Integrating Reading Literacy and Literary Analysis: A Competency-Based Approach to Grade 7 Education

Abstract

This article examines a methodological approach to teaching text analysis in Grade 7 literature lessons through tasks informed by the reading-literacy framework of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The approach connects literary interpretation with purposeful reading processes: locating information, understanding and integrating ideas, interpreting implicit meaning, evaluating content and form, supporting claims with textual evidence, and reflecting on one’s own reading. The article draws on a dissertation study involving 327 Grade 7 learners from five general secondary schools in Jizzakh, Syrdarya and Bukhara regions of Uzbekistan. It outlines a staged teaching algorithm—understand, analyse, interpret, substantiate, evaluate and reflect—and explains how contextual questions, short and extended responses, comparison tasks and evidence-based rubrics can be integrated without reducing literature to test preparation. The dissertation reports a final mean score of 4.147 for the experimental group (n=177) and 3.327 for the control group (n=150). These figures indicate a higher final average in the experimental group; however, the interpretation of effectiveness should remain tied to the study’s assessment design and full statistical analysis. The proposed approach may help teachers make students’ reasoning visible and support the gradual development of independent, evidence-based literary reading.