In early school years, students encounter various literary works, mostly as required primary school reading. For some students required reading can be the first contact with a variety of Slovenian or foreign literature. It is a foundation on which an individual's reading opus, learning and knowledge of literature is built.
Because the students foundation for knowledge of literature is still being built, I was interested in how current as well as past required reading contributes to the process. Society and educational systems change throughout decades and so do teaching aids and tools.The latter, mostly required reading, often directly reflect the state of society as well as daily life trends. Despite the fact that artistic texts typically spark the reader's imagination, emotions and senses rather than verifiable information about the real world, the literary canon and the analysis of its texts can tell us a lot about the thinking and the development of the learning process throughout decades.
Therefore, I have chosen the required reading of three different generations for my master dissertation in order to determine how socio-political history and social atmosphere are reflected in the selection of reading and learning literature through their topics and contents, as well as to determine the basis upon which future reading will be created.
I chose required reading in the first three grades of primary school. I analysed reading textbooks that were used in 1971/72 when my parents went to school (Prvo berilo, Drugo berilo and Tretje berilo), then the books that I knew and used as a student in 1992/93 (Prvo berilo; Hiša, hiška, hiškica and Babica, ti loviš!) and current required reading that I use as a teacher (Lili in Bine 1, Lili in Bine 2 and Lili in Bine 3).
Reading is a skill that we develop and master in primary school. Our attitude to reading as students and later as adults largely depends on how literature is presented to us and how strong the motivation for working with texts is. A teacher's enthusiasm, motivation and interraction they develop with students and works of literature plays a big role. However, we can not disregard the importance of teaching aids either.
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