This thesis is a qualitative text analysis of worksheets used in conjunction with watching films in English language studies in Swedish middle schools. The assignments used in the thesis were partly collected from partner schools in the teacher program and partly collected from a website which is a database of teacher submitted lesson plans. The results of the thesis include a presentation and discussion of different worksheets used by teachers, using a structure based on one used for critical discourse analysis instruction with students. The evidence suggests that two factors gave an increase in explicitly named aspects of critical literacy in film studies: firstly, that the assignment be situated in a program of study within the Swedish curriculum which shares many of the goals of critical literacy studies and secondly that the choice of film is one that challenges students to reconsider their experiences in light of the film. This study also raises the concern that the questioning methods used to implement critical literacy studies are being used to increase student talk for the purposes of grading oral proficiency without interactive discussions.

The purpose of this literature review is to compare some critical reading comprehension classroom practices globally, with particular focus on the teaching of reading comprehension in Sweden, where student well being and equity are issues of importance. Critical literacy used is a term that encompasses many aspects of power related issues in language. The Swedish curriculum is explicit in naming these issues of student identity and democratic agency which it shares with critical pedagogical practices. The result of the review is a presentation and discussion of the different studies, using a structure based on one used for critical discourse analysis instruction with students. The evidence suggests that higher level comprehension is a skill that takes time to train and should be done explicitly by pointing out the aspects of language which convey meaning. Learning to search the text for evidence of the underlying meaning gave verystrong effect sizes on standardized tests for reading comprehension. The reading comprehension results of minority/ESL students on standardized tests improved when space was made to discuss very different experiences within the same culture in language classrooms.

The availability and sophistication of visual display images, such as simulations, for use in science classrooms has increased exponentially however, it can be difficult for teachers to use these images to encourage and engage active student thinking. There is a need to describe flexible discussion strategies that use visual media to engage active thinking. This mixed methods study analyzes teacher behavior in lessons using visual media about the particulate model of matter that were taught by three experienced middle school teachers. Each teacher taught one half of their students with lessons using static overheads and taught the other half with lessons using a projected dynamic simulation. The quantitative analysis of pre-post data found significant gain differences between the two image mode conditions, suggesting that the students who were assigned to the simulation condition learned more than students who were assigned to the overhead condition. Open coding was used to identify a set of eight image-based teaching strategies that teachers were using with visual displays. Fixed codes for this set of image-based discussion strategies were then developed and used to analyze video and transcripts of whole class discussions from 12 lessons. The image-based discussion strategies were refined over time in a set of three in-depth 2x2 comparative case studies of two teachers teaching one lesson topic with two image display modes. The comparative case study data suggest that the simulation mode may have offered greater affordances than the overhead mode for planning and enacting discussions. The 12 discussions were also coded for overall teacher student interaction patterns, such as presentation, IRE, and IRF. When teachers moved during a lesson from using no image to using either image mode, some teachers were observed asking more questions when the image was displayed while others asked many fewer questions. The changes in teacher student interaction patterns suggest that teachers vary on whether they consider the displayed image as a "tool-for-telling" and a "tool-for-asking." The study attempts to provide new descriptions of strategies teachers use to orchestrate image-based discussions designed to promote student engagement and reasoning in lessons with conceptual goals.