<![CDATA[General Background: Reading comprehension serves as a fundamental literacy skill essential for knowledge acquisition and overall academic success in early education. Specific Background: Fourth-grade learners frequently struggle to identify main ideas, differentiate factual from fictional information, and grasp implicit meanings within narrative texts. Knowledge Gap: While interactive models are widely recognized, the systematic integration of card-pairing strategies specifically grounded in Tarigan’s literary reading theory remains underexplored for primary education. Aims: This research investigates the application of Tarigan-based collaborative card-pairing on the narrative text mastery of fourth-grade students at SDN Krembung 1. Results: Utilizing a quantitative one-group pretest-posttest design with 20 participants, the statistical analysis demonstrated a significant mean score progression from an initial 55.00 to 84.75, supported by a paired sample t-test significance value of 0.000. Novelty: The intervention uniquely merges active pairing mechanics with structured fiction analysis, prompting learners to collaboratively evaluate characters, plots, and implicit narrative messages. Implications: Incorporating this student-centered approach provides educators with a practical framework to transform passive text deciphering into a dynamic, peer-driven process that solidifies deeper literary analysis. Highlights: Active card-pairing exercises significantly raise narrative text evaluation scores among young learners. Integrating Tarigan’s literary theory bridges the gap between literal decoding and implicit meaning identification. Interactive instructional frameworks transform passive literary deciphering into dynamic peer-driven knowledge construction. Keywords: Literacy Development, , Tarigan Theory, Student Centered Learning, Educational Interventions]]>
