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Guardian and Zeit online articles attract a large number of reader comments in generaland those that include links specifically. Using both quantitative and qualitative contentanalysis, the reader comments that include links in 80 articles on four topics – TheRefugee Crisis, the Syrian Conflict, Elections and Artificial Intelligence – from bothnewspapers were classified according to type and pro or contra stance to the article theywere posted in response to.The aim was to discover whether a majority of these comments agreed with or opposedthe main premises of the articles they were responding to and to determine whetherdifferent topics results in different reactions. In addition to that the goal was to try andascertain whether these findings indicated falling trust in journalists or not, and whatreaders sought to achieve by commenting and posting links, if in fact they had a concretemotivation.Findings demonstrated that 61.1% of reader comments with links disagreed with thearticles they were posted to, and controversial topics were more likely to attract links byreaders and greater disagreement. Previous research and this study could not clearlyconclude whether audience trust in journalists is falling or whether that was a mereextension of falling trust in authorities and organizations for example. It could also notdetermine whether audiences comment and share links to effect some form of change orwhether they simply seek a platform to express their opinion without any conscious goalin mind.

Nowadays, a lot of activities such as social communications, educational courses, banking processes, different types of entertainment, online registrations and many more are done through Internet websites. Millions of users use these websites to maintain their daily needs. The challenge in front is that these websites are getting more and more complex, and the need to have well-designed websites becomes more important and at the same time more difficult. Knowledge of usability and accessibility according to the user needs can help designing more convenient while competent websites. It is essential to know that users with different levels of ability may visit a website. They should be able to easily interact with the website based on their abilities, likes and dislikes. Users usually leave the website early if they find it difficult to handle. They may look after easier and more practical solutions to do what they need to do. So it is somehow important to design websites by considering all levels of abilities and disabilities. Therefore, there are standards that must be followed by designers. Basically, usability experts define standards for making a website operational for a vast range of users by reducing the sources of complexity which potentially lead to a problem. Standards set by experts for accessibility aspects mainly focus on making a website more approachable to a bigger portion of users including users with disabilities. This thesis investigates the role of HTML5 markup language in improving the accessibility of the websites. To achieve that, the main factors of accessibility in designing websites are considered and based on that the evaluation has been performed. To gain more applicable results, this thesis concentrates on screen readers as a kind of assistive technologies. The results illustrate that HTML5 markup language can improve the accessibility of a website design. Currently, there are still some difficulties to overcome, for example, browsers lack support for HTML5 and the screen readers are not as effective as they are needed to be. This probably means that we still need more research to find optimal ways of constructing websites with a perfect accessibility and usability for screen readers. / Numera finns en hel del aktiviteter såsom social kommunikation, utbildningar, bankprocesser, olika typer av underhållning, online registreringar och många fler som sker genom webbplatser på Internet. Miljontals användare använder dessa webbplatser för sina dagliga behov. Utmaningen är att dessa webbplatser blir mer och mer komplexa, och behovet av att ha väl utformade webbplatser blir både viktigare och samtidigt svårare. Kunskap om användbarhet och tillgänglighet enligt användarnas behov kan hjälpa till att designa webbplatser som samtidigt är både bekväma och kompetenta. Det är viktigt att användare med olika förmågor kan besöka en webbplats. De bör enkelt kunna interagera med webbplatsen med utgångspunkt från sina förmågor och preferenser. Användare lämnar vanligtvis webbplatsen tidigt om de har svårt att hantera den. De kan se sig om efter enklare och mer praktiska lösningar för att göra vad de behöver göra. Så det är någorlunda viktigt att utforma webbsidor genom att beakta alla nivåer av förmågor och handikapp. Därför finns det normer som måste följas av designers. Användbarhetsexperter definierar standarder för att göra en webbplats nyttig för ett stort antal användare genom att minska orsaker till komplexitet som potentiellt leder till problem. Normer som fastställts av experter på tillgänglighetsaspekter fokuserar huvudsakligen på att göra en webbplats mer tillgänglig för en större del av användarna, inklusive användare med funktionshinder. Denna rapport undersöker betydelsen av HTML5 med avseende på att förbättra tillgängligheten av webbplatser. För att uppnå detta, har de viktigaste faktorerna för tillgänglighet i utformning av webbsidor beaktats och grundat på det har en utvärdering genomförts. För att få mer applicerbara resultat, fokuserar denna rapport på skärmläsare som ett hjälpmedel. Resultaten visar att HTML5 kan förbättra tillgängligheten hos en webbdesign. För närvarande finns det fortfarande vissa svårigheter att övervinna, till exempel att webbläsare saknar stöd för HTML5 och att skärmläsare är inte lika effektiva som de behöver vara. Detta innebär förmodligen att vi fortfarande behöver mer forskning för att hitta optimala sätt att bygga webbplatser med perfekt tillgänglighet och användbarhet för skärmläsare.

This qualitative case study investigated the nature of motivational change among eight adolescent participants who made notable advances in reading while in middle school. Data was gathered through interviews, observations, and artifact analysis. Guthrie's (2001) work identified a list of essential elements for reading engagement: autonomy support, interesting texts, goal orientation, real-world instruction, evaluation, strategy instruction, teacher involvement, collaborative learning, and the use of praise and rewards. Using Guthrie's (2001) work as a guide, a line of inquiry was formulated that could yield useful data on which factors were most influential in accounting for motivational and achievement growth among this unique population of improved readers. At the end of a six month study, interesting texts and real-world connections were found to be the most significant of Guthrie's (2001) contexts for engagement in facilitating participants' growth as readers. However, the personal accounts of the students, parents, and teachers in this study reveal a more complex picture of the nature of the motivational change among these adolescent readers. From this data, seven themes emerged that related to participants' motivational experiences in the categories of ethnicity, gender, and disability status. The three themes that emerged on the topic of ethnicity were "Resisting a fear of failure," "Meeting readers where they are," and "Tying literacy to the real world." On the subject of gender, two themes also emerged from the data: "Genders appearing more similar than different" and "Girls preferring intrinsic motivation." On the subject of students with disabilities, an additional two themes emerged: "Experiencing more reading frustrations" and "Combining learning support and interesting texts." Several of these themes suggested findings that differed from previous research on motivation and adolescent readers. Based on these findings, implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers were explored. / CITE/Language Arts

Thirty-six randomly selected and assigned, ninth grade, high school students participated in this study which was designed to examine the Impact of a summarization strategy on the comprehension performance of average readers under varied text pattern conditions. The strategy consisted of two phases. Phase I, called BACCA, included the processing steps of brainstorming, accuracy check and arrangement, completing, correcting, and adding. Phase II, DIGC, included the rules of deletion, invention, generalization, and combining to construct the summary. While the treatment group received Instruction with the summarization strategy, a control group received Instruction in question answering but no direct Instruction in summary writing. Results from a two-way analysis of variance conducted on comprehension performance indicated that a significant difference existed between the two treatment groups with regard to total comprehension scores. Differential performance was revealed for the selected text patterns. Performances on chronological and compare contrast passages were not significantly different between the treatment and control, while on the cause-effect passage, a significant difference was revealed In favor of the summarization group. For the naturally occurring text there was a significant interaction effect for treatment by time. Qualitative analysis revealed a difference in the quality of written summaries with regard to the number of main ideas, details produced, accuracy in reporting the content of the passage, and completeness of the writings favoring the treatment group. Finally, an attitude survey reflected positive opinions by the participants toward both conditions. / Ed. D.

Title: “The letters jump”- to struggle with decoding and still understand what you are reading.Author: Maria EkUniversity of UmeåDepartment of EducationSupervisor: Asbjörg WestumExaminer: Fredrik KarlssonKeywords: Poor readers, Structured text talks, Reading strategies, Reading comprehension, Commitment and Motivation.During the past decades, Swedish studies show that reading comprehension and skills in reading strategies have decreased. In secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities there has been a focus on care-taking rather than on comprehension in general, and on reading comprehension in particular.The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Reciprocal Teaching would increase reading comprehension and motivation among upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities. The study presents how three 17-year-old pupils and their teacher, discussed expository fact texts during twelve lessons using the reciprocal method combined with power point-presentations to get the students to read more actively with interferences and reflections. The ambition was to make the structured text talks as interesting as possible with texts easy to read, technical aids, structure to make the students feel security when reading and to get committed pupils with an increased interest in reading.The results show an increase in motivation in reading, and the students were more prone to take an active part in discussions.

The purpose of this study is to discover and evaluate materials available to teachers attempting to solve the problems of teaching Spanish-speaking children to read English, and to make some suggestions as to the effective ways of selecting materials to be used in a locality where Spanish-speaking children attend the public schools.

The purpose of the study was to get the essential information about the pre-primers that were taught in the Dallas County Schools, and to take a representative group and evaluate them as to the merits of the books for classroom use.