Reading is a fundamental activity of our society and is present in all areas of a person’s life. Authors who deal with reading define reading with different definitions, some of them I also presented in my master’s degree thesis. The ways of reading, typology of readers and knowledge of different reading models are only some of the important theoretical facts that serve as a basis for the research and defining reading. Reading motivation is an important motivational factor, which encourages a person to read, also having great effect on the success in reading. The school definitely plays an important role in enhancing reading motivation. One of the main factors of encouraging reading in school is a reading badge project that especially encourages voluntary reading in pupils’ free time. The mentors’ role in carrying out the reading badge project is very important as the right motivational approaches and diversity can have a great influence on pupils’ choice to read for the reading badge. Despite the fact that the recent results of PISA 2015 research are promising, as they show an increase in reading achievements of Slovene pupils, researches relating to reading badges show an important decrease in the frequency of reading in spare time over the years of schooling, as well as a decrease in the number of pupils taking part in the reading badge project.
In the empirical part, I analysed the participation of pupils of the chosen school in the reading badge project from the first to the ninth grade in the school years from 2011/2012 to 2014/2015. The results of the analysis show a great decrease of participation, especially in the transition of pupils to the second educational period, and an even more significant decrease in the third educational period. Because the difference between the participation in the reading badge project in the first and especially the third educational period is really drastic, I used questionnaires to analyse what are and which are the basic differences in the motivation to read in different educational periods, the role and the influence of the parents in motivating children to read, the reasons why to participate in the reading badge project or not, and what does the reading badge mean to pupils. Mentors have an important role in motivating pupils to take part in the reading badge project. That is why I also studied the ways, how the mentors in different educational periods encourage pupils to read, what methods and motivational approaches they use, how and when they check the already read books, what is their opinion on the organization of the reading badge project and what changes would they make.
The findings of the analysis how pupils participate in the reading badge project, and of the questionnaire answers of pupils and mentors, serve as a basis for the empirical part, where I present my own model of developing reading literacy through the reading badge project, which I used in the 7th grade of the chosen school. I established that with the use of more active approaches, contemporary methods for enhancing reading motivation and for checking the read material, with a different organization of the reading badge project, with combining the suggested and optional list of books, with literary works of diverse topics and their presentations, the number of pupils deciding to take part in the reading badge project increases in the third educational period, indirectly influencing also the development of the reading literacy.
|
