Portuguese Year 4: A reading project: reading a whole book
Portuguese, Year 4 (Portugal): Plan how to read a whole book, understand it, ask questions and find out why the author wrote it.
A plan for a whole book
Reading integrally means reading a work from beginning to end: a story, a collection of poems or a play. A reading project is a plan for it. You choose the book, guess the theme, read in parts and keep understanding (who, where, what happens). You ask questions of the text and of the author: why? And you look for why the author wrote the book, for example in the author's note or in an interview.
Not losing the thread
Reading a whole book is different from reading a short text: you must not lose the thread over several days. A plan helps, because you take one step at a time. Asking questions makes you read carefully and think beyond what is written. And knowing why the author wrote (to tell a memory, to amuse, to teach…) makes you see the book as a conversation with a person.
A project in five steps
An imagined book with 60 pages. Step 1: I look at the cover, the title and the back cover and guess the theme. Step 2: 60 pages in 12 days is 5 pages a day. Step 3: at the end of each chapter, I write in one line who, where and what happened. Step 4: I ask two questions: «Porque é que a Rita mentiu?» (Why did Rita lie?) and «O que aconteceria se ela dissesse a verdade?» (What would happen if she told the truth?). Step 5: I read the author's note: if it says why the author wrote, I use it; if not, I write «talvez tenha escrito porque…» (maybe he wrote because…).
Reading fast just to finish
The mistake is to read in a hurry just to reach the end: you finish the book and do not know what you read. Another is to skip pages or chapters: you lose the thread. If you are lost, go back and sum up what you have read. And be careful with the author's reason: do not invent it as if it were certain. You only know what the author says; the rest is your idea, and you should say «talvez» (maybe).
Holidays, diaries and libraries
You use a reading project when you pick a book in the school library and read it during the holidays, when you keep a reading diary, when you read a story in chapters with your family or when you prepare a presentation of the book for your class. You also do it when you read the books of a series or of an author you like.
Test what you learned
What does «reading a book integrally» mean?
- a) Reading it from beginning to end
- b) Reading only the parts you like
- c) Reading it as fast as possible
Correct answer: a) Reading it from beginning to end — Yes: integrally means the whole work, in order, not only pieces of it.
You have 45 pages to read in 9 days, the same number of pages each day. How many pages a day?
- a) 9 pages
- b) 36 pages
- c) 5 pages
Correct answer: c) 5 pages — Yes: 45 ÷ 9 = 5, and 5 pages × 9 days = 45 pages.
Halfway through the book, Rui loses the thread of the story. What is best to do?
- a) Keep going without understanding, to finish sooner
- b) Go back, re-read the last chapter and sum it up in one line
- c) Skip to the last page to see the end
Correct answer: b) Go back, re-read the last chapter and sum it up in one line — Yes: going back and summing up brings the thread back before you carry on.
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