This diploma thesis deals with the problems of child literacy and the environmental factors which condition its origin and development. My work maps the importance of external environmental determiners that affect reading comprehension and attitudes to reading including motivation and reading habits. The theoretical part looks into the elements of the children's reading process such as gaining skills and sub-skills, self-reflection and forms of aids to support reading in school and family - these two factors are the crucial ones. My work also considers the role of institutions such libraries but also the media and devices (TV, PC, the Internet). The empirical part presents the results of questionaires collected from the research of fourth grade elementary school students and their parents. The aim of the research was to see how is reading comprehension reflected in the assessment of children own reading skills of 4th grade pupils. Further, the thesis deals with how the influence of the family is reflected in the performance of reading comprehension and in the pupil's reading skills. Key words Environmental influences, reading literacy, reading habits, reading comprehension, reading self-concept.

The 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) painted a gloomy picture of South African literacy when South Africa came last out of 40 countries. It was from this background that my study set out to investigate two English and two isiXhosa grade 4 home language textbooks with their accompanying teachers’ guides from two publishing houses, together with the home language curriculum documents for English and Xhosa because they are an important component in literacy development. It is important to emphasise that this study examined textbooks, not how teachers mediate such textbooks in their classrooms. In other words, my focus was on the textbooks themselves, and it was primarily through textual analysis of this stable, readily available data that I have been able to compare and analyse the potential they offer learners and teachers to achieve the literacy goals prescribed by the curriculum. The study also investigated the likelihood of differential attainment for learners as a result of using these textbooks. This was done by looking at whether the textbooks were in line with the literacy outcomes for English and isiXhosa home languages. It also looked at the kind of reader/writer envisaged in the selected textbooks and the level of challenge the selected textbooks offer and how, if at all, learners are encouraged to be critical readers and writers. The findings of the study were that the English and isiXhosa textbooks of each publishing house envisaged different learners. The English textbooks envisaged a cosmopolitan learner who has greater access to academic literacy. While the isiXhosa textbooks envisaged a parochial learner who has less access to academic literacy compared to the English learner

KADUČÁKOVÁ, Mária. 2016. Comparative study of methods of librarians work with school aged children in order to develop reading literacy. Prague, 106 p. Diploma thesis. Charles University. Faculty of Arts: Department of Information Studies and Librarianship. Supervisor: PhDr. Hana Landová, Ph.D. The diploma thesis is dedicated to the methods of work of children's librarians with younger school age readers in order to develop their reading literacy. The aim of this work is to acquaint with the specifics of younger school age readers, to analyze the librarian in the children's department and to link these two elements to achieve interplay in the development of reading literacy. The thesis can be divided into three main parts, theoretical, analytical and empirical. The first two chapters focus on the theory in the field of reading literacy, specifics of younger schoolchildren, furthermore focuses on the working environment of children's librarians, their competence and skills, particularly in education and basic methods of work with children. The next two chapters have analytical character and they examine reading literacy support abroad. Included is also an analysis and comparison of children reading literacy support in two countries surveyed, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. At the same time, these...

Our research follows up longitudinal study of doc. PhDr. Gabriela Seidlová Málková, Ph.D. on Faculty of humanities, Charles University. In the years 2010-2012 four subsequent research of 127 preschool children age 3,5 - 5,5 years took place. In 2017 we succeeded in searching for 40 children attending at that time 5th class in elementary school. We captured current abilities of that children, especially reading. Our interest was to investigate decoding and reading comprehension. In agreement with previous research results we found out, that reading comprehension relates statistically significantly to decoding skill, listening comprehension, vocabulary, language awareness and nonverbal intelligence (all in elementary school). Based on the tests in nursery school, we divided children to three groups, and we described two outer - more (Comparative group) and less (Deficit group) language equipped. We traced reading profiles of these two groups in elementary school (5th grade). Keywords: language skills, reading literacy, reading comprehension, reading abilities, diagnostics of reading, development of reading skills, decoding

The Master's Thesis with the title Developing reading literacy in Step by Step education programme through the morning letter deals with the method of morning letter and its meaning for the development od the reading literacy and key competences. The theoretical part introduces the transformation of the Czech educational system since 1989. The key competences system is also introduced. The reading literacy, educational systém Step by Step and method of monrning letter is also introduced. In the practical part, 20 morning letters are analysed and then methodical approaches and tools how to use the morning letter are described.

This diploma thesis deals with reading literacy in preschool education. The thesis compares the reading literacy development in public and private education. The theoretical part of this thesis presents reading literacy - definition of the concept and subsequent delimitation in different age groups with specific focus on preschool age. Next, the theoretical part of the thesis discusses selected empirical studies in the field of reading literacy, both Czech studies and international studies. The thesis further focuses on functioning of public and private preschool institutions. At the end of the theoretical part of the thesis, reading is described in terms of contents of activities in preschool institutions. Empirical part of the thesis involves qualitative research that aimed to explore how reading literacy is developed in preschool children in public and private institutions. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 10 participants: 5 teachers employed at state kindergartens and 5 teachers employed at private kindergartens. The obtained data were processed by the technique of open coding and analyzed using the method of card unloading. The research findings involve the comparison of reading literacy development in public and private preschool institutions. The results of the...

My master's thesis with a title Possible Applications of Innovative Methods for Reading Literacy Development in Elementary School is aimed at the critical thinking methods. These methods lead pupils in elementary school to a development of reading literacy. The theoretical part of my work provides an overview of the curriculum reform and the following changes in learning. The terms teacher, innovation, pedagogical constructivism and reading literacy are explained. The key competences of primary education are described, because their development and fulfilment are important goals of education. Furthermore, the educational programme Reading & Writing for Critical Thinking and the three-phase model of learning with its phases learning, awareness and evocation with emphasis on methods supporting a reading literacy of pupils are narrated. The methods of critical thinking supporting reading literacy of pupils are examined in the practical part of my work. The action research with help of an observation method is used in order to evaluate the impact of the critical thinking methods on the development of key competences and level of reading literacy of pupils. The research was conducted at the elementary school, where no innovative methods of critical thinking are used. Key words: teacher, constructivism,...

The main goal of this dissertation was to create and verify own multicomponent tasks of interdisciplinary character based on analysis of types of tasks occured in international research. Newly created multicomponent learning tasks were classified by task type, solution form, cognitive demands and task variety. Tasks of the same form were ordered to pairs, their difficultness, vulnerability and rate of success were verified. Multicomponent learning tasks were assigned verbally or nonverbally (charts, tables or pictures). Closed jobs (ordering items, matching items, multiple choice questions, true/false questions) and open jobs (wide-answer items, short-answer items) were used in complex of tasks. Rate of success of individual tasks was processed by non-parmetric statistical Wilcoxon test based on form, gender and type of study. Research survey was complemented by pupils' self- reflection questionnaires and teachers'questionnaires about testing process. Key words Multicomponent learning task, taxonomy of learning task, scientific literacy, reading literacy, self-reflective questionnaire.

The diploma thesis deals with problems of preparation of children in kindergartens before entering elementary school. The work is mainly focused on the development of pre- reading skills in children. The first part of the thesis deals with the issue of pre-school education legislation. The following are the areas in which children need to develop the most and need to be supported. The second part of the diploma thesis contains information about the survey that was carried out. In conclusion, recommendations and a summary of the lessons learned are presented.

TITLE: Support for the development of reading literacy and the practice of Czech schools AUTHOR: Mgr. Pavlína Nešněrová DEPARTMENT: Department of Primary Education PedF UK Prague SUPERVISOR: Prof. PaedDr. Radka Wildová, CSc. ABSTRACT: The subject of this dissertation thesis is the issue of reading literacy of pupils of primary education. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the quality of reading literacy of pupils of the first grade of elementary school through specifically focused questions and tasks and to elaborate a practical methodical manual for teachers on this topic. The research itself was realized through a didactic test aiming to determine the reading literacy status of pupils of 3rd, 4th and 5th year of elementary school through four groups of questions and tasks in terms of the ability to obtain and process information in various types of texts, texts. Based on the results, conclusions were formulated and discussion topics presented. The research findings were applied in a practical manual, which is part of the work, and which is intended to inspire teachers to work with literary texts in lessons. KEYWORDS: Reading literacy, primary education, targeted tasks, skills and competences, text information.