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.

Today’s society stresses the importance of written communication. Therefore the picture book seems less important to the public. As soon as one has learnt to read, the literary sphere changes radically and the picture book is often forgotten. But there are many benefits of working with picture books in education even after the pupils have learnt to read. Working with young students poses the problem of making sure they all have the opportunity to display their knowledge to the teachers and to share and develop it with the class. One way of doing so is through book talks. But there are different views of what a good book talk is. My aim is to identify and discuss some of the benefits of the picture book in everyday schoolwork. I discuss the benefits of book talks around picture books for both students and teacher. To do this I have conducted a descriptive literature study in which I consider relevant research. On the basis of my literature study and engagement with previous research, I find that book talks about picture books may have a positive impact on education the teacher is well pepared and open to the students own reflections.

It has long been known that vocabulary is essential in the development of reading. Because vocabulary leading to increased comprehension is important, it necessary to determine strategies for ensuring that the best methods of teaching vocabulary are used to help students make gains in vocabulary leading to reading comprehension. According to the National Reading Panel, multiple strategies that involve active engagement on the part of the student are more effective than the use of just one strategy. The purpose of this study was to determine if students’ use of visualization, student-generated pictures of onset-and-rime-patterned vocabulary, and story read-alouds with discussion, would enable diverse first-grade students to increase their vocabulary and comprehension. In addition, this study examined the effect of the multimodal framework of strategies on English learners (ELs). This quasi-experimental study (N=69) was conducted in four first-grade classrooms in a low socio-economic school. Two treatment classes used a multimodal framework of strategies to learn weekly vocabulary words and comprehension. Two comparison classrooms used the traditional method of teaching weekly vocabulary and comprehension. Data sources included Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR), comprehension and vocabulary scores, and weekly MacMillan/McGraw Hill Treasures basal comprehension questions and onset-and-rime vocabulary questions. This research determined that the treatment had an effect in adjusted FAIR comprehension means by group, with the treatment group (adj M = 5.14) significantly higher than the comparison group (adj M = -8.26) on post scores. However, the treatment means did not increase from pre to post, but the comparison means significantly decreased from pre to post as the materials became more challenging. For the FAIR vocabulary, there was a significant difference by group with the comparison adjusted post mean higher than the treatment’s, although both groups significantly increased from pre to post. However, the FAIR vocabulary posttest was not part of the Treasures vocabulary, which was taught using the multimodal framework of strategies. The Treasures vocabulary scores were not significantly different by group on the assessment across the weeks, although the treatment means were higher than those of the comparison group. Continued research is needed in the area of vocabulary and comprehension instructional methods in order to determine strategies to increase diverse, urban students’ performance.

Att undersöka uppfattningar och ta del av lärares erfarenheter rörande högläsning, boksamtal kopplat till elevernas språkutveckling inom årskurs 1–4 ger en bild av hur verkligheten i skolorna ser ut gällande ovannämnda moment av svenskaundervisningen. Denna studies huvudsyfte är att undersöka vilka pedagogiska syften lärarna har med högläsning och boksamtal samt hur dessa moment används i undervisningen. Denna studie har även som syfte att bidra med insikter om hur lärarnas arbetsmetoder bidrar till en språkutvecklande undervisning vid högläsning och boksamtal. För att uppnå syftet formulerat för denna studie har en kvalitativ undersökning genomförts. Studiens kvalitativa metod omfattas av semistrukturerade intervjuer som bygger på ett frågeschema med trettio nyckelfrågor. I resultatet framkommer det att samtliga respondenter använder sig av högläsning och boksamtal i sin svenskaundervisning. Resultatet visar även att lärarna arbetar på varierande sätt beroende på de egna uppfattningarna om vad högläsning och boksamtal som moment fyller för syfte. I resultatet fastställds likheter och skillnader mellan lärarnas uppfattningar och arbetssätt. Variationer bland lärarna kan härledas till skillnader inom klassernas ålder och årskurs. Lärarna i studien delar uppfattningen att språkutveckling har en central roll i undervisning vilket stämmer överens med tidigare forskning.

This study aimed to investigate how some teachers talk to students in grade 4-6 about fiction, more specifically, how the teachers in their reading aloud teaching enable students to develop imaginary worlds through conversation. The material was analyzed based on Langer’s (2005) theory about imaginary worlds. Two questions were formulated to answer the study’s aim: How do some teachers plan their conversations about fiction in reading aloud teaching? Moreover, how do teachers’ conversations about fiction vary in reading aloud teaching? The results showed that all teachers plan their conversations about fiction in the reading aloud teaching in different ways. Three of the teachers plan their conversations by reading the fictionin advance to get acquainted with the story and the characters. One teacher plans her conversations about fiction after reading aloud. The result also showed that all teachers vary their conversations about fiction in reading aloudin different ways, such as text extracts from chapters, work with illustrations, book conversations, and keeping the book secret from the students so that they can imagine what the characters and the environment can look like. Finally, the result showed that through the teachers’ conversations, the students were given opportunities to build imaginary worlds and an increased understanding of the text.

Studien undersöker F-3 lärares beskrivningar av högläsningsarbetet genom ett kvalitativt perspektiv. Det insamlade materialet kommer i huvudsak från öppna enkätfrågor, vilka sedan analyseras efter lärarnas, skriftliga beskrivningar. Syftet är att få inblick i lärarnas beskrivningar kring syfte, planering och arbetssätt i arbetet med högläsning. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt har det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande med ett speciellt fokus på literacyutvecklande teorier. I studien finns tidigare forskning onämnd utifrån studier om lärares högläsning. Empirin hämtas från de svar som lärarna skriftligen besvarat genom strukturerade, öppna enkätfrågor. I resultatdiskussionen tolkas och ställs resultatet i förhållande till litteratur och tidigare forskning. Resultatet visar att högläsning förekommer flera gånger i veckan men att planering av högläsningen ofta hamnar i skuggan av annan undervisningsplanering. Samtal och diskussioner kopplat tll högläsning och elevernas egna arfarenheter kan utvecklas och planeras på en mer didaktisk utvecklande nivå. I slutet av studien ges förslag på vidare forskningsområden. Sist i studien presenteras källförteckning samt studiens bilagor.

The purpose of the study was to examine preschool teacher's perceptions in their speech when talking about stereotypes and norm critical literature in read alouds. The theory used in this study was discourse analysis, which here also uses some concepts from the discourse theory by Laclau and Mouffe. Some of these concepts were contextualization, sign and equivalence chain. The speech was later catagorized and analyzed. This study used interviews to gather information, where six preschool teachers from three different preschools were interviewed. The information resulted in a pattern where four categories were presented. These categories were called the corrective, the articulating, the debating and the representing preschool teacher. The analysis resulted in an understanding of a discourse, which used a speech that correlates to preschool teachers understanding of preschool policy documents, the norm critical perspective and their profession. / Studien syftar till att synliggöra förskollärares föreställningar kring högläsningav normkritisk litteratur och normbekräftande litteratur. Undersökningen haren diskursanalytisk ansats, vilket här uppfattas som ett synliggörande av det talsom kan kopplas till situation och sammanhang. Som stöd i analysen användsbegrepp som kontextualisering, subjektspositioner, tecken ochekvivalenskedja. Begreppen används som ett tillvägagångssätt för attundersöka talet och hur det används utifrån kontexten.Studien använder intervjuer som metod, där sex förskollärare från tre olikaförskolor intervjuades. Det resulterade i ett belysande av enförskollärardiskurs, vilket i denna text kategoriseras som: den korrigerande-,en artikulerande-, den diskuterande- och den representerande förskolläraren.Analysen resulterade i ett synliggörande av olika diskurser som förhåller signära till förskolans styrdokument och förskollärarens uppfattning av ettnormkritiskt förhållningsätt

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Abstract The purpose of the 6-week qualitative study was to explore how Grade 1 children responded to five picturebooks by Anthony Browne during interactive read-alouds. The 13 participants and the other non-participants were organized into four mixed gender and mixed reading-ability groups. Data included transcripts from 20 small group read-aloud sessions and field notes that documented additional student affective responses to the texts. Other data included the children’s drawings that were completed after each picturebook small group read-aloud session, as well as transcripts of the students’ individual interviews about their artistic responses. Coding of student conversation turns during the read-aloud sessions revealed the identification of six categories of statements. These six categories were then applied to the students’ individual interview data to facilitate comparison between the two settings. The artwork and interviews of three students were analyzed as three individual cases and represented a sample of student readers of differing abilities. Data analysis of the read-aloud session transcripts revealed that labeling statements accounted for approximately one-third of all student comments. The remaining students’ statements were categorized as following: approximately one-quarter were character description, one-fifth were ‘other,’ (i.e. indecipherable statements and/or off-topic comments), approximately one-tenth were character feeling, less than one-tenth were autobiographical, and a small amount were intertextual in nature. The comparison of the three focus children’s individual interviews to their small group conversations revealed that the children generated a greater number of autobiographical statements during the individual interviews about their art. Implications for research and pedagogy included teaching and conducting research about visual literacy that involves pre- and post-treatment study, and examining children’s conversations about characters in picturebooks by numerous authors. / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a selected group of educators work with and experience the use of audiobooks and read-alouds at preschool. The study is focused on how educators reflect about and work with audiobooks and read-alouds and whether there has been any change in the use of audiobooks at preschool, with the increasing popularity of audiobooks in society. The study rests on interviews conducted with a total of four educators from two preschools. The results show that the educators believe that read-alouds are an important part of children's language development, while audiobooks are seen as a complement to the read-alouds. The result also shows that audiobooks are rarely or never used in the preschool activities while read-alouds are taking into practice at least once a day, often more. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka en utvald grupp pedagogers arbete och erfarenheter av ljudböcker respektive högläsning på förskolan. Undersökningen fokuserar på hur pedagoger tänker och arbetar med ljudböcker respektive högläsning samt om det skett någon förändring i användandet av ljudböcker på förskolan i och med ljudböckernas ökande popularitet i samhället. Studien vilar på intervjuer som genomförts med totalt fyra pedagoger från två förskolor. Resultatet visar att pedagogerna anser att högläsning är en viktig del av barns språkutveckling medan ljudböcker ses som ett komplement till högläsningen. Resultatet visar även att ljudböcker sällan eller aldrig används i verksamheten medan högläsning sker minst en gång per dag, ofta mer.