READING AS AN INTERACTION BETWEEN THE READER AND THE TEXT: CONCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES IN THE PNAIC NOTEBOOKS

ABSTRACT:

The article aims at presenting and discussing the conceptions and practices of reading explored in the training notebooks of the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (PNAIC). The analysis process of the content of the notebooks was conducted based on the following question: what conception of reading and what teaching practices are brought in the collection of notebooks of PNAIC? The discussion on the conceptions and practices of reading was carried out based on theoretical studies that see reading as a cognitive act set in the interaction between text-reader. The results of the analysis show that the texts of the training notebooks conceive the reading from elements of the interactive model of reading. Concerning the reading practices, the activities of extraction of meanings from the text for the development of textual understanding are prioritized. In the reports, there is a predominance of records of shared reading activity, in which the formulation of questions is the main strategy to help the student to find information and infer meanings. Yet the exercises that aim at activating previous knowledge of the reader or activities of reading systematization, such as essay writing, are less frequently used. Finally, we highlight the importance of analyzing theoretical and methodological assumptions of continuous training programs in order to understand how these help the teachers to analyze their practices and rethink them according to the student’s needs.

Keywords:
reading; literacy; teacher education; PNAIC

RESUMO:

O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar e discutir as concepções e práticas de leitura exploradas nos cadernos de formação do Pacto Nacional pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa (PNAIC). O processo de análise do conteúdo dos cadernos foi conduzido com base na seguinte questão: qual a concepção de leitura e quais práticas de ensino são trazidas pela coleção de cadernos do PNAIC? A discussão das concepções e práticas de leitura foi feita com base em estudos teóricos que a entendem como ato cognitivo que se estabelece na interação texto-leitor. Os resultados da análise mostram que os textos dos cadernos de formação concebem a leitura a partir de elementos do modelo interativo de leitura. Em relação às suas práticas, priorizam-se as atividades de extração de sentidos do texto para o desenvolvimento da compreensão textual. Nos relatos, preponderam registros de atividades de leitura compartilhada, em que a formulação de perguntas é a principal estratégia utilizada para auxiliar o estudante a localizar informações e inferir sentidos. Já os exercícios que visam ativar conhecimentos prévios do leitor ou atividades de sistematização da leitura, como escrita de resumo, têm uma menor frequência. Por fim, destaca-se a importância de analisar pressupostos teóricos e metodológicos de programas de formação continuada, para entender como estes auxiliam as professoras a refletirem sobre suas práticas e a repensá-las de acordo com as necessidades dos estudantes.

Palavras-chave:
leitura; alfabetização; formação de professores; PNAIC

RESUMEN:

El articulo tiene como objetivo presentar y discutir las concepciones y practicas de lectura explotadas en los cuadernos de formación del Pacto Nacional por la Alfabetización en la Edad Cierta (PNAIC). El proceso de análisis del contenido de los cuadernos fue conducido con base en la siguiente cuestión: ¿ Cual es la concepción de lectura y cuales practicas de enseñanza son traídas por la colección de cuadernos del PNAIC? La discusión de las concepciones y practicas de lectura fue hecha con base en los estudios teóricos que entienden la lectura como acto cognitivo que se establece en la interacción lector-texto. Los resultados del análisis muestran que los textos de los cuadernos de formación concibe la lectura a partir de elementos del modelo interactivo de lectura. En relación en las prácticas de lectura se prioriza las actividades de extracción de sentido del texto para el desarrollo de la comprensión textual. En los relatos, dominaron registros de actividades de lectura compartidas, en que la formulación de preguntas es la principal estrategia utilizada para ayudar el estudiante a ubicar información y inducir sentidos. Ya los ejercicios que visan activar conocimientos previos del lector o actividades de sistematización de lecturas, como escrita de resumen, tiene una menor frecuencia. Por fin, se destaca la importancia de analizar presupuestos teóricos y metodológicos de programas de formación continuada, para entender como estés ayudan los maestros a analizar sus practicas y repensar de acuerdo con las necesidades de los estudiantes.

Palabras clave:
lecturas; alfabetización; formación de maestros; PNAIC

INTRODUCTION

In the education research field, different areas of knowledge study reading: psycholinguistics, neuroscience, and pedagogy, among others, which produces a diversity of theoretical perspectives about reading and its teaching and learning processes. These are studies that open space for a variety of conceptions about what reading is and, consequently, expand the possibilities of organizing teaching practices.

The position defended in this article is that reflecting on the conception of reading that guides the teacher's pedagogical work is extremely important since how this professional understands the reading activity and the student’s relationship with it are what sustain their choices and the didactic conduct during their pedagogical practice. In this sense, in the context of continuing education programs and practices for teachers, knowing and thinking about reading conceptions and practices are necessary activities because they offer teachers subsidies for recognizing the implicit theories present in their pedagogical practice. As a result, their conceptual training is also expanded, which creates conditions to conduct more conscious and consistent work in the field of teaching and reading practice.

This text has as its corpus of analysis the formative notebooks of the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (PNAIC- Pacto Nacional pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa) studied in formative meetings held with study advisors and literacy teachers from public basic education networks. The central question that leads the study is: what is the conception of reading and what teaching practices are brought by the collection of training notebooks of the PNAIC? The proposed reflection is linked to a research project¹ that analyzes the formative materials and pedagogical documents produced because of the continuing education of the PNAIC, coordinated by a public university in the South Region.

The theoretical-methodological approach of the study is structured on principles of qualitative research, using thematic content analysis as a method (GOMES, 1994; SEVERINO, 2013). For this, the position assumed that the analysis - understood as a process of data description - and the interpretation - the activity of articulation of this description with broader knowledge - conform the movement “to look carefully at the research data” (GOMES, 1994, p. 68). Based on this vision, previous theoretical positions arising from the study of three works guided the process of reading and thematic analysis of the content of the notebooks (SMITH, 1989; SOLÉ, 1998; SOARES, 2018).

Procedurally, there was a reading and thematic analysis of the 36 PNAIC training notebooks related to the 2012 collection, which its focus is the work with the Portuguese language in the literacy cycle. During the reading, we highlighted excerpts containing definitions and teaching guidelines or reports of reading practices. Subsequently, we compiled these excerpts into thematic documentation sheets (SEVERINO, 2013), identified with the name of the author of the report and the authors of the text, and the indication of the unit, year, and page of the formative notebook. Each PNAIC formative notebook contains texts written in co-authorship by professors from higher education and teachers from the basic public education network. The reports written by literacy teachers were brought by the authors of the text to exemplify conceptual or methodological dimensions around the addressed subject. The organization of the excerpts in cards also allowed us to gather demonstrative elements of the arguments and reasoning of the authors about the teachers' reports, brought to exemplify concepts and didactic orientations exposed.

Thus, the interpretation process aimed to locate the explicit or implicit theories taken to base the teachers' training process about reading and its teaching in the literacy cycle. We also used the same organization in documentation sheets to record the reading process and the thematic analysis of the works selected for conducting and substantiating this study. Therefore, the act of interpreting was assumed as taking a position regarding the ideas, surpassing the exact location of the explicit message of the text (SEVERINO, 2013), seeking reading between the lines as a cognitive activity capable of offering inputs for an articulating dialogue between the theorists' ideas and evidence highlighted in the PNAIC formative notebooks.

Once the stage of reading, selection, and organization of data from the formative notebooks was concluded, the content of the cards was grouped into two broad categories of analysis: i) conceptions about reading; ii) reading practices. We discussed the evidence gathered around these two categories and problematized it in an articulated way in a specific topic of this article. For the discussion, evidence of the recorded reports was brought, both in terms of detailing and didactic illustration as well as typical examples of the presence of theoretical elements adopted to understand the reading. Next, the conceptual positions of the authors that underlie this study and the organization of the PNAIC formative program and notebooks were presented.

READING ACQUISITION

Within the scope of research on reading acquisition (SMITH, 1989; SOARES, 2018), there has been a consensus on the idea that it is extremely important to understand the process the child goes through to achieve reading comprehension. In this sense, the fundamental question refers to the child's initial trajectory in the development of his/her reading comprehension, that is, how he/she begins to understand graphic signs and word formation to be able to work on more complex aspects of reading.

The answer to this question is the dual-route model proposed by Magda Soares (2018). According to this model, the child takes two routes to develop reading comprehension. The first is the “sublexical route”: in it, the child is still carrying out the graphophonemic decoding processes to identify words, that is, he is still mentally converting graphemes (mental units represented by writing) into phonemes (mental units represented by the sound of speech) to recognize a particular word and its meaning. In this route, the child's focus is on the word and its meaning. However, as the child performs this process with several words, his/her lexical collection increases, causing him/her to start using the second route, called the “lexical route”. When he/she starts to update the lexical route, the child already demonstrates awareness of the meaning of the words and begins to use only his/her long-term memory to remember them and extract the meaning of what is written in a larger context. As the child has access to the second route, it becomes possible to conduct more complex processes for the development of quality reading, that is, graphophonemic decoding becomes secondary, and the automated process of extracting the meaning of words generates greater reading comprehension.

In the context of this work, thinking about this perspective of reading acquisition is important as it reveals a position on the phenomenon of reading, which is opposed to explanations still present in the field, characterized by researchers as hierarchical models: the ascending and descending model (SOLÉ, 1998). In the bottom-up model, the reader, when faced with a piece of writing, starts with the smallest units of a text (letters, words, phrases, etc.) and expands to the largest units. This perspective centers reading on decoding skills and, consequently, proposes this same centrality in the teaching process. However, what this conception of reading cannot explain is how readers manage to understand a text even if they do not understand all its elements.

In the top-down model, reading becomes centered on the reader's prior knowledge. Their use to anticipate the meanings of the text becomes responsible for conducting the reading activity, relegating the decoding process, and the use of text elements for reading comprehension to a secondary position. This is a new way of perceiving reading, which, although it ignores the aforementioned “sublexical route,” continues to see reading activity as “sequential and hierarchical” (SOLÉ, 1998, p. 24) because it emphasizes the global recognition of words to the detriment of the identification abilities of your smaller units.

These two ways of understanding reading acquisition imply two diverse ways of working with its teaching, as some elements will be more emphasized in the pedagogical practice to the detriment of others. When conceiving reading by the ascending model, the teacher will conduct activities in which the focus is the decoding of words. By recognizing the top-down model as the way reading will develop, the pedagogical activities focus on activating the reader's prior knowledge, leaving aside the decoding process and the use of text elements for reading comprehension.

In contrast to these two models, Isabel Solé (1998, p. 24) presents the “interactive model”, which decentralizes both graphophonemic decoding and the reader's prior knowledge. Understanding reading as a process of information at diverse levels, the ascending and descending movements will happen simultaneously in the act of reading.

In this way, the text will generate expectations about the reader both in the identification of words and the meanings expressed in it, and, at the same time, the individual will use his/her previous knowledge to establish a textual understanding (SOLÉ, 1998). This perspective is in line with the dual-route model proposed by Soares (2018), because, through the different levels of interaction between the reader and the text, both the lexical route and the sublexical route will be present in the acquisition of reading and teaching practices.

And what, then, would be reading comprehension? We can find the meaning of this concept in the work of Frank Smith (1989). The author presents reading as an interactive process between the subject who is reading, and the set of meanings expressed through written signs. According to the author, for reading comprehension to happen, the reader must have questions about the written material, and he/she will find the answers to these questions through the intersection between his/her prior knowledge - non-visual information - and the senses expressed by the text. By the time these questions are answered, in whole or in part, the meanings of the text are extracted and reading comprehension has already taken place.

Smith (1989) discusses reading comprehension as a process of “uncertainty reduction”, which happens through the extraction of meanings from the text to answer the questions asked by the reader for the written material. When asking questions to the text, the reader realizes that there is a limited set of answers to the questions asked. This happens because the person's prior knowledge will filter which information in the text can solve these doubts and which could be ignored at that time. Since prior knowledge is formed by the reader's non-visual information in the act of reading, as his textual comprehension takes place, the reader integrates new information into this set of prior knowledge - that is, "non-visual information can be used to reduce the reader's uncertainty in advance and to limit the amount of visual information that must be processed” (SMITH, 1989, p. 188).

By making this move and expanding their prior knowledge, the choice for information that answers questions and reduces uncertainties will be more refined for the reader, allowing them to dedicate more time to a deeper reflection on the material read. Therefore, the time dedicated to choosing, from the set of answers, which one will make the most sense for textual comprehension will be smaller. This reduction in the number of answers offers an opportunity for greater reflection and less dependence on the isolated meaning of small excerpts from the text, expanding the construction of meanings. On this point, the author explains:

A word may be identified with fewer distinguishing features when it comes from a hundred alternatives than a thousand. Finally, it is impossible to say how many alternative meanings there might be to a passage of text because that depends entirely on what an individual reader is looking for, but it is obvious that reading is easier when the reader finds the material meaningful than when comprehension is a battle to be fought (SMITH, 1989, p. 188).

Finding meaningful material will require the reader to draw on their prior knowledge, which is expanded as text comprehension takes place. Thus, the greater the non-visual information, the easier it becomes to select this significant material. Therefore, as textual comprehension takes place, the next reading exercises are more productive.

Based on what Smith points out, thinking about this process requires working exhaustively with reading comprehension exercises in pedagogical practice. Through reading, children develop their knowledge about the world and the act of reading. As they learn to read and read more frequently, children also become more capable of understanding a text and understanding its relationship with social practices, which allows them to perform interpretive readings of the world, forming a cycle of intellectual development.

Smith (1989, p. 212) states that “the reading experience leads to more knowledge about reading”, that is, by performing reading exercises, reading comprehension develops. This means not restricting, in pedagogical practices, reading only as a tool for learning knowledge or for conducting school tasks in general. Equating these dimensions in pedagogical practice is a necessary task to expand the capacity for reading comprehension.

In this direction, to design the reading teaching processes, a theoretical basis is sought by Solé (1998). Like Smith (1989), the author also understands reading as an interactive process between the reader and the text. Solé (1998) also adds that the act of reading is full of different objectives, and thinking about them is important in the process of defining teaching practices, considering that it is the reading objectives that will guide the reader's actions in the face of a text.

These actions, or procedures, of a reader in front of a text, are called reading strategies. The reader's objectives when faced with written material will result in an action of planning and evaluation of the reading, and based on its results, the subject will readjust his/her way of reading to achieve a greater capacity for reading comprehension throughout the interactive process with the written material. The author also explains that the development of reading comprehension through reading strategies offers children conditions for a greater comprehension capacity, especially because they will be involved in multiple and varied reading situations. In this perspective, a new cycle is formed, because, as children master the reading comprehension tool, the better readers they will be, and the greater their ability to understand a text, the better they will control their way of conducting these processes.

Understanding that reading strategies “should allow the student to plan the general reading task and his/her location [...] in front of it” (SOLÉ, 1998, p. 73), in the sequence, how these strategies can be organized in pedagogical practice are exposed. For this, it is important to emphasize that the strategies are not a list of ready-made exercises in which the teacher has only the task of applying them without making any intellectual effort. On the contrary, the teacher needs to be aware that, due to the multiplicity and variety of reading situations, the strategies employed will also have to be multiple and varied (SOLÉ, 1998). Therefore, working with reading strategies means perceiving them as an orientation for teaching and not as a technique or a method ready to be applied mechanically.

In this sense, there are methodological principles that can guide reading activities in different moments of the act of reading, that is, before, during, and after reading. According to Solé (1998), the first moment happens even before the actual interaction between the reader and the material to be read. This is a moment when the reader triggers his/her long-term memory, reactivating previous knowledge of the topic addressed in the text. This is a key step in the process, since, through the activation of this knowledge, children realize that they already have an intellectual basis for what is going to be read, making them able to formulate the necessary questions to reduce their uncertainties and expand their knowledge through reading (SMITH, 1989). For this first moment of reading, Solé (1998) explains that prior knowledge activation exercises can be done through questions that reveal to students that they do not need to have total mastery of the content of the text to be read; however, they need to be encouraged to realize that they are capable and that they know enough to be able to expand their knowledge through reading.

The “shared reading” is the second moment proposed by Solé (1998). This is the stage in which the teacher conducts activities to equip students so that they read and employ reading strategies autonomously, achieving reading comprehension independently. It is important to emphasize that the teacher's pedagogical interventions are not dispensable. Teachers cannot abstain from them in their educational practice; on the contrary, he needs to invest in activities that make students capable of constructing their interpretations of the text through the elaboration and verification of hypotheses.

Finally, the third moment happens after the act of reading, involving two types of activities. The first concerns the theme and main ideas of the text. According to the author, all written material has a general theme and many ideas - which are connected to the general theme - within it. At this stage, the teaching task consists of conducting exercises that make it possible for the reader to identify the general theme, as well as being able to link the main ideas with it. For this, a second type of activity is proposed: the production of summaries. According to Solé (1998), according to their possibilities, children can produce summaries in different ways: text, phrases, scheme, oral exposition, drawing, diagram, chart, etc. However, it is fundamental to do the summary since, through it, the children will be able to recognize which of the expressed ideas are essential for the meaning of the text and which ideas are secondary.

Both types of activities are extremely important for developing reading comprehension. Through this moment of closing the reading, the metacognitive exercise is provided, which will promote awareness among students about the changes that occurred in the prior knowledge activated before the act of reading - that is, children will be able to perceive what they knew and what they started to learn from reading. In this way, the reading activity will not be done superficially; it will be permeated by a depth that reveals to students the cognitive benefits of the act of reading.

Thinking about reading based on the aspects brought up implies a change in the way we work, whether in contexts of initial and continued teacher training or the classroom with children in the early years. In this sense, our reflections assert the intention of identifying the concept of reading exposed and worked on by the formative notebooks of the PNAIC; after all, the way reading is conceived and understood brings distinct implications for the way it is worked in the pedagogical context.

THE PNAIC FORMATIVE PROGRAM AND BOOKLETS

The PNAIC was a teacher formative program proposed by the federal government and conducted in partnership with universities and public basic education networks. Its purpose was to contribute to the improvement of the training of literacy teachers through a theoretical basis that would equip them to instruct children up to 8 years old to read and write, also aiming at raising literacy rates. The organization of the formative proposed by the PNAIC was conducted in a multiplicative format. For this, different educational agents were involved, receiving attributions and responsibilities according to the type of institutional link. Within the scope of the public university, coordinators, supervisors, and trainers worked; in the sphere of basic education networks, there were local coordinators, study advisors, and literacy teachers. The attributions of professionals linked to the university involved the general management of the program and the development of training activities with local coordinators and study advisors; they also guided the study meetings with the literacy teachers of the teaching networks.

The formation of the PNAIC was thought of as a possibility of promoting spaces in which the teaching of techniques to be reproduced in the classroom was replaced by moments of reflection about the pedagogical work aimed at transforming its planning. For this, they established a commitment between the teachers in training and the organizers of the training process. The former should be willing to challenge and chart new paths in their professional lives based on training. According to the Teacher Formative Notebook (BRASIL, 2012a), the organizers should promote training considering the demands of the participants and following a series of training principles systematized based on the studies of Imbernón (2010): enhancement of self-esteem and social skills, favoring collective learning, critical reflection on practice, sharing good practices, implementing training strategies that ensure the discussion of examples, valuing different experiences and choosing materials that help to understand the topics studied. To contemplate these principles, the use of a series of formative strategies was defined such as reading for pleasure, home and school tasks, directed studies of texts, activity planning, writing, and analysis of teaching practices, among others.

The collection of PNAIC training notebooks permeated these activities, as the literacy teachers studied their texts to expand knowledge about literacy and to problematize and transform their teaching practices. The formative meetings were also conducted based on the texts and didactic suggestions presented by the material. Thus, we highlight the importance and centrality of the notebooks for the conceptual development of the subjects involved in the formation of the PNAIC and as a basis for the establishment of discussions on the teaching practices conducted by literacy teachers in their classrooms.

The first collection of PNAIC formative notebooks focuses on the Portuguese language and includes texts written by university professors and literacy researchers in the area of language studies and teacher training from various public universities. According to the PNAIC Teacher Formative Notebook, “everyone worked together to insert suggestions for activities and reflections on what can be done in a literacy classroom in the texts so that students learn to read and write from a social inclusion and participation perspective” (BRASIL, 2012a, p. 34). Therefore, the main purpose of this material was to promote reflections on literacy processes within the context of pedagogical practices.

The 36 formative notebooks analyzed in this work had the following thematic configuration: 2 presented the program; 1 had evaluation as its central theme; 1 dealt with Inclusive Education; 8 addressed literacy in the context of rural education; and 24 addressed literacy in the literacy cycle (8 for the 1^st grade, 8 for the 2nd grade and 8 for the 3rd grade). Except for the first mentioned notebooks, all had the same internal organization, with four sections: Starting the conversation (general introduction of the notebook's themes; presentation of the unit's objectives and the central focus of the discussions); Deepening the theme (theoretical discussions on the unit's themes and their articulation with reports of pedagogical practices); Sharing (section intended for the presentation of learning rights, teaching materials distributed by MEC, teachers' experience reports, suggestions for activities and evaluation recording instruments, among others); Learning more (suggestions for book reviews related to the theme of the unit and training activities for training meetings).

Regarding the theme of this text, a quick analysis of the titles of the notebooks shows that reading is not referred to textually as a thematic unit and there is not a specific notebook dedicated exclusively to its discussion. However, the material is not silent on the subject in terms of conceptual discussion and didactic implications. The analysis of the notebooks allows us to state that the theme of reading permeates the texts of all the themes addressed, showing that the program discusses reading not as a specific skill, but as a social practice whose learning takes place through the act of reading and its uses in situations of interaction between reader and texts.

Then, aspects arising from the thematic analysis of the 36 training notebooks are presented considering the two defined axes - i) the concept of reading explained in texts from the training notebooks that make up the 2012 collection; ii) the reading practices brought in reports of teaching experience -, which are problematized and debated jointly based on the exposed theoretical framework. Thus, in the interpretative analysis, aspects of the theoretical foundation and illustrations of the texts and recorded reports were articulated. The cited excerpts were defined due to their greater quality in terms of exemplifying present elements, both in terms of theoretical conception and didactic referral of reading practices.

CONCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF READING IN THE PNAIC NOTEBOOKS

In general terms, the process of analyzing the texts in the PNAIC formative notebooks shows that reading is conceived as an interactive process between the reader and the text, in addition to highlighting the identification of the meanings expressed in the text as an important factor for the development of reading comprehension. This notion states that, when the student performs the process of identifying the meanings of the text, he/she needs to interact with the text read to understand it textually and access the messages that are being transmitted. The conception brought by the different texts of the training notebooks is following the position of reading as a process of reader-text interaction, because, according to Solé (1998, p. 22), the reader tries to “satisfy [obtain relevant information for] the objectives that guide its reading”; therefore, obtaining this pertinent information means identifying the meanings of the text.

Smith (1989, p. 186) discusses identifying the meanings of the text in another way, that is, as a “reduction of uncertainties”, since “the meaning that readers understand, based on the text, is always relative to what already know and what they want to know” because “understanding involves reducing the uncertainty of the reader, who asks questions and gets answers”. The author mentions the meanings of the text when talking about meaning, since, like the meanings mentioned above, meanings are a message expressed in the text, which needs to be understood by students. The author also mentions an interactive movement between readers with the text when he talks about asking questions and getting answers from the text, which requires reader-text interaction.

Smith and Solé's theorizations show that the reader-text interaction and the identification of meanings through textual comprehension are interconnected. This dimension, present in these two revised theories, was located in texts from the training notebooks that, although they take other authors as a reference, also support their exposition within the scope of this understanding. For example, in Unit 5, in the field education notebook, whose thematic focus is work with textual genres in multigrade classes, Tavares and Pessoa (2012), authors of the text “Working with diversity and (con)texts”, bring a definition by Cafiero to explain what reading is: “to read is to assign meanings. And, by understanding the text as a coherent whole, the reader may be able to reflect on it” (CAFIERO, 2010, p. 86 apud TAVARES; PESSOA, 2012, p. 36).

The position brought by the authors of the text on the act of reading as attributing meanings is close to the idea of reading as identification of meanings, which is consistent with Solé's view (1998, p. 22) when he explains: “[. ..] the meaning of writing for the reader is not a translation or replica of the meaning that the author wanted to give it, but a construction that involves the text, the previous knowledge of the reader who approaches it and its objectives”. That is, the meanings extracted through textual comprehension will depend on three variables: one of them involves the text, and the other two involve the reader (prior knowledge and reading objectives). Therefore, in a way, while meaning is identified, meaning is also attributed since in reading one is not only receiving information but there is an interaction with them through prior knowledge and reader objectives. This aspect can be observed in the text by Tavares and Pessoa when they describe and reflect on the report of a teaching practice carried out by literacy teacher Rielda Karyna Albuquerque.

In Professor Rielda's report, we saw how texts of different genres were explored: expository text; scientific text; Tales; comics, instructional texts, subtitles, non-verbal text, and educational posters. We also saw how working with reading was used as a means for understanding concepts related to the study of the Portuguese language, science, geography, and history, working these areas of knowledge in an integrated way. Professor Rielda had a situation of heterogeneity in the class, regarding mastering the alphabetic writing system/SEA and reading, which led her [the teacher] to adapt her planning, introducing pauses so that the students could understand the meaning of the text read and discuss the concepts that appeared in the text, resuming the reading when the theme discussed had been understood. (TAVARES; PESSOA, 2012, p. 36)

The two authors of this text from the training notebook also claim that reading results in and of the student's intellectual development and that the understanding of what he/she reads is linked to his/her experiences and previous knowledge. By placing the identification of meanings as an important factor, Tavares and Pessoa assume the understanding that the student can do something that was not completely available to him/her previously, that is, reflect on the text read. This happens due to the development of reading comprehension skills, acquired through the extraction of meanings from the text. In the continuity of the quoted text and other writings of the training notebooks, the identification of meanings is affirmed as an important factor for reading and, this, as a process of reader-text interaction.

In the context of curriculum policies, the PNAIC program and the training notebooks played inducing and disseminating the role of contents and objectives that were partly embodied, recently, in the National Common Curricular Base- Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BRASIL, 2019). This process of induction and diffusion occurred especially through the presentation of the boxes “Learning rights in the literacy cycle - Portuguese Language” (BRASIL, 2012b), which instituted general learning rights for each area of knowledge and a set of objectives and skills to be developed within each of them (Portuguese Language, Mathematics, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Arts and Physical Education). Within the scope of the Portuguese language, six general learning rights were defined:

To understand and produce oral and written texts of different genres, conveyed in different textual supports, and to assist different communicative purposes, considering the conditions in which discourses are created and received.

To appreciate and understand texts from the literary universe (short stories, fables, chronicles, poems, among others), considering the phenomena of aesthetic fruition, imagination, and lyricism, as well as the multiple meanings that the reader can produce during reading.

To appreciate and use in meaningful situations the literary genres of childhood cultural heritage, such as rhymes, songs, and tongue twisters.

To understand and produce texts aimed at the organization and socialization of school/scientific knowledge (didactic texts, encyclopedia notes, entries, summaries, reviews, among others) and the organization of school and non-school daily life (agendas, schedules, calendars, notebooks ...).

To participate in situations of reading/listening and oral and written production of texts intended for reflection and discussion on relevant social topics (news, reports, opinion articles, letters from readers, debates, documentaries...).

To produce and understand oral and written texts with purposes aimed at reflecting on values and social behavior, planning and participating in situations to combat prejudice and discriminatory attitudes (racial prejudice, gender, prejudice against sexual groups, linguistic prejudice, among others). (BRASIL, 2012b, p. 32).

Tables were also prepared with the descriptors of the objectives and capabilities for each of the four teaching axes: reading; production of written texts; orality; linguistic analysis (discursiveness, textuality, and normativity); and linguistic analysis (appropriation of the alphabetic writing system). The tables also indicate in which year each of the objectives and capabilities should be introduced (I), expanded (A), or consolidated (C). Understanding that a curricular base contains a prescriptive character, the descriptors of the “Reading” axis were analyzed to observe whether the reader-text interaction and the process of identifying meanings are present in the objectives and capabilities defined as teaching content.

The objectives of the reading axis are:

Read non-verbal texts in different supports; Read texts [...] independently; Understand texts read by other people, of different genres and with different purposes; Anticipate meanings and activate previous knowledge related to the texts to be read [...]; Recognize the purposes of the texts read [...]; Read aloud fluently in different situations; Find explicit information in texts of different genres and themes [...]; Make inferences in texts of different genres and themes [...]; Establish logical relationships between parts of texts of different genres and themes [...]; Learning subjects/topics dealt with in texts of different genres [...]; Interpret phrases and expressions in texts of different genres and themes [...]; Establish intertextuality in understanding different texts; Relate verbal and non-verbal texts, building meanings; Knowing how to look up the basic meanings of words in the dictionary and the most appropriate meaning for the context of use. (BRASIL, 2012b, p. 33).

In several of the descriptors related to reading, the relationship between the identification of meanings and reader-text interaction is observed, and, specifically in two of them, this relationship is more transparent. In “Anticipating meanings and activating prior knowledge regarding the texts to be read” we can perceive that the meanings addressed are not necessarily in the text to be read but in the student's knowledge. This knowledge is important for textual comprehension because, through it, the reader can interact with the text and, thus, construct meanings.

Smith (1989, p. 188) states that “non-visual information can be employed to reduce the reader's uncertainty in advance, and to limit the amount of visual information that must be processed”. For the author, non-visual information is equivalent to the student's prior knowledge. Therefore, by stating that it enhances the reduction of uncertainties - and understanding the reduction of uncertainties as the extraction of meanings, as previously problematized -, we can once again perceive the interactive aspect between the reader and the text acting in the identification of meanings and the textual comprehension.

In the descriptor “Interpreting phrases and expressions in texts of different genres, read with autonomy”, it is clear that the meaning is located in the text, reinforcing its importance in the interactive process, which will generate the identification of meanings, since previous knowledge of the student cannot develop without the presence of new information, just as reading a text without any previous knowledge of the student can also generate misunderstanding. Therefore, the expected result of the reading, expressed in the descriptor “Understanding subjects/topics treated in different genres, read with autonomy” will result from the interaction between these two components.

The PNAIC formative notebooks bring reports of experiences in which literacy teachers describe the forms and ways in which they conceive and guide reading practices in the classroom. To obtain an insight into which reading strategies are most mentioned, 72 reports were analyzed, and a classification of the reading activities described was made following Solé's proposition (1998): activation of prior knowledge; shared reading; identification activities, and the relationship between the general theme and main ideas and the production of summaries.

Box 1
- Classification of reports based on reading strategies

In the set of seventy-two reports analyzed, there is a predominance of records that address aspects or referrals made about shared reading compared to other strategies, characterized as activities to activate prior knowledge or to understand and systematize reading, which, together, add up to fifty-two strategies. For information purposes, excerpts such as “the teacher explored the illustrations on the cover and title, through the following questions” were activities classified to activate prior knowledge; “I showed the name of the author and illustrator on the cover”. Within the “shared reading” block, mentions such as “as I read, I continued to ask some questions” were included; “While reading in the book, the children followed with their finger the passage that was read in the received text”. Finally, in the general theme, main idea, and summary activities, quotes such as: “I decided to go back to what had been discussed and record on the board what the students were saying”; “We made a word list of what each character liked to do”.

Among the 126 strategies classified as shared reading, there are references to dynamics, exercises, manipulation and use of objects or resources, and commands given by the teacher, among other tactics proposed during reading. As a result of the analysis of the excerpts related to shared reading, it is possible to problematize and establish a critique of the collection of PNAIC training notebooks in two dimensions. On the one hand, the emphasis on the reading action is notable, which is driven by a purpose of reading comprehension capable of leading students to produce meanings in the analysis of meanings or the analysis of the structure of the text. As a result, this preference places the moments before and after reading at a lower level of focus. On the other hand, activities focused on autonomous reading, to be done by the child, or on the practice of reading guided by the teacher, stand out. Regarding this second dimension, it is worth asking whether this accent would not be a result of the very need to affirm the importance of the teacher's presence as a reader or as a guide for reading practices, that is, the person responsible for creating mobilization conditions for autonomous reading by children. In this questioning, it is considered that teachers' reports compiled in training notebooks were the object of analysis, which, as a rule, have an intention directed towards offering a didactic repertoire capable of influencing the improvement of teaching practices. However, even when dealing with guiding material for continuing education processes, the defended position is to combine conceptual and illustrative elements, contemplating theoretical and practical aspects around the focused content, because, through conceptual training, the teacher can develop a set of support elements of the teaching practice, becoming even capable of explaining more consciously and consistently the pedagogical reasons mobilized when proposing, for example, certain reading activities.

Also in terms of analysis of shared reading strategies, this classification included deep analysis activities as well as apparent structure analysis activities. The analysis of the apparent structure “part of the language accessible to the brain through the ears and eyes” (SMITH, 1989, p. 42) is composed of linguistic analysis activities that aim, for example, to identify syllables, words, and rhymes through the reading. In the training notebook for year 1, unit 3, in the Sharing section, there is a typical example in which the analysis of the apparent structure is explored with a story, an activity conducted and reported by teacher Suzani dos Santos Rodrigues:

In the first moment, we read to the class a poster with the same speech and illustration as in the book. We highlight the word TATU. We asked the class if anyone knew what a TATU (armadillo) was. Most said they knew:

- Yes, Auntie, I've seen it on television, replied Kaillan, all excited.

“Yes, miss, but I've never seen a real one,” Arthur said.

I asked if anyone knew where the word “TATU” was written and 50% of the class got it right, pointing with their finger at the word on the poster. Then, I asked what these words had in common: “COCHICHA and ESPICHA” and “ESCUTA and ENCUTA”. One of them replied thoughtfully:

- “THE CHA??” The “CHA” in “COCHICHA” is the same as in “ESPICHA”. See, miss: COCHI-CHA, ES-PI-CHA (speaking the last syllable of the two words louder).

- Very good! I replied, smiling. And “ESCUTA and ENCUTA”? I asked.

Many of them repeated the syllables, some softly and others louder:

- ES-CU-TA, EN-CUR-TA. I already know miss, I already know miss, the “TA”.

“That's right, the final sound,” I replied.

I asked if they had other words with that final sound that was not in the text. Taina said:

- ENXUTA, CHUTA.

Through the poster, I asked:

- What about TU and TATU?

All in chorus, laughing and trying to answer first, said:

- TU, miss, TU... TU miss, TU... (BRASIL, 2012c, p. 29-30).

On the other hand, deep structure analysis activities are those that privilege the extraction of meanings present in a text. The activity most performed during the act of reading involves questions asked by the teacher to the students for them to expose their interpretation of what they are reading. Questions seek to help children to establish predictions and verify them to exercise control of textual comprehension. The second most proposed activity, on the other hand, requires children to be able to evaluate and explain their understanding of the ideas brought by the text, which involves activities of locating, selecting, grouping, and sequencing information.

These types of activities classified as belonging to shared reading, which focus on exploring the meanings of the text, are often mediated by questions set by the teacher, as it is usually, she guides the dialogue with the children and defines the course or focus of the interpretive approach. We can observe an example of this movement involving analysis activities of the deep structure of a text in the practice of teacher Rielda Karyna Albuquerque, brought in a report from the notebook of year 2, unit 5:

The teacher started the second moment by resuming the reading of the book “Many Ways to Live”. She questioned the students about what had been seen in the book and recorded what they said on the board: Teacher - What is the book talking about? Children - The many ways to live. Q - In what ways does the book speak? Children - Housing (igloo, hollow), types of weddings, clothes, different ways of playing, and toys (seesaw, hopscotch, doll, games, wooden doll); Q - These toys, whose story do they tell? Who are these rag dolls made by? Children - Indians. Q - In your opinion, can these ways of living (houses, clothes, eating habits, and toys) tell the story of a person? C - Yes. Q - Why? (DUBEUX; CARVALHO; TEIXEIRA, 2012, p. 15).

In addition to the teachers using questions to conduct shared reading activities, they are used in activities aimed at extracting the general theme and the main ideas of a text to mobilize children to explain their perceptions, which can later be systematized in tables or posters.

Among the reports brought by the formative notebooks, some of them show how the reader's interaction with the text through the identification of meanings and the development of textual comprehension are explored with children in the classroom. To present and discuss this aspect, a text from the notebook of year 1, unit 2, entitled “The school and classroom routines: references for the organization of the work of the literacy teacher”, prepared by Andréa Tereza Brito Ferreira and Eliana Borges Correia de Albuquerque (2012). The text approaches the different conceptions about the process of planning and organization of the pedagogical routines in the work with reading and writing. Initially, the authors talk about the conception of the organization of pedagogical work before the emergence of constructivist ideas. Then, they report the impact that misinterpretations of constructivist ideas brought to the organization of pedagogical work. Finally, they bring a planning proposal in which the practice favors the development of students reading and writing skills. For this, the authors analyze the experience report of teacher Ana Cristina Bezerra da Silva, highlighting points that also illustrate aspects discussed in this article. The authors of the text, based on the report made by teacher Ana Cristina, refer that “the establishment of a routine in the daily life of the classroom favors the interaction of students, especially with objects of knowledge” (FERREIRA; ALBUQUERQUE, 2012, p. 21), which demonstrates the presence of an interactive conception in the more general teaching-learning processes.

Regarding the theme under discussion, the conception of reading as reader-text interaction is presented more transparently. In their analysis of Professor Ana's report, the authors point out that “every day students are led to reflect on the smaller units of words through activities that involve reading poems or other textual genres” (FERREIRA; ALBUQUERQUE, 2012, p. 27). This approach highlights the ascending and descending model happening simultaneously through students' interaction with texts and, at the same time, analysis of the smaller units of the language, which helps in the process of graphophonemic decoding.

The authors also discuss another excerpt from teacher Ana Cristina's report: “[...] I develop, for example, the reading of literature books daily in class at the beginning of class. [...] At other times, I propose reading the texts worked on and exposed in the classroom [...]” (FERREIRA; ALBUQUERQUE, 2012, p. 22). Concerning this record, the authors draw attention to the reading practices as permanent activities in the process of planning and organizing the pedagogical work of Professor Ana Cristina, which is in line with Smith's perspective (1989), who values work exhaustive with reading practices for the development of textual comprehension.

The reflections that Ferreira and Albuquerque make about the practice of teacher Ana Cristina show the presence of two important points explored throughout this article: the reader-text interaction in reading activities and the systematic work focused on textual comprehension. In addition, in the practice reported by Professor Ana Cristina, the three learning rights discussed above are worked on, since, when asking questions preceding the reading, the activation of prior knowledge is working; when proposing the reading of texts worked in the classroom, textual interpretation is being worked on; and, together, these two actions generate new knowledge for students through reading.

By bringing reports in which they expose activities aimed at activating prior knowledge, the authors of the texts in the formative notebooks demonstrate that this knowledge is important for textual understanding, which decentralizes the understanding of decoding as a central activity of the act of reading. Likewise, by bringing types of shared reading activities, the texts in the notebooks show that only activating prior knowledge will not be enough to extract meanings from the text, which requires exploring the different elements that make up the text (letters, words, meanings, among others). For this, it is necessary to propose activities that help the child to think about what he reads, which may involve conducting exercises in which he/she analyzes, makes inferences, establishes relationships, and systematizes ideas and information.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The analysis of the texts in the PNAIC formative notebooks shows that there are several theoretical and practical elements aligned with the interactive perspective of reading. This alignment could be observed both in texts that present theoretical aspects about reading and in experience reports that dealt with reading practices conducted with children. However, the foundational elements were not always explicitly indicated, especially in the reports of experiences that deal with reading practices conducted in the literacy cycle.

As exposed and discussed, the attribution of meaning is related to the reader-text interaction and, for this process to take place, the reader needs to interact with the text by activating and exposing their prior knowledge. This process is expanded through activities aimed at extracting meanings from the text. In these activities, the reader is encouraged to relate his/her previous knowledge with the messages expressed in the written material and, due to this interaction, new knowledge is elaborated.

Based on the analyses, it is possible to state that the PNAIC notebooks present reading as an interaction between the reader and the text through the promotion and development of cognitive strategies, based on Solé's studies (1998). Cruz and Martiniak (2018) also observed this dimension in research that involved the analysis of theses and dissertations that had as their object of study the theme of reading within the scope of the notebooks and training practices of the PNAIC.

From the formative point of view, we observed that the texts in the formative notebooks prioritize reports of experiences in which good reading orientation practices are found. We can hypothesize that such choices obviously intend to present models that are suitable for reading studies both in conceptual and didactic terms, offering qualified resources and examples of reading practices so that literacy teachers can plan their pedagogical practice.

However, from the analysis of the texts and reports that make up the PNAIC formative notebooks, it is necessary to raise some questions about the teacher training process, especially in the centrality occupied by experience reports - placed as examples -, as these brought few records about moments of activation of prior knowledge or closure of ideas worked on in the text, which may have limited the reflection of program participants on aspects that would make them think theoretically about the complexity of systematic reading teaching.

In terms of criticism, it is necessary to highlight typical circumscriptions of material produced for instructional or training processes. In the case of exploring the reading theme in the training notebooks, we observed an imbalance between the theoretical and practical (didactic) dimensions, and even between the practical dimensions, as demonstrated in the classification of reports based on reading strategies. In the analyzed texts and reports, the didactic elements predominate over the conceptual ones that, in general, are implicit. In several discursive situations, only the informed reader could name the underlying theoretical bases, which underlie the proposed didactic referrals.

Finally, we highlight the importance of investigating and discussing conceptions and theoretical and methodological assumptions that support reading and its teaching in notebooks and materials used in continuing education programs for teachers. What is advocated is that professionals in the training process can have access to theoretical and didactic assumptions that help them to analyze their practices and expand their capacity for planning, action, and pedagogical reflection in an increasingly autonomous and adequate way to the needs of the students. For successful literacy, as defended by Magda Soares (2018, p. 334), it needs to be built by literacy teachers who, “[...] understanding the cognitive and linguistic processes of the literacy process, and based on they develop activities that stimulate and guide the child's learning, identify and interpret difficulties in which they will be able to intervene appropriately [...]”. In this direction, literacy processes and teacher training need to consider and discuss practices conducted, seeking to highlight and problematize the theories that support them, whether implicitly or explicitly, to help teachers to think and carry out, with intellectual autonomy, the pedagogical work.

Preprint

DOI: https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/preprint/view/3398

REFERÊNCIAS

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• 1
  The Pedagogical Thinking and Teacher Professional Development project is coordinated by the first author and developed within the scope of the GEALE Research Group. It is funded by CAPES and CNPq.

• The translation of this article into English was funded by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES/Brasil.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 May 2023
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  07 Apr 2021
• Accepted
  17 Aug 2022