The purpose of this study was to describe what happens when parents and children are invited to participate in a child-parent-teacher partnership which mutually supports the child's literacy development during transition into first grade. Questions which helped focus the study were: How do child-parent-teacher partnerships develop? How are participant's understandings and expectations about literacy affected and what is their influence on literacy development? What kind of changes related to involvement with literacy occur during the transition period? What are the conditions under which partnerships were promoted or impeded? Constructivist theory and ecological theory of human development provided the theoretical foundation for the study. Families from the researcher's classroom were invited to participate in child-parent-teacher partnerships. Eight families participated in the study. A case study design was used to describe the partnership process. Data collection consisted of three family surveys, child and parent journals, researcher folios, children's work samples, school records, written and verbal correspondences, unstructured interviews, and audio taped at home child-parent work sessions. Data analysis followed grounded theory methodology. Analysis revealed a uniqueness to each family and each child-parent-teacher relationship. Child-parent-teacher partnerships developed with seven of the eight participatory families. One surprising partnership developed without a positive parent-teacher relationship. The eighth intended partnership failed to emerge. Findings indicate the eight characteristics of partnership development are: interest and willingness to participate; shared purpose; reciprocal flexibility; ability and willingness to negotiate and compromise; unconditional commitment; mutual respect; effective communication; and availability of curriculum materials. Three benefits of child-parent-teacher partnerships are: enhanced literacy development; enriched parental understanding, expectation and involvement; and more informed child-parent-teacher communication. / Ph. D.

The aim of this thesis is to acquaint readers with the functional ways of the development of reading literacy of pupils in primary school, and to find out how and with what results these way can be aquired from the position of primary school teacher and pupils. The theoretical part is focused on reading literacy, its components, the stages and the factors that influce its development. It defines concepts of reading, reading comprehension, and related reading skills and strategies. It deals with the development of reading literacy at school. It describes pupils of the primary school and key competences of the primary school teacher. The thesis also describes which components of reading literacy can be developed among pupils and what the appropriate projects in the Czech Republic are. The final chapter focuses on the methods that support the development of reading literacy among pupils, especially the RWCT (Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) program and their inclusion during lessons. The aim of the practical part of this thesis is to find out the answer to these research questions: How to effectively develop reading literacy of pupils at primary school? How and with what results can the teacher of primary school acquire functional ways of the development of reading literacy? The practical...

Tidigare forskning om elevers läs- och skrivinlärning belyser lärares åsikter av ämnet samt de faktorer som är viktiga för en gynnsam läs- och skrivutveckling, dock saknas elevernas perspektiv och upplevelser gällande sin inlärning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka elevers upplevelser av sin läs- och skrivutveckling och deras tankar kring betydelsen av att lära sig läsa och skriva. Med syftet som utgångspunkt kommer följande frågor att besvaras: Hur beskriver elever betydelsen av att lära sig läsa och skriva? Hur beskriver elever sin egen läs- och skrivutveckling? Hur skiljer sig upplevelser och erfarenheter åt mellan olika elever, som enligt läraren har haft olika individuella förutsättningar i den tidiga läs- och skrivinlärningen? Studien bygger på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med elever i en årskurs 2, samt en intervju med elevernas klasslärare. Den hermeneutiska teorin och tillvägagångssättet ligger till grund för studien. Resultatet visar att elevers upplevelser och tankar är av stor betydelse, för att lärare ska  ha möjlighet att förstå hur elever upplever sin läs- och skrivutveckling. Det framkommer vissa skillnader i elevernas upplevelser, som kan ha sin grund i deras varierande förutsättningar då läs- och skrivinlärningen påbörjades. Vissa elever menar att vikten av att lära sig läsa och skriva är för att det krävs i det vuxna livet och andra elever anser att det är betydande när de ska läsa eller skriva i skolan, för att ha möjlighet att klara av skolarbetet. Fyra av sex elever har upplevt viss problematik i sin läs- och skrivutveckling och menar att det varit svårt med att stava, skriva långa ord och att läsa mycket text. / Previous research on students' reading and writing learning highlights the teachers' opinions about the subject and the factors that are important for a favorable reading and writing, but is missing the students' perspectives and experiences regarding their learning. The aim of the study was to investigate the students' perceptions of their literacy development and their thoughts on the importance of learning to read and write. With this aim as a starting point the following questions will be answered: How do the students describe the importance of learning to read and write? How do the students describe their own reading and writing development? How do the perceptions and experiences differ between students who, according to the teacher, have had various individual conditions in the early reading and writing process? The study is based on six semi-structured interviews with students in second grade, and an interview with the students' teacher. The base for the study is the hermeneutic theory and approach. The results show that the students' experiences and thoughts are of great importance for teachers to be able to understand how students feel about their reading and writing skills. It reveals some differences in the students' experiences, which may be due to their varying conditions at the beginning of their reading and writing process. Some students believe that the importance of learning to read and write is because it is required in adult life while other students believe that it is significant to be able to cope with school work. Four of the six students have experienced some problems in their literacy development in spelling, writing long words and reading a lot of text.

O objetivo desta investigação foi responder à seguinte questão: o que as escolas devem fazer para realizar completamente sua tarefa de formar leitores? Eu relatei e analisei os procedimentos do projeto Letras e Livros na cidade de Embu das Artes/SP, entre os anos 2002 e 2006, que produziram uma redução substancial do número de crianças não alfabetizadas após quatro anos de escola. Os efeitos positivos desta ação fortaleceram nossa suposição, de que o apoio individual para crianças, social e cognitivamente vulneráveis, foi efetivo. Eles confirmaram também a hipótese de base psicogenética do valor das consignas de interesse pessoal e leitura cooperativa. A ampliação do repertório literário através de leitura em voz alta também foi decisiva. Os estudos de caso, produzidos durante o projeto, usados para análise e como modelo inspiradores no processo de formação, mostraram-se úteis para o aperfeiçoamento profissional da equipe. / The main purpose of this investigation was to answer the following question: what must schools do to fulfill completely their task of forming readers? I have related and analysed the procedures of the project Letras e Livros in the city of Embu das Artes/SP during the years 2002 to 2006, which produced a substantial reduction in the number of children who were not able read after four years of school. Positive effects of these actions suport our assumption, that individual personalysed help offered to socially and cognitinely vulnerable children were effective. They suported also the psychogenetically based hypothesis of the value of personally significant tasks and cooperative reading. Enlarging literary konowledge through oral readings was decisive too.The best case reports produced during the project were used for analysis and inspiring model prooving useful to improvement of professional skills.

O objetivo desta investigação foi responder à seguinte questão: o que as escolas devem fazer para realizar completamente sua tarefa de formar leitores? Eu relatei e analisei os procedimentos do projeto Letras e Livros na cidade de Embu das Artes/SP, entre os anos 2002 e 2006, que produziram uma redução substancial do número de crianças não alfabetizadas após quatro anos de escola. Os efeitos positivos desta ação fortaleceram nossa suposição, de que o apoio individual para crianças, social e cognitivamente vulneráveis, foi efetivo. Eles confirmaram também a hipótese de base psicogenética do valor das consignas de interesse pessoal e leitura cooperativa. A ampliação do repertório literário através de leitura em voz alta também foi decisiva. Os estudos de caso, produzidos durante o projeto, usados para análise e como modelo inspiradores no processo de formação, mostraram-se úteis para o aperfeiçoamento profissional da equipe. / The main purpose of this investigation was to answer the following question: what must schools do to fulfill completely their task of forming readers? I have related and analysed the procedures of the project Letras e Livros in the city of Embu das Artes/SP during the years 2002 to 2006, which produced a substantial reduction in the number of children who were not able read after four years of school. Positive effects of these actions suport our assumption, that individual personalysed help offered to socially and cognitinely vulnerable children were effective. They suported also the psychogenetically based hypothesis of the value of personally significant tasks and cooperative reading. Enlarging literary konowledge through oral readings was decisive too.The best case reports produced during the project were used for analysis and inspiring model prooving useful to improvement of professional skills.

Title: ”Welcome to 3a!”– An ethnographic case study on language-focused teaching in a linguistically and culturally heterogenic classroom   The overall aim of this ethnographic case study is to study language-focused teaching in a multicultural Swedish school and a third grade composed of pupils with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The study focuses on the support of multilingual pupils offered by teachers and educators, on what didactic choices teachers make and what didactical methods are used during reading and writing lessons and on what language-focused teaching strategies the teachers and educators use. The results show that the school staff meet parents and pupils with openness, curious humility and advocate the use of dialogue for effective cooperation between school and home. Different vocational categories and educators with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds collaborate. They work solution-focused and language-oriented. The study shows didactical choices and methods used by teachers and educators and their reflections on the choices and methods. Working with words and texts is an important part of the lessons. Instructions, expressions of learning goals and delivery of working strategies are frequent. A variety of different methods is used, where many questions are asked and individual words or student responses are often repeated. The teachers work with clear frameworks and structure. The proximity and a good relationship with the pupils are valued. Professional cooperation is seen as a success factor and is a common feature of school life. The heterogeneity of the pupil group determines the choice of working methods. Building a Swedish vocabulary while developing knowledge is one of the most important objectives of teaching. The use of the Swedish language dominates the teaching A language-focused teaching strategy the teachers and educators use is the presentation of good examples. Strategies regarding writing, as well as behavioural instructions, were given.  Confirmation and praise were expressed and subject-related questions and clues were given. The class teacher clearly orchestrates the classroom, where subject content and concepts are put in context and parallels are drawn. The class teacher refers to previous lessons and other subjects as well as adjusts her language to the students' linguistic levels. Different forms of visual support are used regularly. Overall, this dissertation highlights: (a) Working at a culturally and linguistically heterogeneous school means a daily balancing act between socialisation and inclusion. Future democratic citizens must be trained, the Swedish school and the subject of language have to be developed, while taking into account the linguistic habits and cultural expectations of the home. Swedish school culture is to be conveyed without emptying the families of previous experiences. (b) Pupils in need of a higher linguistic or knowledge-based challenge need to stand back for the collective structural and linguistic needs for support. Pupils with the greatest need for linguistic compensatory bridges between home and school receive support through multilingual staff directly at school if they belong to one of the language groups represented at the school. (c) In spite of experienced, committed and cooperative staff, L1 education remains a difficult task to complete. L1 education seems to meet many practical organisational and status-related challenges. By employing multilingual staff, alternative solutions were found. L1 education is experienced by several pupils student as being something voluntary and unnecessary.

<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>

The study explored factors associated with English as Second Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD) students’ performance on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) from three different yet interrelated aspects. These aspects were the relationship between test performance and the characteristics of ESL/ELD students; the relationship between ESL/ELD students’ aggregated school performance and their school-level socio-economic status; and a comparison of ESL/ELD and non-ESL/ELD students’ performance on three test formats in the reading component of the OSSLT (multiple-choice questions, constructed-response questions, and constructed-response questions with explanations). The study was conducted based on 4,311 ESL/ELD students’ test data, their responses to the Educational Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) Student Questionnaire, and the test results of 5,003 non-ESL/ELD students. School-level socio-economic status data from the Education Quality and Indicators Program (EQUIP) were merged with the OSSLT test data. These data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression and discriminant analysis. The results indicated that e-literacy activities, literature literacy activities, non-fiction literacy activities, newspaper and magazine literacy activities, and literacy hours were positive predictors of ESL/ELD students’ performance on the OSSLT. Letter reading and writing, song and poetry literacy activities were two negative predictors. In terms of home language patterns, whether English was the first language of the test-takers, and what language(s) they spoke at home were both influential variables in differentiating ESL and ELD students’ literacy performance. The results also revealed that a higher parental education index positively predicted a school’s average OSSLT performance. In ii addition, ESL/ELD students demonstrated substantial performance gaps in all of the three test formats in reading as compared to non-ESL/ELD students. Only multiple-choice questions obtained a significant discriminant coefficient with a weak discriminating function. The results of this study offered some insights about identifying and understanding factors that were associated with ESL/ELD students’ OSSLT performance from the perspective of the test-takers and the test itself. The results also provide directions for future research and instructional support in relation to ESL/ ELD students in the context of the accountability framework in Ontario.

<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>

The current study investigated developmental spelling in a group of English as a second language (ESL) and non-ESL children. The purpose was to determine if a measure of developmental spelling differed between a group of ESL and non-ESL kindergarten children, and further, what linguistic and literacy skills were related to developmental spelling for each group. The results from 37 ESL and 40 non-ESL children revealed that the groups did not differ on a measure of developmental spelling, and that the predictors of developmental spelling included syntactic knowledge (Syntax Construction) and phonological processing (Sound Matching) for both groups, and Letter Identification for the non-ESL group only. The results revealed many similarities between the groups in their English spelling development. Some differences emerged, however, including phonological processing (Non-word Repetition) being related to developmental spelling for the ESL group only, and Letter Identification being related to developmental spelling for the non-ESL group only.