Reading fluence in the 4th year of elementary school post remote teaching

Abstract

Purpose: Characterize and evaluate reading fluency in children in the 4th year of Elementary School who attended the 1st and 2nd year in remote education, which differed between public schools (predominantly asynchronous) and private schools (predominantly synchronous); identify the impact of this teaching modality on reading fluency; verify the level of fluency of students and compare it between students from public and private schools, according to the experience of remote teaching. Methods: The reading fluency of 77 4th year elementary school students from public and private schools was analyzed. Those who did not attend the assessment day, who failed in previous years, who presented speech disorders and/or other diagnoses that could interfere with learning were excluded from the research. The students’ oral reading was recorded and each component of fluency (automaticity, accuracy and prosody) was analyzed separately. Results: The gap in learning to read occurs in both school networks that adopted remote teaching during the pandemic period, which is evidenced when it is observed that not half of the participants reached the standard number of words read per minute according to the National Literacy Policy - PNA. Reading fluency performance was statistically lower in participants from public schools compared to private ones. Considerations: The study suggests that learning reading fluency, already lacking before the pandemic, may have been negatively impacted by remote teaching, with greater losses being observed in public schools, highlighting the need for measures to recover and prevent reading difficulties.