Reading practices and writing performance high school students

Abstract

The objective of this research is to verify the relationship between the performance, sociodemographic variables and reading practices of the Portuguese language of both gendersregularly enrolled in the evening shift of the Sao Paulo State public schools. A semistructured questionnaire was organized in two fields: sociodemographic characterization and reading practices. Two focus group sessions were also held and the scores awarded to each participant in the Portuguese language course in 2014 and 2015 were collected. The quantitative data was analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation). The analysis of the textual data was made by the Descending Hierarchical Classification. The results indicated low performance (mean of 5.83) and low reading frequency (69%) in the Portuguese language subject. In addition, there was a better performance of female students, and of high school senior students. The interviewees declared an increase in the daily frequency of reading and greater difficulty in understanding this same stage of high school. In relation to the literary genre, they declared to prefer adventure and fiction. According to the interviewees, the motivation for reading comes first from the teachers, followed by the family, and they point out that the main reason for the lack of interest in reading in school is the low autonomythey have in choosing the texts and the methodology used by teachers in classes.We conclude by the need for studies in different contexts as a way to deepen the understanding of the relationship between reading and performance in the Portuguese language.

Keywords

• leitura
• ensino médio
• língua portuguesa