READING AND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

This work is dedicated to identify the student reading routine and comparing it with school performance. The research is of a qualitative nature and was attended by 100 students from the 5th grade of elementary school, from six public municipal schools of a city in the interior of Sao Paulo. To evaluate the reader context, a questionnaire was constructed that sought to know which textual genres students are reading, which people were their main reader model and how often they read. In relation to the school performance, students' scores in the Portuguese Language course were collected along with the coordination of the school. Most students emphasized that reading is important for learning and configures an interesting activity, however they admit that they prefer to access social networks rather than reading a book. Regarding performance, students with satisfactory performance perform readings more frequently when compared to students with poor performance. The latter state that reading is often a duty rather than a pleasure. It is understood that this result may be a consequence of the students' difficulty in reading, since they perform poorly, especially in the Portuguese Language course. These data allow us to discuss the importance of encouraging reading and working with the different textual genres in school. They also show that greater access to different sources of reading may be a factor that directly implies the issue of school performance, influencing the difference between the groups.