Investigation of Reading Skill Development of Primary School Students in the Covid 19 Process

Abstract In this study, it was investigated how the reading skills of students who were in the 3rd grade of primary school when the Covid-19 pandemic started (March 2020) were affected at the end of the fourth grade (June 2021) due to the school closure during the pandemic. The study employed the longitudinal survey model. Ten teachers and 18 primary school students participated in the study. In the study, the Informal Reading Inventory and interview questions were used as data collection tools. The data of the study were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and content analysis. According to the findings obtained from the analyses, the percentage of students’ word recognition increased partially, the reading speed did not increase sufficiently considering their age and grade level, the number of correct words they read was negatively affected during the pandemic, and the reading prosody remained stable and did not show a significant difference. These results show that students’ reading skills were negatively affected by the pandemic. In addition, it was concluded in the study that more reading time should be given to students in order to improve their fluent reading and reading comprehension skills, and that verbal/silent reading activities should be done more frequently. It is thought that the study will contribute to the field in terms of improving students’ reading skills during the pandemic and will provide original examples for future research.