The aim of this study is to analyze how some teachers in the grades 4-6 differentiate reading instruction to develop and challenge pupils' reading comprehension. This study answers the following questions: How do some teachers introduce, implement and follow up their reading instructions? How do the teachers implement scaffolding in the different stages mentioned above? What challenges may the teachers face in their work with differentiated reading methods?  To answer these questions, the analysis has been based on classroom observations with three different teachers that teach in the grades 4-6. These observations have shown how the teachers differentiate and scaffold when they work with reading instruction. The empirical material was collected during observations of lessons in the Swedish subject. Furthermore, the study is based on Ann Carol Tomlinson's theoretical framework regarding funding as well as various theoretical frameworks regarding scaffolding. The results of the study indicate that the teachers differentiate their reading instruction in various ways to challenge and create opportunities for all students to participate in their own education based on their knowledge level. The teachers use varied working methods to create fellowship, differentiate in process, in content and in product and scaffold the students throughout the teaching.

Independet silent reading - Out of old habit or a lesson with purpose?  The aim of this study was to examine whether teachers use the method of independent silent reading purposefully or if they do it out of old habit. The research focuses on what purpose the teachers have and which working methods they use when working with silent reading. I investigated who it is that chooses the books to be read and what factors are determining this choise. Finally, I wanted to find out how the silent reading time is used by the pupils and the teachers. In order to investigate this, observations were made in classes during silent reading time and semistructured interviews were conducted with teachers and students. The results show that most teachers have a clear purpose with silent reading and that they work with different reading strategies to teach the children to become independent silent readers. However, an important part of succeeding in silent reading is that it happens on a regular basis, preferably every day.     Finally, I would like to thank my supervisor Yvonne Knospe, university lecturer at the Department of Language Studies, Umeå University for all the feedback and guidence during the work process. It has been a pleasure to have you as a supervisor. Thank you!

Magister Educationis - MEd / In this mini-thesis, I explored the factors that affect grade 8 learners’ performance in reading in English.The study focused on reading as it was revealed by National Education Department and Western Cape Education Department that literacy and numeracy levels in schools in the Western Cape were poor. In addition, in March 1997, OBE was initiated in South Africa to develop a better educational system for all learners in schools and was perceived as a major step from the previous system (Botha, 2002). The system of OBE introduced the continuous assessment policies, which was a challenge for teachers already in the educational system. The study highlighted the theories of reading with particular emphasis on the evaluation of teaching of reading and assessment in the English classroom, learners’ home reading background and the influence of social practices and multiliteracies on learners’ reading proficiency. According to Alderson (2000) reading is perceived as a process of meaning- making with identification of different levels of meaning and understanding in and from text including reading skills. To elicit the factors that affect reading four variables were focused on during the study. The variables included reader, task, text and Social Practices and Multiliteracies variables, which interplayed in reading during tasks.In order to gather data the following data capturing methods were employed, firstly I highlighted the classroom observations to unpack the realities in classrooms for both the teacher and the learners. Then secondly I focused on the learners’ questionnaire to determine what happened during reading lessons and learners’ home reading practices. And thirdly I presented the teacher’s interview to highlight the reading strategies that she employed in class. Lastly I discussed the document analysis of grade 8 examination papers and classroom activities with a checklist. I discovered that the system of OBE put demands on teachers that they are not properly trained to do.Despite the fact that training was provided, it was too short and not clearly focused on interactive reading skills. When we consider the importance of multiliteracies, the teacher clearly draws on the learner’s home background by doing activities that make them feel that they are important. This teacher has the ability to successfully incorporate multimodal teaching methods in her class. The teacher also set time aside everyday to assess and mark the learners books, she then clarified issues that learners’ might encounter in the course of the reading lesson.However, there are some factors that could be addressed to improve reading abilities. The overcrowding and ghettoized condition of the class, did not promote morale within this environment. With the inception of OBE in-service training was provided, it was too short and not clearly focused on interactive reading skills. A further factor is learners’ use of Afrikaans during interactions with the teacher and each other,except for one learner who spoke English during the lesson.In conclusion, the evidence showed that the factors hat affect reading and therefore outcomes in education.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att finna bakomliggande orsaker och faktorer som påverkar pojkar och deras läsning. Varför presterar pojkar sämre än jämngamla flickor på lästester i alla de länder där tester görs? Detta är något som otaliga undersökningar pekar på både i Sverige och internationellt. Ett barns framgång i läsning är en viktig del av dess utbildning. Har barnet problem på detta område så får det problem i alla ämnen. Huvudfrågan för detta examensarbete är således: varför presterar pojkar sämre än flickor i läsning? De delmoment som påverkar läsningen belyses ur flera vinklar i hopp om att lyfta fram en så övergripande bild som möjligt av detta fenomen. Detta är en litteraturstudie med fokus på forskning genomförd mellan 2007-2013. Undersökningen visar att den nivå ett barn når i sin läsning är resultatet av en ytterst komplicerad kombination av faktorer där hemförhållanden och motivation tycks väga tyngst. Samtidigt visar studien även att andra faktorer som ofta lyfts fram som mer eller mindre avgörande bygger på motsägelsefulla fakta.

Att lära sig läsa är en väsentlig del i dagens skola och samhälle. Därför läggs mycket fokus på just läsundervisning i de tidiga åren. Lärares kunskap och didaktik har stor betydelse för att främja elevernas läsinlärning. Det krävs en förståelse för läsprocessens komplexitet och vilka förmågor hos eleverna som är viktiga att utveckla. Följaktligen är studiens syfte att undersöka hur sex lärare på tre olika skolor uppfattar att en god läsundervisning etableras. Undersökningen vill belysa lärarens syn på vilka förmågor som är viktiga att utveckla i den tidiga läsundervisningen, vilka läsinlärningsmetoder som används och hur. Studien tar ansats i den sociokulturella teorin, där den proximala utvecklingszonen stöttar inlärning. Läraren behöver ha läsinlärningskunskaper för att kunna ta reda på var eleven befinner sig i sin utveckling och för att stötta hen vidare till en högre nivå i kunskapstrappan. Undersökningen genomförs med individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med samtliga lärare. De semistrukturerade intervjuerna används för att samtalet ska vara någorlunda öppet men ändå följa en struktur. Resultatet visade att läsmotivation, avkodning och språkförståelse behövs för en effektiv läsinlärning. I studien framträder flera läsinlärningsmetoder, tre syntetiska och en analytisk. De tre syntetiska metoderna fokuserar mer på avkodning medan den analytiska metoden börjar i förståelsen. Undersökningen visar att det är givande att arbeta med flera metoder eftersom man dels kan anpassa undervisningen på olika nivåer, dels för att de olika metoderna passar olika elever. Genom varierande arbetssätt och läsinlärningsmetoder gynnas fler elever av läsundervisningen, vilket möjliggör att fler barn lär sig läsa. / Learning to read is an essential part of today`s school and society. Therefore, a lot of focus is placed on reading teaching in the early years. Teachers´ knowledge and didactics are great importance in promoting students´ learning to read. It requires an understanding of the complexity of the reading process and which abilities of the student are important to develop. Consequently, the aim of the study is to investigate how six teachers at three different schools perceive that good reading teaching is established. The survey wants to shed light om the teacher`s view of which abilities are important for pupils to develop in early reading teaching, which reading learning methods are used and how. The study takes an approach in the sociocultural theory, where the proximal development zone supports learning. The teacher needs to have reading learning skills to be able to find out where the student is in his development and support him further to a higher level on the knowledge ladder. The survey is carried out with individual semi-structured interviews with all teachers. The semi-structured interviews are used so that the conversation is reasonably open but still follows a structure. The results showed that reading motivation, decoding and language comprehension are needed for effective reading learning. Several reading learning methods appear in the study, three synthetic and one analytic. The three synthetic methods focus more on decoding while the analytical one begins in understanding. The survey shows that it is rewarding to work with several methods, partly because you can adapt the teaching at different levels, partly because the different methods suit different students. By using more varied working methods and reading learning methods, the teaching of reading benefits more students, which enables more children to learn to read.