O letramento literário em uma turma do quarto ano do ensino fundamental

Abstract

The object of this research was the formation of the literature reader in a fourth grade class in Elementary School. The study was guided by four main objectives: seeking understanding of the collective construction of literary literacy practices; identifying the reading situations of literary texts in the classroom; analyzing those situations according to the literary texts media; understanding the meanings of literary literacy in the school context. The research corpus comprises the literary literacy events which took place in the fourth grade class in Elementary School. In order to investigate how the literary readers formation happens, I proposed aresearch with ethnographic approach (CASTANHEIRA, 2004; GREEN; DIXON; ZAHARLICK, 2005). The description and the analysis of literary literacy events, as well as their contrast, made the behavior patterns, the participation rules, the demands and the subjects duties to show. These aspects were expressed through the characteristics of the activities of reading literary texts, grouped into the following categories: ways of reading; forms of access to literature; language capabilities deployed in the after-reading proposed activities; activities for the study of the literary genre characteristics and their media; oral or written production proposals based on the reading; activities which were not related to theliterary literacy. Access to literary books was guaranteed and the desire to read them was awoken when the children met the authors and illustrators, visualized the graphic designs, reflected on the importance of the information brought in paratexts, as well as when they understood how the writing process and book publishing function, wishing to be literature writers and finally reflecting upon the criteria for choosing literary books. It could be argued that the types of media for literary texts led to different practices concerning the literary reading: teaching practices and literary practices. The literary text, read out of its original medium, used to determine practices which were more pedagogical, designed almostexclusively to teach Portuguese and to instill attitudes and school behaviors in the students. Using original books as media most favored literary reading practices, or those more customary to the literary world which happen outside the school walls. Accordingly, we conclude that the education for literature follows a continuum: in the fourth grade class inElementary School different types and levels of literary literacy were (re)constructed depending not only on the participants needs and demands, but also on their cultural, social and educational context.