Reading in covid-19 pandemic times: a snapshot of reading fluency of Portuguese elementary school students

The development of reading skills foresees fluency in reading. Prior research has shown that during periods of absence from school, students are prone to showing setbacks in their learning. However, the literature presents mixed findings, possibly explained by the families’ socioeconomic statuses. The present study aims to analyze fluctuations in learning acquisition, specifically in reading fluency, during the pandemic, when all students were absent from school for several months. Data were collected in two waves. The present study combines quantitative and qualitative data with an explanatory sequential approach. Participants were 52 3rd-graders and their teachers. The latter were enrolled in two-member check sessions. Statistically significant differences in speed (lower than expected) and prosody (higher than expected) were found between the two sessions. Considering ASE support (financial support for low-income families from the Portuguese government), data indicate that students benefiting from this support showed performances in accuracy and speed below the expected. Prosody scores were above the expected at both sessions. Findings may provide relevant insights to further understand fluctuations in students’ reading fluency during long periods of absence from school; for example, data could help prevent learning setbacks due to summer vacations.This study was partially conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/01662/2020). Additionally, this research was partly financed by the Câmara Municipal de Valongo as part of the project “Learning2learn: Self-regulatory promotion intervention program” (212010752—Projeto MAISVAL). This work was alsoco-funded by Gulbenkian Academies for Knowledge, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Daniela Rosendo was supported by Ph.D. fellowships from FCT (grants number 2020.10221.BD). Tânia Moreira was supported by a post-doc contract from FCT supported project (reference PTDC/PSI-GER/6847/2020)