documents
In the following, the Nordic teachers' instructional practice will be ex- plored through analyses of the PIRLS 2011 survey data. Based on the pre- ceeding observations, it is expected that:
• Sweden will use a variety of text genres. Denmark and Sweden will give literary and informational texts equal priority during reading instruction. The priority of text types in Finland and Norway is not clear from the countries’ objectives.
• The teachers in Finland and Sweden will prioritise reading activities that enhance reading fluency, whereas reading fluency will be less
• The teaching of reading comprehension strategies will have a higher priority in Finland compared to the other Nordic countries.
• Formative assessment of students’ progress in reading will be most present in Finland, where core content are clearer as to what kind of processing is expected of the students.