For Slovenian pupils, entering a public primary school also begins the process of systematic literacy learning, i.e., learning to read and write, and developing skills and abilities that reflect a person’s functional literacy. Taking into account the curriculum for Slovenian language, teachers in the first triennium prepare tasks for pupils to develop preliteracy skills (visual and auditory discrimination, auditory analysis, graphomotor skills and orientation) and communication skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The curriculum for Slovenian language enables teachers to have autonomy in planning lessons, which allows them to design the contents and activities of lessons in their own way, especially in terms of time. For the purpose of this final paper, a questionnaire was prepared. The answers of first triennium teachers provided an insight into the practice of literacy learning in Slovenian public schools.
The results showed that in the first grade they learn only uppercase block letters, while in the second grade they learn lowercase block letters, and uppercase and lowercase cursive letters. Teachers more often discussed the letters in sequence; however, they discuss uppercase and lowercase cursive letters in parallel more often than block letters. Analytical-synthetic methods of literacy learning and monographic procedure are used in the learning of letters. In the first triennium, reading is usually drilled 1 to 3 times a week. Teachers generally like autonomy in planning literacy learning and plan the lessons as they see fit. They make use of the selected workbook and textbook; however, the choice of workbooks, textbooks, handbooks, online lesson plans, the wishes of colleagues, etc., does not affect the choice of the literacy learning process. When conducting the research in the 2019/20 school year, most of the teachers claimed that they would be able to cover everything planned in their language classes regardless of distance education. At the beginning of the school year, first-grade teachers checked the development of the pupils' preliteracy skills and mostly also adapted their lessons to the pupils over the year. According to the teachers, pupils have a well-developed visual perception when entering the first grade. They write their names successfully, despite the fact that they still have trouble holding the pen, writing meaningful sentences, and reading shorter texts.
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