The aim of the study is to examine which reading comprehension strategies by the teaching material "A Reading Class" a teacher in second grade tutors about and how the teacher tutors, and which reading comprehension strategies pupils in second grade state that they use when they read on their own, and in what whey they use those reading comprehension strategies. Therefore this study proceeds from the following questions: Which reading comprehension strategies does the teacher tutor about and how does the teacher tutor about those strategies? Which reading comprehension strategies do the pupils state that they are using when they are reading on their own? How do the pupils use the reading comprehension strategies when they read on their own, according to themselves? The investigation is based on three observations of the tutoring about reading comprehension strategies and six interviews with a total of eleven pupils. The theoretical basis is composed of theories about the sociocultural perspective, scaffolding, zone of proximal development and reciprocal teaching. The result showed that the teacher tutored about the reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. She encouraged the pupils to create inner images and to make text connections (text-to-self, text- to-text, text-to-world). She tutored about the strategies by the model "think aloud". The pupils seem to use the strategies predicting and clarifying most frequently when they are reading on their own but also creating inner images. For example, they use the strategy predicting when they are choosing books to read and the strategy clarifying when they don’t understand words while they are reading. A lot of the pupils seem to have trouble explaining how to use the strategy summarizing, and also seem to find it hard to summarize after reading, but skillful readers seem to accomplish that better than less skillful readers. The pupils seem to use the reading comprehension strategies in greater occurrence when they are reading on their own than they are aware of.

This is an Action Research. The purpose is to understand that if there is any change within the student¡¦s reading comprehension and how the condition of using the Reading comprehension strategy is by accepting the methods of Reciprocal Teaching. This research does the survey on the class of 32 students in one elementary school in Kaohsiung City through the instructions of Reciprocal Teaching on Reading comprehension strategy within 20 weeks. Before teaching, the researcher used ¡§ Reading Comprehension Screening Test ¡¨, ¡¨ Chinese Reading Comprehension test for Elementary school students ¡¨ and ¡§ Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale for Senior Students of Elementary School ¡¨ to confirm the students¡¦ performance on reading comprehension. After teaching for 20 weeks, the researcher used two copies of tests designed by the teacher herself and ¡§Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale for Senior Students of Elementary School¡¨ to understand the students¡¦ different performances after using the reading comprehension strategy. The conclusion is as below. First, after accepting the Reciprocal Teaching instruction, the most significant influence is inferential comprehension and text base comprehension. The ability of questioning is less effective. The effect of summarization and the literal comprehension are much weaker. Second, after accepting the Reciprocal Teaching instruction, the students use the variety of prediction strategies most frequently. The second is the usage of clarification. The last is the application of the summarization and questioning strategies.

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·   Denna undersökning behandlar lärares inställning till och användning av läsförståelsestrategier i undervisningen. För att elever ska utveckla sin läsförmåga räcker det inte att endast läsa mycket. Eleverna behöver också en explicit undervisning i lässtrategier. Utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv  är syftet att undersöka lärares inställning till olika typer av läsförståelsestrategier och deras mål med användningen av dessa i undervisningen för förskoleklass till årskurs 3.   För att besvara undersökningens syfte används följande frågeställningar:      · Vilka olika typer av läsförståelsestrategier används av tillfrågade lärarna och i vilket syfte?       ·   Vad har lärarna sett i praktiken att läsförståelsestrategier kan bidra med för att utveckla elevers läsförståelse?        · Vilken roll anser de tillfrågade lärarna att de har under textsamtal och i relation till undervisning av läsförståelsestrategier?           Material för undersökningen består av kvalitativa intervjuer av nio lärare verksamma i förskoleklass till årskurs 3. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade lärarna ser läsförståelsestrategier dels som redskap för läraren för att kunna ge eleverna en explicit undervisning i läsförståelse och dels som verktyg till eleverna för att de genom användning av strategierna ska kunna skapa en förståelse av texten på flera olika plan. / This study deals with teachers' attitude to reading comprehension strategies and its use in teaching. It is not enough to read a lot for students to develop their reading skills. Students also need explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies. From a social- constructivist perspective, the aim is to explore teachers' attitudes to different types of reading comprehension strategies and their goal of using these in teaching for preschool to grade 3. In order to answer the aim of this study following questions is being used:   What kinds of reading comprehension strategies do the surveyed teachers use and for what purpose?   What have teachers seen in practice that reading comprehension strategies can contribute with in order to develop students reading comprehension?   What role considers the surveyed teachers that they have during text talks and in relation to the teaching of reading comprehension strategies?   Materials for the study consists of qualitative interviews with nine teachers working in preschool up to third grade. The results show that the interviewed teachers see reading comprehension strategies as implements for the teacher to be able to give students an explicit instruction in reading comprehension and as tools for the students to be able to create an understanding of text on several different levels.

The purpose of this intervention study was to test the use of a reading comprehension strategy with students who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) in monitoring and resolving problems with comprehension. The strategy, named Comprehension Check and Repair (CC&R), was designed for D/HH students who struggle with comprehension, despite at least average grade level fluency skills. Sufficient research exists in mainstream reading instruction literature to suggest that instruction in metacognitive strategies might positively influence reading comprehension for D/HH students. The CC&R strategy incorporated the use of question-answer relationships and text connections; the instructional method incorporated the use of direct instruction, various levels of supported practice, and think-alouds. The effect of the intervention on the number of details D/HH students retold following oral reading was examined using a multiple baseline design. Frequency data were collected for behaviors that detracted from (i.e., non-strategic) and promoted (i.e., strategic) comprehension during and immediately following oral reading. Results showed (a) increases in strategic reading behavior for Students A, B, and C; (b) decreases in non-strategic reading behavior for Students A and B; and (c) increases in reading comprehension for Student A, and possibly for Student B. The study adds to the limited reading intervention research in education of D/HH students. Instruction in metacognitive strategies to increase strategy use during reading may be an effective means by which to increase reading comprehension for D/HH students. Teachers not only maintained use of the strategy with the students who participated in the study, but also introduced it to other students with whom they worked. Social validity data provided by the teachers and the students indicated high acceptability of the intervention. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

In a Title I school located in a southeastern state, 60% of 3rd grade students are reading below grade level. The state's new reading initiative ties grade promotion to 3rd grade students reading on grade level. At the study site, administrators identified audio books as a possibly helpful reading tool. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory, which holds that learners can learn new skills more readily with guided assistance, framed this study. The purpose of this quantitative, comparative design study was to explore the associations between the use of audio books and the reading levels of 3rd grade struggling readers. Research questions were used to compare the reading levels of struggling readers who use audio books with the reading levels of: (a) struggling readers reading silently, (b) at or above grade level readers who read with audio books, and (c) at or above grade level readers who read silently. Two 3rd grade classes were selected, with 25 students using audio books and 25 students reading silently, to participate in this project. Scores from the AR and from the pre- and posttest STAR assessments over a 9-week period were analyzed and compared using an independent samples t test to explore associations between the use of audio books and the comprehension and reading levels of the participants. Analysis of the results showed that the use of audiobooks was not significantly related to increased reading or comprehension levels for struggling readers. Significant improvements in reading comprehension were shown for students reading at or above grade level that read silently or used audio books. Based on the findings, a professional development project for teachers providing research-supported reading strategy instruction was developed. The findings may lead to improvements in instructional practices by encouraging the use of research-based reading strategies, which could promote positive social change by supporting greater academic success for elementary students through improved reading comprehension.

Thesis ( M.A. (English Studies) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Research shows that successful readers make use of prior knowledge. This is supported by schemata theory (Herczog & Porter, 2012; Xigo-hui, Jun & Wei-hua, 2007; Zhang 1993). In this study, the researcher intended to increase the schema of the selected sample and test the theorem. Two groups were selected as samples comprising an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group had the advantage of being exposed to a topic over a month and on the day of the test the two groups were combined and the results from the test were analysed. The outcomes showed that the experimental group out-performed the control group proving that prior knowledge increases chances of comprehension. In the initial test both groups had performed poorly. Many learners in the experimental group would have performed better if they could comprehend the English language. The students who used their schema on the experimental group did better than those who did not. / the National Research Foundation

This study set out primarily to investigate the nature of reading comprehension instruction in Saint Lucia, and to examine the explanations of teachers with regard to the factors that they perceive contribute to Grade 6 students' failure in the main idea comprehension test in the national Common Entrance Examination in Saint Lucia. Four effective Grades 5 and 6 teachers (two per grade) from two Saint Lucian primary schools participated in a total of four individual semi-structured interviews and were observed in their regularly scheduled reading comprehension lessons. A total of 27 lessons were observed and audio tape-recorded to examine the nature of reading comprehension instruction in the classrooms. From this cohort of lessons, a sample of 16 lessons was randomly selected and transcribed to determine the presence of direct instruction in comprehension strategies, and the quality of instruction that took place. This quality was measured and described in terms of the elements of the Direct Instruction Model (Pearson Dole, 1987), the nature of questioning, and time allotted to instruction. This data was also used to make comparisons between Grades 5 and 6 classes. The results show that the four teachers perceived that there are four areas of blame for students' poor performance in reading comprehension: the teacher's inability to instruct, the students' poor decoding and comprehension abilities, the inadequacy of the main idea test, and the teaching materials available for teaching comprehension. However, the main factor perceived by teachers as contributing to the students' poor performance is teachers' inability to instruct. Nonetheless, the observation of the Grades 5 and 6 effective teachers' reading comprehension lessons showed that these teachers were indeed teaching a number of comprehension strategies. They relied predominantly on the question answering strategy in all their lessons which was mainly taught in combination with other strategies. However, it was the teaching of summarization through the main idea that was the dominant strategy more explicitly taught in 7 of the 16 lessons observed, appearing more frequently in the Grade 6 classes. An assessment of the quality of the reading comprehension instruction revealed that 11 of1 6 lessons, included all the four elements of direct instruction, and were rated as 'excellent' in quality. None of the lessons had fewer than two elements identified on the model. An assessment of the types of questions asked also showed that questioning was used both for the purpose of assessment and as an instructional strategy. The timing of the lessons support the quality of instruction, as 90% of the total time observed was allotted to instruction. The greater portion of that time went to guided practice (38%) and independent practice (33%) of reading comprehension strategies. This study shows that explicit comprehension instruction of strategies is evident in the reading comprehension classes of the 4 effective Saint Lucian Grades 5 and 6 teachers. It is therefore recommended that educational officials ensure that similar practices are maintained in other Saint Lucian classes, that the reading comprehension instruction practices of a wider cross section of Saint Lucian teachers be examined, and that future research looks into other probable causes of students' failure on the main idea comprehension test.

Although scholars have long advocated the use of informational texts in the primary grades, gaps and inconsistencies in research have produced conflicting reports on how teachers used these texts in the primary curriculum, and how primary students dealt with them during instruction and on their own (e.g., Saul & Dieckman, 2005). Thus, to add to research on informational texts in the primary grades, the purpose of this study was to examine: (a) a first-grade teacher's use of science informational trade books (SITBs) in her classroom, (b) the ways students responded to her instruction, and (c) how students interacted with these texts. My study was guided by a sociocultural perspective (e.g., Bakhtin, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978), providing me a lens to examine participants during naturally occurring social practices in the classroom, mediated by language and other symbolic tools. Data were collected by means of 28 observations, 6 semi-structured interviews, 21 unstructured interviews, and 26 documents over the course of 10 weeks. Three themes generated from the data to provide insight into the teacher's and students' practices and interactions with SITBs. First, the first-grade teacher used SITBs as teaching tools during guided conversations around the text to scaffold students' understanding of specialized vocabulary, science concepts, and text features. Her instruction with SITBs included shared reading lessons, interactive read-alouds and learning activities during two literacy/science units. However, there was limited use of SITBs during the rest of her reading program, in which she demonstrated a preference for narrative. Second, students responded to instruction by participating in guided conversations around the text, in which they used prior knowledge, shared ideas, and visual representations (e.g., illustrations, diagrams, labels, and captions) to actively make meaning of the text. Third, students interacted with SITBs on their own to make sense of science, in which they demonstrated their interest in reading the texts, formed connections to science, used reading strategies, and adjusted to the text type and variations of text complexity. The findings indicate the teacher's practices with SITBs were supportive of literacy and science learning for students at various levels of reading development. However, her inexperience with informational books and her preference for narrative demonstrates a need for training to assist her in providing guided and individualized reading instruction with SITBs, as well as provide students with full access to these texts in the classroom. Further, the teacher's overgeneralizations for science during instruction with SITBs indicates the need for training to strengthen her knowledge of science that would better prepare her to convey information and critically read information presented in these texts. Finally, the students' engagement with SITBs and their use of strategies to make sense of these texts on their own, indicates the first graders were motivated and capable readers of informational books.

In the light of Swedish pupils' declining understanding of non-fiction, as well as the abolition of textbook examination, the idea for this study was born. The purpose was to explore two reading comprehension textbooks in the subject of Swedish and compare them to PIRLS reading test from 2011. Furthermore, the overall aim has been to analyze the coherence between them (alignment). The study was focused on highlighting the similarities and differences among the texts and tasks provided in the materials. With particular focus on the text's prose, genre and format, as well as on the reading comprehension strategies that were practiced and tested in the tasks. Through text analysis, theories of alignment (Biggs, 2003) and reading comprehension strategies (Andreassen 2008; Reichenberg 2014; Westlund 2015) the following questions were answered: Which similarities and differences regarding the text's prose form, genre and design can be discerned in the two textbooks compared to PIRLS reading test?  Which similarities and differences exist between the reading comprehension strategies that are practiced in the textbooks' tasks compared to those tested in PIRLS reading test?  Which preconditions are given the pupils to perform at PIRLS through the work of these two reading comprehension textbooks? The results showed both similarities and differences among all of the materials. The distribution of the text's prose form differed. In one textbook the most common form was fictional prose, whereas in the other book non-fiction occurred more. However the distribution was even in PIRLS reading test. Results also revealed that the extent of the texts was significantly longer in the reading test than in either one of the textbooks. Additionally the results indicated that the tasks, in PIRLS and in the textbooks, require a use of different reading comprehension strategies. In the textbooks multiple strategies were needed to solve the tasks, in contrast to PIRLS, where there were no use of several of them. These findings suggest a lack of alignment between the analyzed materials.