The present study was designed to investigate whether a good reader, by the fifth grade, will have attained sufficient knowledge of the language structure to enable him to more exactly and more appropriately reconstruct mutilated texts than a poor reader, matched for verbal intelligence level. Four 250-word cloze-treated passages were administered to twelve deficient and twelve non-deficient sixth grade readers, matched according to sex and the verbal portion of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Analyses of variance failed to show any significant differences between good and poor readers except for a weak indication that good readers produced more exact replacements.

TITLE: Reading educational texts in primary school and activities for promoting reading AUTHOR: Alena Vrňáková DEPARTMENT: Czech Literature Department SUPERVISOR: PhDr. Ondřej Hausenblas ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to examine reading literacy and development of critical thinking skills during the teaching of educational texts. In this context I refer to the concept of the subject's reading literacy in relation to RVP ZV and to suitable conditions for developing one's literary ability. I also speak of the basic motivational principles of teaching, such as teacher's personality, goals and rules of active teaching. I also emphasis how one can achieve a better understanding of the given texts while reading them and provide a summary of teaching methods specificaly designed for the development of critical thinking. In practice I focused on the creation of a sufficient number of teaching materials of educational texts processed by methods of critical thinking and a model of learning EUR and on testing the efectiveness of these materials in the classroom. A part of this verification included monitoring ten pupils in their fourth year at the primary school Vrchotovy Janovice, where I work. KEYWORDS: Educational texts, reading, literacy, understanding, development of reading ability

D. Phil. / The unit of analysis in this study is the reading competence of a selection of grade three learners in linguistically diverse schools in Gauteng Province. In a socio-cultural perspective on their reading competence (and logically also their English language proficiency), the findings indicate that their reading performance is linked to a variety of factors in the context of school and family. The inquiry was motivated by the need to understand and interpret the reading performance of learners who do not appear to benefit from early schooling, specifically in the area of reading literacy. The main premise of the study was that the young learners' reading could not be viewed in psychological isolation and that a broader picture of the pedagogical, the social, the cultural and the personal components interfacing with the action of reading would capture data that could inform both theory and practice of reading pedagogy. In the context of South African educational policy this is pertinent, because the learners in this country have a choice of the language of instruction (Department of Education, 1997), and parents often decide on English as the medium of education for their children — probably because of the assumed status of English as language of opportunity. Thus young children who do not know English as a primary language access the world of reading literacy though this often-strange medium. In addition, the teachers have mostly not been educated to practice a pedagogy of bilingualism or one that is suited to a typical ESL classroom. The research question posed in the study addresses this complex world of reading in a second/additional language, including the interaction between teachers, learners and the broader socio-cultural context. The study draws on literature in studies of socio-cultural research and concomitant pedagogies, arguing that Vygotsky's notion of mediated action is a viable perspective from which to try to understand problems in reading and reading instruction in a multilingual setting, with teachers ostensibly ill-equipped to practice effectively. The theoretical argument pertaining to reading as socio-culturally situated activity was woven into a research design that would capture both psychological and social components of reading action. To capture data that would reveal details of this action as well as the interrelatedness of various components of the action, I used multiple methods of data gathering, data analysis and data presentation of processed data. Methods of data gathering included language and reading evaluation instruments, evaluation of pre-literacy skills instruments, interviews with learners and educators, classroom observations and questionnaires. Data obtained from these research methods were described and interpreted qualitatively and/or quantitatively. The findings show that that both the learners' language and reading competence are not sufficiently developed for successful progress in grade three. An important finding is also that there is a relationship between the socio-economic background of the learners and their proficiency in English and also their reading and pre-literacy skills development. The findings have furthermore shown that reading development is influenced by pre-literacy skills development. Findings derived from the educators' interviews and classroom observations show that some of them, for whom English is not a primary language, use a pedagogic discourse that is generally ambiguous and that could confuse the young learners who have few other examples of English language use. It is furthermore evident that the educators do not have knowledge of reading pedagogy for the ESL classroom and that their theoretical knowledge does not get proceduralised. These findings were substantiated by the content of the teacher survey questionnaires. The significance of the findings is that reading pedagogy would have to be adapted in order to facilitate improved teaching practice and improved reading literacy of the learners, including the enhancement of pre-literacy skills development. I therefore recommend, again from the domain of socio-cultural research, that a model for teacher professional development be applied in the context of the six research schools. This model, which is essentially organic, is aimed at sustainable and dynamic professional development at grassroots level. It was originally designed by Lave and Wenger (Wenger et al, 2002) and has become known as the "communities of practice" model of work, learning and development. I present an application that can be used in the schools and which can include myself as co-founder of the community.

I denna studie behandlas ämnet skönlitteratur i svenskundervisning. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur lärare i årskurs 4–6 resonerar kring och använder sig av skönlitteratur i svenskundervisning för att främja elevers läsförmåga. Frågeställningarna är följande: Hur beskriver lärare syftet med skönlitteratur i svenskundervisningen relaterat till styrdokument? Hur ges elever enligt lärare möjlighet att utveckla sin läsförmåga i arbete med skönlitteratur i svenskundervisning? Och slutligen: Hur beskriver lärare sin användning av skönlitteratur i svenskundervisning sett till möjligheter och begränsningar? Studien har sin utgångspunkt i det sociokulturella perspektivet. Materialet samlades in genom en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer användes. Analys av material gjordes genom kodning för att finna mönster i deltagarnas resonemang. Resultatet visar att lärare är trygga i sin användning av skönlitteratur relaterat till styrdokument och har främst två syften med skönlitteratur i svenskundervisning: att inspirera elever till att läsa samt att utveckla språklig förmåga. Lärare använder aktiviteterna högläsning, boksamtal och tystläsning för att utveckla elevers läsförmåga. Resultatet visar även att lärares inställning till och kunskaper om skönlitteratur både kan möjliggöra och, men även begränsa arbetet med skönlitteratur. / This study considers the topic of fiction in Swedish teaching. The aim of the study is to investigate how teachers in grade 4-6 reason about and use fiction in Swedish teaching to promote students' reading ability. This will be answered by following questions: How do teachers describe the purpose of fiction in Swedish teaching related to the National Curriculum? How are pupils, according to teachers, given the opportunity to develop their reading skills in their work with fiction in Swedish teaching? And finally: How do teachers describe their use of fiction in Swedish lessons as regards opportunities and limitations? The study is based on the sociocultural perspective. The data was collected through a qualitative method using semi structured interviews. Analysis of data was done by coding to find interesting patterns in the participants’ reasoning. The result shows that teachers are competent in their use of fiction related to the National Curriculum and mainly have two purposes when teaching fiction in the Swedish classroom: to inspire pupils to read and to develop their linguistic ability. Teachers use a variety of activities, such as reading aloud, book talk and quiet reading to develop pupils’ reading ability. The result also shows that teachers' attitude and knowledge of fiction enables but also can limits their work with fiction

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the accuracy and practicality of May's Poor Reader (PR) scoring system for the informal reading inventory (IRI), an individual assessment device designed to determine a student's instructional reading level. The PR is a qualitative scoring system developed by Frank May that examines only two miscues (defaults and meaning-denigrating substitutions) in arriving at an estimate of instructional reading level. The predictor variable, PR, was compared for accuracy and practicality with five other predictor variables consisting of four traditional quantitative scoring systems and an additional qualitative system of May's; PR was also compared with four criterion variables: (a) a scoring system created by Frank May on the basis of research concerning miscues and informal reading inventories, a system that requires the use of a context scale and a graphophonic scale, (b) the judgments of tape recordings made by an experienced and knowledgeable reading coordinator, (c) the judgments of ten reading teachers of the students under their tutelage, (d) and a silent reading score on Form B of the same IRI. The comparisons were made through the use of Chi square tests of significance in which each of the six predictor variables was compared with each of the four criterion variables as to accuracy of agreement with the criterion variables. Examination of the results showed that there were no significant differences between the instructional estimates made by the PR scoring system and two of the four criterion variables, the research based scoring system and the experienced reading coordinator. This was also true for May's third qualitative scoring system called the CGQ. All other differences in the estimates of instructional level were highly significant--with the four traditional predictor variables and with two of the four criterion variables (p < .01). The main implications drawn from this study were: (1) Classroom teachers and reading teachers may wish to make use of May's PR scoring system for the IRI as a quick and qualitative way of estimating students' instructional reading level. (2) Since the PR scoring system met the criteria established for a qualitative IRI scoring system, researchers may wish to use this system in studies of informal reading inventories.

Thesis (M.ED) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / There is a general outcry from the Department of Education (DoE) and universities with regard to the levels of reading/literacy of learners entering university, as the standard of reading levels seems to be a recurring issue in most of the South African schools. The problem of students’ poor reading skills in primary schools is usually carried over into secondary schools and higher education institutions as underlying cause of many students struggling to cope academically. Despite the introduction of several measures and guidelines, most learners remain functionally illiterate. In 2008, a National Reading Strategy (NRS) was put into place by the DoE: the aim of which was to promote a nation of life-long readers and life- learners. Well-developed reading skills are central to successful learning across the curriculum. The study examined the reading levels of the intermediate phase learners in the rural areas of Limpopo province. Following case study procedures, the study examined natural occurring reading of grade five learners in the intermediate phase. Collected data included observation, video tapes of learners while reading grade prescribed texts and interviews with intermediate phase educators. A descriptive quantitative discourse analysis of learners' reading and descriptive qualitative case study analysis were employed. The researcher takes the reader into the ordinary South African rural classroom, discusses findings and analysis, followed by suggested recommendations.

This study describes the reading ability of 26 middle school students, and the ways in which their reading development is supported in two different classrooms. In order to scrutinize results of students at different reading levels, three focus students were selected.This thesis has four aims. One is to use tests to examine the students’ reading ability as regards their decoding skills and reading comprehension as well as to study other cognitive skills related to reading ability. Another is to describe the students’ reading ability and attitudes towards reading from their own as well as their teachers’ perspectives. A third aim is to analyze how the results of different parts of the study are related to one another. The fourth and final aim is to analyze the classroom activities with a special focus on how reading ability is supported.The study combines quantitative analyses of the students’ reading ability with qualitative analyses of classroom activities. The quantitative sections of the study include various reading tests as well as the teachers’ assessment of the students’ reading development and their answers to selected questions in a student questionnaire concerning their view on reading.The results reveal that several of these students haven´t automated their decoding ability in Grade 4, but that nevertheless most of the students attain their grade level in a reading comprehension test in Grade 4 as well as the goals of a national reading test in Grade 5. However, most of the questions in these two tests require answers that can be explicitly found in the text and do not require any deeper reading comprehension such as inference making for instance. The results also show that these students are unable to assess whether reading is easy for them, but can assess their own reading ability if the purpose is to compare their reading skills with their classmates. The classroom observations indicate that despite quite extensive text work in the classrooms, students who need to develop their decoding abilities receive little support, and that although classroom work focusing on text comprehension is quite frequent, this does not often include deeper levels such as inference making.

The aim of this study is to find out what education in literature is like from a student perspective; what kind of literature the students read and how well they understand literature, and the methods and didactics used during the literature lessons. The questions at issue are: 1) What kind of literature do the students read? 2) How well do the students understand literary texts? 3) What do the students think about their literature education? To be able to answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study. The inquiry was accomplished on 29 students, 17 boys and 12 girls in the upper secondary school. The result showed, despite the limited amount of students, interesting facts. Firstly there were some differences between males and females and what kind of fiction girls and boys read. Both girls and boys read magazines and periodicals. The girls read more fiction about love than boys did. The boys rather liked to read books that are exciting and adventurous. The students also differ from one another in how much they liked to read. There were more girls than boys that liked to read a lot. The students, who didn’t like to read, stated that they had other interests or activities. They found it boring to read or had difficulties to find books that were interesting enough. Regardless sex, the students spent approximately 1 hour per week reading outside school, most of them at home before they go to sleep. The school library plays an important role to stimulate the students to read and to find interesting books. The reading test showed that the students reading ability were good. The results have been analyzed in the light of different theories of reading and research studies. It pays attention to the importance of having focus on the student. It is not a talent to be able to read and write. It is something you can practise and develop doing your whole life. The results of the study also raised questions of importance regarding the cultural capital and canon.

Given the increase of Spanish- and English-speaking bilingual students in US schools, identifying the predictors of reading in this group of students is of significant importance to developing appropriate screening measures and intervention strategies. Thus, the current study evaluated the pattern of language preference in an elementary school bilingual (Spanish-English) population and its relationship with expressive and receptive vocabulary, and broad reading ability in English and Spanish. Participants were 58 Latino students ranging in age from 7 years, 5 months to 11 years, 1 month (M = 8.98, SD = .98) with 48% born in the United States. Results indicated that English expressive vocabulary partially mediated the relationship between outside language preference and English broad reading ability. In contrast, neither Spanish expressive nor receptive vocabulary mediated the relationship between outside language preference and Spanish broad reading ability.

<p>The aim of this study is to find out what education in literature is like from a student perspective; what kind of literature the students read and how well they understand literature, and the methods and didactics used during the literature lessons. The questions at issue are:</p><p>1) What kind of literature do the students read?</p><p>2) How well do the students understand literary texts?</p><p>3) What do the students think about their literature education?</p><p>To be able to answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study. The inquiry was accomplished on 29 students, 17 boys and 12 girls in the upper secondary school. The result showed, despite the limited amount of students, interesting facts. Firstly there were some differences between males and females and what kind of fiction girls and boys read. Both girls and boys read magazines and periodicals. The girls read more fiction about love than boys did. The boys rather liked to read books that are exciting and adventurous. The students also differ from one another in how much they liked to read. There were more girls than boys that liked to read a lot. The students, who didn’t like to read, stated that they had other interests or activities. They found it boring to read or had difficulties to find books that were interesting enough. Regardless sex, the students spent approximately 1 hour per week reading outside school, most of them at home before they go to sleep.</p><p>The school library plays an important role to stimulate the students to read and to find interesting books. The reading test showed that the students reading ability were good. The results have been analyzed in the light of different theories of reading and research studies. It pays attention to the importance of having focus on the student. It is not a talent to be able to read and write. It is something you can practise and develop doing your whole life. The results of the study also raised questions of importance regarding the cultural capital and canon.</p>