The study describes educators´ perceptions of reading comprehension for students with intellectual disabilities and neuropsychiatric disabilities in compulsory special school grades 7–9 for students who read the subject Swedish. The study also sheds light on the strategies educators´ use to make texts comprehensible and provide support in reading comprehension. Based on the educators´ descriptions, the opportunities and challenges the educators face are highlighted.    The study is based on eight qualitative semi-structured interviews with educators active in upper secondary school. All informants teach the subject Swedish. The theoretical framework for the study consists of the socio-cultural perspective and a cognitive science perspective. The result is analyzed on the basis of concepts taken from the two theoretical starting points.   Based on the educators' descriptions, it appears that reading comprehension teaching takes place as a group activity, couple activity but also as an individual work. The educators attach great importance to getting the students involved in conversations to guide the students through the text. In teaching, the educators work to create a background knowledge of the text and to explain words and concepts. The strategies described are based on the educators modeling and thinking aloud about how the student can find answers in a text and make inferences. A large part of the teaching is based on finding texts and working methods that motivate and make the text comprehensible. In their work, the educators use creative methods with theatrical working methods and a personal commitment to get students' attention and create motivation. An important basis is to get to know the student, starting from a survey of the student's level and then find adapted material. The results also show that a large part of the student group has difficulty with decoding and language / listening comprehension, which are important factors for reading comprehension.   The study shows that reading comprehension is not only a cognitive ability, but motivation and how one sees oneself as a reader is of crucial importance.   The study's special pedagogical relevance shows that educators need to be active in text conversations and strategies to engage students in reading comprehension teaching.

Thesis advisor: David Scanlon / Improving reading comprehension for middle school students with disabilities and others who struggle with reading, referred to here as striving readers, is challenging. Formal reading instruction typically shifts from skills acquisition to application in middle and high school, providing inadequate support in the skills for comprehension (Chall, 1983; Klingner et al., 2007). Further, both students with disabilities and striving readers can have negative school experiences which impact their reader identities and cause them to become disengaged from learning. It is increasingly challenging for secondary teachers to provide interventions which explicitly teach and reinforce critical comprehension skills while sustaining student engagement. An experimental screenplay intervention designed by the researcher to increase visualization and promote reading comprehension was used. The intervention was based on research by Snyder (2005) identifying elements of a screenplay, similar to story grammar. Movies were used first as a novel way to engage learners; visual supports were gradually reduced as students transferred visualizing skills to texts of increasing complexity. The readers used plot diagrams to organize the elements graphically in support of their comprehension. Seven middle school students with high incidence disabilities and striving readers learned to identify seven elements of a screenplay in a 3-week online researcher-developed intervention. A mixed-methods case study design was used to identify reading-related outcomes and students’ experiences (attitudes and behaviors) of reading as they learned the intervention. Data were collected for reading comprehension, recognition of screenplay elements, and visualization skills. Reading behaviors, attitudes, identities, and motivation for reading were also assessed. Findings revealed whole-class mean score gains in passage and sentence level comprehension, pre-to-post. Students also learned the screenplay elements and were proficient in finding examples within a text. Further, the students reported greater details at post-test when reporting their visualizations and when describing elements. Case studies of three students representing three reading proficiency levels upon entrance to the study revealed distinct experiences for each. Implications for reading instruction are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The English language surrounds young children from an early age, and as they growolder, it will continue to be an important part of their lives, both inside and outside ofschool. The ability to read English is therefore essential to participate in a democraticsociety. Previous research suggests that reading stories from an early age can supportyoung learners in acquiring new language. Therefore, this study aims to investigate howteachers select and use children’s literature in their EFL teaching for years 1-3. SixSwedish primary school EFL teachers have participated in this qualitative study. Theempirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The results show thatteachers express a positive attitude towards using children’s literature in their teachingand suggest several important factors when choosing and using it. However, the resultsalso indicate that teachers face challenges when implementing the materials, due tofactors such as time constraints. Despite the time constraints, several teachers usechildren’s literature because of the benefits, such as offering authentic language thatpupils can use in their daily life, both inside and outside of school.

The purpose of the current study was to examine how well the Narrative Language Measure (NLM) of Listening predicts the NLM Reading measure and the extent to which brief narrative-based listening and reading comprehension assessments administered to first, second, and third grade students demonstrate symmetry and equity. A total of 1039 first graders, 395 second graders, and 501 third graders participated in this study. The students were administered the NLM Listening and NLM Reading, and their scores were examined to address the research questions. Students with incomplete data sets and students who performed 1.5 standard deviations (7th percentile based on the local dataset norms) below the mean within their respective grade using local norms on a either the first or second winter benchmark reading fluency measure were removed from the participant pool. A correlation and regression analysis indicated that the NLM Listening was weakly predictive of NLM Reading. The means and standard deviations of listening comprehension and reading comprehension were compared, with the expectation that the means from both tasks would not be significantly different. This was examined using repeated measures ANOVA. Results indicated that for the first, second, and third-grade students, while removing those who scored at or below the 7th percentile, there was a statistically significant difference between the means for both the NLM Listening Benchmark 1 and NLM Reading Benchmark 1, as well as the NLM Listening Benchmark 2 and NLM Reading Benchmark 2. An equipercentile analysis determined the first-grade students scored higher in the listening comprehension than reading, and the second and third-grade students scored higher in the reading comprehension. While the data from this study indicate that the NLM Listening is not an adequate proxy for the NLM Reading measure, this study is another step in laying a foundation that a narrative-based assessment with carefully constructed parallel forms that reflect written academic language has the potential to produce scores in listening and reading comprehension that are symmetrical and equitable, in order to justify the use of one measure as proxy for the other.

This study investigates the effectiveness of children’s literature on English reading comprehension in an L2 classroom context. Children’s literature has a major part in teaching L1 in Swedish primary schools, and although it is a trustworthy method in developing reading comprehension skills, it is not used to any great extent in the English education. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine to what extent reading comprehension is fostered by using children’s literature from a second language perspective. Previous experimental research has, however, shown positive results on children’s literature as a means for teaching L2 reading comprehension. In this research synthesis, we will critically analyse, compare and discuss published research based on empirical data to provide and present the reign believes in children’s literature on L2 reading comprehension enhancement. Based on the findings presented in this paper there is a correspondence between the usage of children's literature and positive results in L2 reading comprehension development. However, solely reading children’s literature might not be the most efficient method in enhancing L2 reading comprehension. Based on the findings presented in this study listening to the text whilst reading can to a greater extent improve on listening comprehension results, which can be connected to the theory of Dual Coding (Paivio, 1986). Furthermore, no research on this area has been done in a Swedish context, which indicates that further research needs to be done in order for the results to be more applicable to our future profession.

This study investigates the effectiveness of different methods and strategies to aid reading for pupils affected by ADHD. According to recent studies, 1-2 pupils are affected by ADHD in the classrooms (Lenard, Lorch, Milich & Hagans, 2008). Furthermore, these pupils are at a higher risk of falling behind their peers (Zentall,1993). Different factors contribute to these results, but one factor may be that the methods and strategies used for ADHD pupils are not sufficient. Furthermore, they might not even be used correctly or used at all. Additionally, there are precise results that some methods show a positive outcome, while others are lacking in the result area. We will, therefore, explore what methods are more considerable and which ones are worse and how the notable the results are. We also investigate the viability of these methods correlation to our age group and how viable in the classroom.

Para la formación del traductor profesional es necesario desarrollar distintas competencias, una de las más importantes es la competencia lingüística. Sin embargo, durante los últimos años, el desarrollo de esta competencia se ha visto afectada debido a la creencia generalizada de que los estudiantes de traducción tienen un dominio completo de su segunda lengua. Ligado a la competencia lingüística, se encuentra el desarrollo de las destrezas de comprensión de lectura y expresión escrita, ambas fundamentales para el buen desempeño de los estudiantes en los cursos de traducción. Por ello, la presente investigación se centra en describir las estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas por los docentes de inglés para el desarrollo de la comprensión de lectura y la expresión escrita del programa de traducción e interpretación de la UPC. Para lograr esto, se propone analizar los documentos usados para la enseñanza de los cursos de inglés, observar las clases y realizar entrevistas en los dos últimos niveles de enseñanza de inglés (Inglés TI4 e Inglés TI5) con la finalidad de lograr los objetivos planteados. / In the professional translation training it is necessary to develop different competences, one of the most important is the linguistic competence. However, in recent years, the development of this competence has been affected due to the widespread belief that translation students have a comprehensive knowledge of the second language. Furthermore, the development of reading comprehension and writing skills is closely linked to the linguistic competence, and both are essential for students’ academic performance in translation courses. Therefore, this investigation focuses on describing the teaching strategies applied by English teachers in order to develop reading comprehension and writing skills in the translation and interpreting English program at UPC. To achieve this, we proposed to analyze the documents used for teaching English courses, observe classes, and conduct interviews in the last two levels of English teaching (Ingles TI4 and Ingles TI5). / Trabajo de investigación

Large numbers of children in the United States are not functioning at adequate levels of literacy. Students who have weak reading proficiency skills are identified as at-risk; failure to acquire competency early in their schooling adversely affects performance in all academic fields and limits their potential for achievement in life. There is an extensive knowledge base about the skills and strategies children must learn in order to read well. Effective fluency and comprehension strategies need to be taught to help students become powerful, active readers who are in control of their learning. This study evaluated a structured classroom model for delivery of small group reading instruction called the Intermediate Extended Literacy Routine (IELR). The IELR is a model for delivery of explicit reading instruction that incorporates fluency instruction with the intent to provide a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. This study examined the effects of the IELR on the achievement of third graders designated as struggling readers. A repeated single subject experimental design was used. Thirteen students in two classrooms at the same west-central Florida school were given the IELR 4 days a week for 8 weeks. The IELR incorporated explicit strategy instruction and was delivered in the form of focused mini-lessons that targeted specific reading strategies the researcher identified as lacking in the subjects. Assessments of performance were made with timed readings, running records, narrative retellings, and the school district's reading comprehension common assessment tool. Results are presented in tabular and graphic form for analysis. The IELR had a positive effect on reading rate (measured in words read per minute), reading accuracy and increased instructional level assessments: students who received the IELR maintained or increased their instructional level on running record assessments and showed evidence of increased reading rate on timed readings. Reading comprehension, measured by narrative retellings, did not improve for most students over the course of the study. Recommendations for future research include the use of a control group; oral (rather than written) retelling measures to assess comprehension, and a longer duration of IELR application to gauge its effectiveness.

Historically, students with intellectual disabilities (ID) have low reading comprehension skills that can impede their overall academic success. There is a gap in practice regarding the identification and effective use of evidence-based reading comprehension instructional strategies for students with ID. Guided by Piaget's and Vygotsky's constructivist theories, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a metacognitive reading strategy on the emerging reading comprehension (ERC) skills of kindergarten students with ID. A single-participant, multiple baseline design with graphical visual analysis was used across 4 kindergarten students with ID to illustrate the influence of the reading intervention. All 4 kindergarten students showed increases in their ERC skills after the completion of the intervention. An effect-size statistic was calculated to measure the improvement in percentage rate of correct responses between each participant's baseline and intervention phase. The effect-size results indicated a 60% to 80% improvement rate difference. Therefore, for these kindergartners, the metacognitive reading strategy significantly increased the ERC skills of the participants. The implications for social change include providing teachers with effective metacognitive instructional strategies for ERC skills and for improving ERC skills among students with ID, thus, allowing ID students greater opportunity to benefit from curriculum and instruction over time.

This study evaluated how measures of oral reading fluency (ORF) and silent reading fluency (SRF) compare as predictors of reading comprehension and how these predictors vary as a function of proficiency level for fourth- and fifth-grade students. Additionally, the study sought to examine the relationship between measures of oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, reading comprehension, and the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) with these students. Participants were 175 fourth- and fifth-grade students from two randomly selected schools in Colorado. A correlational predictive design was used. Results indicated that measures of ORF and SRF were predictors of reading comprehension and that the relationship of measures of ORF and SRF with comprehension changes over time. Regression analysis results indicated that 45.0% of the variance in reading comprehension was accounted for by the ORF measure for the sample population, as compared to 53.0% of the variance accounted for by SRF measures. Thus, measures of SRF might be a better predictor for maturing readers to determine reading proficiency, monitor student progress, and guide instructional practices. A structural equation model (SEM) analyzed the relationship of the measure of SRF with reading comprehension as moderated by proficiency level. Analysis for the SRF measure by reading proficiency was conducted at the whole group level. The model accounted for 59.0% of the moderation. Results indicated that reading proficiency level and the SRF measure were both associated with reading comprehension. Reading proficiency level is a significant moderator of the relationship between measures of reading comprehension and SRF. A SEM mediation model was used to analyze the relationship of measures of ORF, SRF, reading comprehension, and TCAP. The direct effects of the ORF and SRF measures on TCAP were both predictive with 66.0% of the variance accounted for with SRF measure and 66.5% of the variance accounted for with ORF measure. Results indicated that as grade level increases, the relationship between measures of ORF, SRF, and reading comprehension changes. Additionally, SRF measures can be a viable alternative to ORF measures for upper elementary students as a predictor of reading comprehension and on the TCAP high-stake assessment.