The definition of reading and reading literacy changes with society, economy and culture. Due to the increased emphasis on lifelong learning, reading literacy is now examined from a wider perspective. It is no longer the ability to read a text, which is a skill we learn in the lower grades of elementary school, but a comprehensive set of knowledge, skills and strategies that we build upon our whole life (Šterman Ivančič, 2013). The definition of literacy from the PISA 2000 study reads as follows: "Reading literacy - the capacity to understand, use and reflect on written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society." (Šterman Ivančič, 2013: 31.) In 2009, they added reading engagement in written texts (Šterman Ivančič, 2013), which updated the definition for reading literacy to: "understanding, using, reflecting on and engaging in written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society." (The PISA 2009, 2010: 7.) PISA 2015 showed that reading literacy in Slovenian elementary school students is growing, as they generally performed better in the latest PISA 2015 study than their peers from other OECD member states on all levels of reading literacy (Štraus, Šterman Ivančič in Štigl, 2016). M. Cencič (1999) believes that methods and forms of teaching literacy need to be further developed. Newer forms of teaching expand the role of the teacher to a person that reflects upon their work and constantly modifies it. Teachers in the United Kingdom used a thematic curriculum with the main theme being Harry Potter, namely Harry Potter books, to improve reading literacy and educational attainment. The Kids and family reading report survey, carried out in the United States in 2006 by Sholastic and Yankelovich (Garlick, 2007), showed that reading Harry Potter books has a positive impact on reading literacy, as it increased in 90% of readers, while 75% of readers improved their educational attainment after reading the books. Reading Harry Potter books not only affects the reading literacy and educational attainment, but also increases tolerance of stigmatized groups (Vezzali, 2015).
The theoretical part of the thesis defined reading literacy and the PISA survey that is carried out in Slovenia every three years on first-year high school students. It also includes basic facts about the book series on the young wizard Harry Potter and its author J. K. Rowling.
The purpose of the research was to test reading literacy and find out whether reading books on Harry Potter can increase reading literacy of Slovene students. The reading literacy test was designed considering the variables that are relevant for this research and five sets of tasks from the PISA test were added. The participants were students of the 9th grade, as they were the best match for the technical criteria of the PISA study, i.e. aged between 15 and 16.
In order to obtain a large enough sample of students for a representative sample, a quantitative method was used for this research. The data was obtained during school hours in the Slovene language class at three different schools in the Notranjska region. As previously stated, the test comprised five tasks, taken from the PISA 2000 reading literacy test, as well as questions regarding the gender of the students, the number of books they read, their internal motivation to read and the time they spend reading per week or day. The test was designed to be completed within an hour and comprised different tasks depending on the type and form of texts as well as questions of different levels of difficulty. A few harder reading tasks were also implemented in order to find out whether students that read more Harry Potter books could solve them better. Students also marked when they started and finished taking the test, so a comparison could be made between students that haven't read any books and students that have read Harry Potter books based on the time it took them to finish the test.
|
