<p> Within the genre of young adult literature, a growing trend is the use of epistolary messages through electronic methods between characters. These messages are set apart from the formal text of the narrative of the novel creating a break in the text features and layout of the page. Epistolary texts require a more sophisticated reading method and level of interpretation because the epistolary style blends multiple voices and points of view into the plot, creating complicated narration. The reader must navigate the narrator&rsquo;s path in order to extract meaning from the text. In this hermeneutic study, I examined the text structures of three young adult novels that contained epistolary excerpts. I used ethnographic content analysis (Altheide 1987) to isolate, analyze, and then contextualize the different epistolary moments within the narrative of the novel. The study was guided by two research questions: 1. What types of text structures and features did authors of selected young adult literature with epistolary interruptions published since 2008 use across the body of the published work? 2. How did the authors of selected young adult literature situate the different text structures of interruption into the flow of the narrative? What happened after the interruption? I used a coding system that I developed from a case study of the novel <i>Falling for Hamlet</i> by Michelle Ray (2011). Through my analysis I found that the authors used specific verbs to announce an interruption. The interruptions, though few in number, require readers to consider context of the message for event, setting, speaker, purpose and tone as it relates within the message itself and the arc of the plot. In addition, following the interruptions, the reader must decide how to incorporate the epistolary interruption into the narrative as adding to the conflict, adding detail, ending a scene, or simply returning to the narrative. . Therefore, the interruptions in epistolary young adult novels incorporated the text or literacy practices of young adults. Such incorporation reflects the changes in literacy practices in the early 21^st century that may render novels of this style a challenge to readers in creating meaning. The study further incorporates Bakhtin&rsquo;s theory of heteroglossia (1980) that a novel does not contain a single language but a plurality of languages within a single langue and Dresang&rsquo;s Theory of Radical Change (1999) of connectivity, interactivity, and access. Texts of this nature offer teachers of reading opportunities to guide students through text features to synthesize information in fiction and non-fiction texts. </p>

Thesis (Ph. D)--Columbia University, 1930. / Vita. Published also as Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to education, no. 433. Bibliography: p. 30-31. Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-199). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-199). Also available on the Internet.

Past research shows that feelings toward aesthetic reading, or reading for enjoyment, are down across the nation, even in those pursuing a degree in elementary education (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; National Endowment for the Arts , 2004). As reading rates drop, it becomes even more imperative that our future educators have a passion for reading, and are able to intrinsically motivate their students (McKool & Gespass, 2009; Nathanson, Pruslow & Levitt, 2008). The recommended practices for breaking the cycle of aliteracy are to deemphasize textbook driven lectures (Krashen, 1993; Nathanson et al., 2008; Sardo-Brown & Beeghly, 1996), enable text self-selection (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; 2014; Cardarelli, 1992; Krashen 1993; McKool & Gespass, 2009; Nathanson et al., 2008), include reflective journals (Nathanson et al., 2008), encourage open discussion (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; 2014; Krashen, 1993; McKool & Gespass, 2009; Nathanson et al., 2008; Sardo-Brown & Beeghly, 1996), provide opportunities to reflect on students' own personal views of literacy (Gomez, 2005), and incorporate "well-planned instructional experiences to allow students to experience what it feels like to be enthusiastic about reading" (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; Applegate et al., 2014; Gomez, 2005; Krashen, 1993; McKool & Gespass, 2009; Morrison, Jacobs, & Swinyard, 1999; Nathanson et al., 2008; Powell-Brown, 2003; Ruddell, 1995; Sardo-Brown & Beeghly, 1996). The intent of this thesis is to explore if a positive shift in the perceptions and motivations of pre-service elementary education teachers can occur through enrollment in a course on Literature for Children. Literature for Children, LAE 3414, is a required course for those pursuing a degree in elementary education at the University of Central Florida. The course's design follows the recommended practices for teaching a love of literature. This study tracked the perceptions and motivations of pre-service teachers enrolled in two class sections of this course over the fall 2014 semester, in order to see if a positive change in their feelings toward aesthetic reading occurred, and to what extent their enrollment in this course on Children's Literature affected this change. At the beginning of the semester, out of a total of 63 participants for the pre-survey, 68.3% reported that they felt enthusiastic toward reading, while 31.7% reported that they felt unenthusiastic. By the end of the course, out of 54 post-survey participants, 87% of participants reported that they felt enthusiastic toward reading, while 13% reported that they felt unenthusiastic. Both class sections surveyed experienced a positive shift in their perceptions and motivations toward aesthetic reading, as a result of enrollment and participation in this course.

The main goal of this dissertation is finding out, which reading skills should be developed by students of middle school, and by which methods, strategies, forms of class organisation, teaching aids and teaching procedures can be reading skills developed in five teaching lessons. The dissertation uses comparative method for finding skills for progress and application method in preparations, which will verify theoretical knowledge about efficiency of methods for progress of reading strategies and skills and described strategies for progress skills in practise. The research was oriented to skills from research PISA, specifically to inferying, information searching and appraisal of text. In five teaching lessons was developed inferying by strategy clarifying. Mild progress was noticed by information searching, which was developed by strategy identification of importance. By students was not developed appraisal of text by strategy of evaluation. To the main reasons of mild or any progress were also the methods. To the least efficient methods belonged I.N.S.E.R.T., which is oriented to information searching, and DRTA, which is oriented to appraisal of text. To the most efficient methods belonged Literature Circles and Modeling. For progress in reading skills were also efficient pair work, individualised...

This essay studied how six girls experienced their reading development during their college education in male-dominated profession programs. The issues assumed were how they experience their literature reading and literature education and what happened with their interest in reading. The theoretical frame included researchers Säljö, Rosenblatt, Gun Malmgren, Olin-Scheller, Ulfgaard and Molloy. The study showed that most of the girls felt their reading had worsened but not because of their male classmates but because of school. They had a lot of homework and participated in so many different school projects which would be completed that there was no time to reading for pleasure. The girls did not like the teachers’ literate sample and did not like the methods used in learning literature. They would rather have discussions of literature instead of writing about the content of the book and its author. The study also showed that girls did not react against any male dominance among the books they read in school. / Uppsatsen studerade sex flickors upplevelse av sin läsutveckling under deras gymnasietid på mansdominerade yrkesprogram. Frågeställningarna utgick ifrån hur bokslukande tjejer uppfattade litteraturläsning och litteraturundervisning på yrkesförberedande program och vad som hände med deras läsintresse under deras gymnasieutbildning. Till den teoretiska ramen hör forskare som Säljö, Rosenblatt, Gun Malmgren, Olin-Scheller, Ulfgaard och Molloy. Undersökningen visade att de flesta flickorna uppfattade att deras läsning hade försämrats men inte på grund av deras manliga klasskamrater utan på grund av skolan. De fick så många läxor och deltog i så många olika skolprojekt som skulle slutföras att det inte fanns någon tid över till lustläsning. Flickorna vände sig emot lärarnas litteraturval och tyckte heller inte om de metoder som användes inom litteraturundervisningen. De ville hellre ha boksamtal istället för att skriva om bokens innehåll och dess författare. Undersökningen visade också att flickorna inte reagerade mot någon manlig dominans bland de böcker de läste i skolan.

This thesis is a literature review on literature reading in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom, of mainly upper secondary schools. The underlying objective for this work is that meaningful reading experiences can have a positive impact on a developing young individual on his or her way into adulthood. The aim of this thesis is to explore what theories and methods are used when trying to create prerequisites for meaningful reading experiences, and how these experiences actually are realized. Qualitative methods are mainly used, except for a small section of the methodology of finding the sources, which is quantitative in nature. Since very little previous research has been done in the field, the six sources used in this review are internationally spread over five continents. They are mainly analyzed from a theoretical background of reader response and critical literacy perspectives. The main findings show that a number of theoretical approaches and methodologies can be useful in creating meaningful reading experiences. What may have proven most effective was addressing actual problems in the students’ everyday lives through applied critical literacy.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1997. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Ron Fortune (chair), Douglas D. Hesse, Lee Brasseur. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-225) and abstract. Also available in print.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:36:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KiviaPMF_DISSERT.pdf: 1165878 bytes, checksum: 7f35f13179d0cd7c6f8214b612a70fcd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-26 / This study investigates the contributions of reading literature for the development of creative thinking in childhood. Its relevance consists in exploring practices that contemplate the creative thinking development in apprentices at school space and understanding the literature like a significant way to promote the creative thinking. The study is connected to the qualitaty strand. The exploratory observation and the intervention were adopted as research techniques. The field diary and the audio and video recording of the reading sections were adopted as methodological instruments. The research was conducted in the application s college from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, in a 1th grade class, with 18 students between 6 and 7 years old. During the intervention, 8 readind class happened, with varied strategies and literary genres. The reading sessions were conducted through the principles of scaffolding, defended by Graves and Graves (1995). The corpus is made of speaks episodes, whose encoding semantics allowed the grouping into two central categories: divergent thinking and coauthoring of literary reader. It was taken as a theoretical framework the studies of Amarilha (2011; 2006; 2001; 1991; 1993; 1994), Alencar (2001), Coelho (2000; 1997), Culler (1999), De Masi (2005), Gallo (2000), Guilford (1977), Iser (1996), Jouve (2002), Kneller (1978), Mart?nez (1997), Smith (2003), Stierle (1979), Vigotski (2009; 1998), Wechsler; Nakano (2003; 2002). The analysis points to the formation of creative individuals in the classroom, through the reading of literature. Reposition the literary education front of the new social demands. Resizes the function of school in children s development, considering the children s skill in exploring, testing hypotheses and making use of their creative thinking, in climate of freedom mental. It signals, in this way, the teacher like a mediator, promoting a favorable to the development of creative thinking environment, a stimulating atmosphere, which enhances the expression of creative thinking in community / Este estudo investiga as contribui??es da leitura de literatura para o desenvolvimento do pensamento criativo na inf?ncia. Sua relev?ncia consiste em explorar pr?ticas leitoras que contemplem o desenvolvimento do pensamento criativo de aprendizes em situa??o escolarizada e em evidenciar a literatura como um caminho significativo para o desenvolvimento desse pensamento. O estudo ? consoante ?s pesquisas qualitativas e adotou a observa??o explorat?ria e a interven??o como t?cnicas de constitui??o dos dados. Como instrumentos, utilizou-se o di?rio de campo e a grava??o em ?udio e v?deo das sess?es de leitura liter?ria. A pesquisa foi realizada no col?gio de aplica??o da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, em uma turma do 1? ano do ensino fundamental, com 18 alunos, cuja faixa et?ria oscilava entre 6 e 7 anos de idade. Durante a etapa de interven??o, oito sess?es de leitura liter?ria foram implementadas, com estrat?gias e g?neros liter?rios distintos. As sess?es de leitura apoiaram-se na metodologia da andaimagem (scaffolding), orientada por Graves e Graves (1995). Como corpus, t?m-se os epis?dios de fala dos sujeitos da pesquisa, cuja codifica??o sem?ntica permitiu o agrupamento em duas categorias centrais: o pensamento divergente e a coautoria do leitor liter?rio. Fundamenta-se nos estudos de Amarilha (2011; 2006; 2001; 1991; 1993; 1994), Alencar (2001), Coelho (2000; 1997), Culler (1999), De Masi (2005), Galo (2000), Guilford (1977), Iser (1996), Jouve (2002), Kneller (1978), Mart?nez (1997), Smith (1989), Stierle (1979), Vigotski (2009; 1998) e Wechsler; Nakano (2003; 2002). A an?lise aponta para a emerg?ncia da forma??o do sujeito criativo em sala de aula mediante a leitura de literatura. Reposiciona o ensino de literatura frente ?s demandas da sociedade contempor?nea, que pressup?e o exerc?cio da criatividade. Redimensiona a fun??o da escola no desenvolvimento das crian?as, visto que ? neste meio que o aluno poder? explorar, elaborar, testar hip?teses e fazer uso de seu pensamento criativo, em clima de liberdade mental. E sinaliza, nesse processo, a import?ncia da figura do professor como mediador, na inten??o de promover um ambiente favor?vel ao desenvolvimento da criatividade, numa atmosfera estimulante, que valorize a express?o do pensamento criativo em comunidade