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Abstract is not available. / vii, 165 leaves ; 28 cm.

This case study examines the pedagogy of early reading in one mainstream (numerical norm) South African school. Existing research shows that there is reason for grave concern in South Africa regarding the reading achievements of a large proportion of children in the Foundation Phase of schooling. The impact of poor reading achievement in the early years not only remains largely unmitigated throughout schooling, but also affects adult illiteracy rates and academic achievement in institutions of higher learning. The implications for individuals and for society as a whole are profound. However, the acquisition of reading competence in the Foundation Phase at school in South Africa is surprisingly under-researched and has tended to focus on the language of instruction (the "mother tongue debate") or on broader sociological explanations for the generally poor reading performance of South African school children who do not attend elite schools. Explanations relate to the web of widespread poverty, poor health conditions, and early childhood learning experiences at home and in ECD centres which inadequately prepare children for the demands of schooling, and lack of access to resources such as books in the home. Little of the existing literature directly addresses how pedagogies of early literacy influence the "reading crisis". This study contributes to understanding poor reading achievement by providing a rare rich description of three Grade 1 literacy classrooms in one South African township school, seeking pedagogical explanations for the continued low reading achievement of South African school children. This interpretative, qualitatively dominant, theory-seeking case study is bounded by category (the pedagogy of teaching reading), space (Grade 1 classrooms in one particular mainstream school in KwaZulu-Natal), time (2006/2007) and theme (How meaning is positioned in the teaching of reading). It captures the understandings and practices of Grade 1 teachers with respect to the initial teaching of reading through an additional language in a typically mainstream school in South Africa. The positioning of reading as a meaning-making activity and the kind of "literate subject" produced by this positioning are foci of investigation and analysis. Data are examined from the perspective of reading theory. Data were gathered from a transect walk through classrooms, extensive classroom observations, teacher interviews, participatory artefact analysis, questionnaires and children‘s drawings. Findings were that these teachers, though fully qualified, have neither coherent understandings of how literacy develops nor appropriate pedagogical knowledge to inform their practice. The dominant instructional practice in these Grade 1 classrooms is whole class recitation of lists of words and of short and mostly unconnected text with restricted meaning and function. Teachers do not consciously help learners to develop the ability to manipulate and play with sounds. Scant attention is paid to the development of concepts about print in these Grade 1 classrooms, in spite of the literacy-poor backgrounds from which most learners come. There is effectively no access to books in the classroom, visits to the school library are irregular and teachers do not read aloud regularly to learners. Learners are not significantly exposed to extended text in the first year of schooling. The almost exclusive use of phonic decoding does not develop learning strategies for word recognition and comprehension, and is inappropriate for proficient reading in English. Most importantly, teachers and learners do not approach reading or writing as a meaning making activity. In the light of international research, it is argued that these practices prevent children from coming to an early understanding of the functions of text and from developing a range of strategies for comprehension. It is argued that this lack of focus on meaning and on ways of constructing meaning in reading are factors contributing to the poor performance of learners in standardised reading tests. Explanations for these pedagogical practices involve a complex interplay of personal experience of reading, outdated initial teacher education and inadequate continuing teacher education. Recommendations are made regarding initial and continuing teacher education for Foundation Phase teachers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This dissertation explores how written discourses of Drum editors' and readers' letters linguistically construct social identities of the Drum audience, and how this identity construction is intimately linked with socio-historical, socio-cultural and socio-political contexts in which Drum appears in 1951 and 2001. Basically, this study is a contrastive analysis of the audience construction at two significant dates in the life of a South African publication, Drum magazine: March 1951, when the magazine was first published, and 7 June 2001, fifty years later when the magazine is read in a vastly changed socio-politico-cultural context. Data collection was based on the "Readers' Page" in two copies of Drum, one published in March 1951 and the other in 7 June 2001. In each copy of the magazine, the focus is on the editor's letter which asks for the readers' contributions and gives recommendations on the types of letters he is hoping to attract, and one reader's letter from each of the same chosen copies of Drum which the editor publishes. The cover pages of both copies of Drum are used to investigate whether they foreground or reinforce the images of Drum readers. Another set of data comes from an unstructured interview of the current Drum magazine editor. Findings in this study indicate that the ideal Drum audience in 1951 is the African middle class scholar who is a good writer, whereas in 2001, good quality writing is compromised for an advertising community of consumers. In addition, the black educated, urban Drum audience in 1951 see themselves as having power to resist the education system which is characterised by racial segregation. In 2001, the young people regard the attainment of higher education in institutions of higher learning as valuable for black economic empowerment. Educators/therefore, need to teach learners the skills of reading a text critically, so that the learners are able to identify ways in which language choices channel their interpretation, and also the ways in which texts are linked to their socio-historical contexts. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This study explores the nature of teachers' understandings of theoretical orientation to reading and the relationships between theoretical orientations to reading and instructional practice. The participants were eleven Grade Five classroom teachers, seven female and four male, in one particular school board in Southern Ontario. A series of three in-depth, phenomenological interviews were conducted with each teacher-participant. Utilizing the concept of theoretical orientation to reading, understandings of and relationships between, theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practice were identified and described by the teachers in this study, from an 'emic' (insider) perspective. The themes of teachers' knowledge and beliefs, personal experiences, and constructivist approaches to teaching and learning emerged as highly influential in determining the kinds of instructional decisions made by the teacher participants. The data illustrate how teachers with a skills orientation to reading instruction supported a focus on explicit skills instruction within balanced, eclectic approaches to reading instruction. The results provide a multi-voice construction, showing how the teacher participants' knowledge, beliefs, personal and professional experiences were reflected not only in their efforts to articulate understandings of theoretical orientations to reading, but also in the characteristics of relationships between their theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practices. Patterns and themes in the data also indicate the need for improved pre-service teacher education, and relevant in-service professional development, to better meet the needs of contemporary teachers of reading at the junior division level.

Knowledge workers are frequently called upon to perform deep, critical reading involving a heightened level of interaction with the reading media and other tools. This process, known as active reading, entails highlighting, commenting upon, and flipping through a text, in addition to other actions. While paper is traditionally seen as the ideal medium for active reading, computers have recently become comparable to paper through replicating the latter’s affordances. But even paper is not a panacea; it offers an inflexible document representation that supports some things well, such as embellishment, but supports others very poorly, like comparison and large scale annotation. In response to this, I developed a prototype system, called LiquidText, to embody a flexible, high degree-of-freedom visual representation that seeks to alleviate some of the problems in paper and paper-like representations. To provide efficient control of this representation, LiquidText runs on a multi-finger touch and gesture based platform. To guide the development of this system, I conducted a formative study of current active reading practice. I investigated knowledge workers’ active reading habits, perceptions, and the problems they face with current reading media. I also inquired into what they would like in a future active reading environment. I used these results in conjunction with multiple design iterations and formative system evaluations to refine LiquidText for use in a summative study. The summative study assessed, through a controlled, laboratory evaluation, LiquidText’s impact on 1) the subjective experience of active reading, 2) the process of active reading, and 3) the outputs resulting from active reading. Generally, the study found a strong participant preference for LiquidText, and a focus on the creation of a summary of the original document as part of the reading process. On average, reading outputs were not significantly better or worse with LiquidText, but some conditions were observed that may help identify the subset of people for whom LiquidText will result in an improvement.

No description available.

This comparative case study investigated the teaching practices of secondary English language arts teachers who are reading endorsed versus secondary English language arts teachers who are not reading endorsed. Florida Department of Education mandated that all reading teachers, and strongly encouraged all English language arts teachers be reading endorsed to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind ("Just Read, Florida!" 2008). We now need research to see if this surge of reading endorsed teachers is using their training in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore and to compare the teaching practices of two secondary standard English I in a reading block teachers, one reading endorsed and the other not reading endorsed, and two honors English II language arts teachers, one reading endorsed and the other not reading endorsed. Did the classes in reading instruction and scientifically based reading research (SBRR) strategies carry over into teaching practices in the classroom? If yes, how, or in what capacity, and in what areas of student learning? The participants in this study included secondary standard English I in a reading block teachers and honors English II language arts teachers from a local central Florida high school. Their identities are confidential, but their years of teaching experience, their qualifications, and their classes' level are provided. This comparative case study used an observation protocol, interviews with teachers, classroom observations, a questionnaire for teachers, and observational and reflective field notes made while observing and documenting teachers' practices in secondary English classrooms. This study investigated the value of the Florida reading endorsement, its influence on secondary teachers' knowledge of instruction and practices, the role of comprehensive professional development, and the endorsement's influence on student engagement. The significance of these results may provide evidence for policymakers to further mandate reading endorsements for content area teachers or become more lenient on their demands for English language arts teachers to become reading endorsed. The input and opinions of the veteran teachers may help shape and change the current endorsement while examining theory to practice. The study was qualitative in nature; most of the evidence and research came from observations and interviews. The voice of the veteran English teachers, their beliefs, instructional practices, classroom environments, and students' motivation is a reflection of current practices in today's public schools. There is evidence that professional development in scientifically based reading research has an impact on the instructional practices of teachers. The study included the voice of the teachers; what they would like to experience in professional development; what they found useful; what they need; and what they did not value. The participants explained how they transformed theory into practice. The findings of this study concluded that further research and communication is needed between the researchers who design professional development statewide initiatives for secondary content area teachers, the teachers/practitioners who implement the knowledge and strategies, the administration for support, and policy makers who mandate the professional development efforts. The reading endorsed teachers did create enthusiastic classroom environments where student motivation increased, but the teachers voiced obstacles that inhibited their professional development that should be addressed.

No description available.

This dissertation examines young people’s reading of fiction in the digital age, with a special focus on the aspects of attitude and competence. The literary reading of respondents in their upper teens is considered from several perspectives—especially those of the respondents themselves. The discussion is based on three larger empirical studies of the reading attitudes and practices of 18-year-olds. These studies build on and complement each other in relation to the overarching research questions through a triangulating process combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The studies are, however, freestanding and were conducted using different empirical methods. The first study is diachronic in that it compares national test essays on the topic of reading from the year 2000 with essays written according to the same instructions twelve years later. The main aim of this study is to reveal possible differences between the two generations in terms of attitudes and approaches to reading fiction, and to relate them to issues of literary legitimization and competence. The second study consists of a questionnaire about a short story read by the respondents, as well as about their general reading and media habits. A connection is drawn between media habits and reading frequency, on the one hand, and the results of the essay study, on the other. The respondents’ reception and understanding of the story is analyzed separately. A summary of the first two studies reveals several complex issues with contradictory patterns. The third study, which examines these issues more closely, was conducted through focus-group interviews. All three studies have been carried out among groups of pupils in the third year of upper secondary school in Sweden. The final part of the dissertation summarizes the results of the three studies, applying a pedagogical perspective to literature pedagogy within the subject of Swedish at the upper secondary level. This discussion points out several opportunities for literature teachers today.