God läsförmåga är en förutsättning för att kunna ta till sig information i vårt samhälle. För att uppnå läsförmåga krävs att kunna avkoda. När avkodningen blir svår behöver eleverna hjälp för att ta sig vidare.  Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att belysa vad aktuell forskning säger om läsinlärningen hos elever i avkodningssvårigheter samt lärares betydelse för dessa elever, för att få kunskap inom området. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har följande frågeställningar formulerats:   Vilka orsaker kan ligga bakom avkodningssvårigheter hos elever? <ul type="disc">Hur kan lärare stötta elever som är i avkodningssvårigheter?   Studien som gjorts är en litteraturstudie. Olika vetenskapliga publikationer har använts, såsom vetenskapliga artiklar och avhandlingar bestående av både nationell och internationell forskning. Stegvis gjordes en noggrann analys av materialet. Dessutom har en bilaga varit underlag för studien.   Resultatet på första frågan visar att de elever som inte har den fonologiska medvetenheten är mest utsatta i sin läsutveckling. Vidare framkommer i resultatet hur elevers syn på sig själva är en bidragande faktor för läsutvecklingen. Även lärares brist på kunskaper om elevers läsinlärning framkommer som ett viktigt bidrag i studien. Resultatet på studiens andra fråga visar vikten av att agera skyndsamt. Eleverna behöver träna på den fonologiska medvetenheten för att befästa den alfabetiska koden. Vidare framkommer motivation, självförtroende samt vikten av att få beröm och uppmuntran som faktorer där elevers läsutveckling gynnas. Likaså har lärare en betydande roll vad gäller den egna kompetensen om läsinlärningen samt att ha ett variationsrikt arbetssätt i undervisningen. Slutsatsen som dras utifrån resultatet är att den fonologiska medvetenheten är viktig då den utgör grunden till avkodning. Den fonologiska medvetenheten uppnås genom variationsrik undervisning. Att återkommande uppmuntra och berömma eleverna bör vara lärares förhållningssätt. Lärares kompetens inom läsinlärningen utgör en viktig roll för att skapa en god undervisning.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Marjorie R. Hancock / Children who struggle in reading must be offered additional pathways of communication in order to enable them the opportunity to express themselves and enhance listening/viewing comprehension. Through understanding of the elements of art, the utilization of artistic response, and exposure to distinctive literature such as Caldecott Medal picture books, students are better equipped to grasp both visual and textual meaning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the convergence of the elements of art, artistic response, and Caldecott Medal picture books and how they influence the listening/viewing comprehension of the struggling reader. Two, forty-minute lessons were given exclusively about the seven elements of art prior to the listening/viewing of Caldecott picture books. Participants engaged in the listening/viewing of six selected Caldecott Medal picture books through an initial listening/viewing within a small group setting, a second listening /viewing followed by an individual interview, and a third listening/viewing combined with an artistic response to each Caldecott picture book in a small group setting. General questioning concerning both story elements and elements of art were asked during both the initial listening/viewing and artistic response. Specific questioning occurred during the individual interview. Data were collected through interview and discussion transcriptions, visual and audio taped group work, field notes, and actual artistic response artwork. Data analysis revealed the enrichment of listening/viewing comprehension of the participants through 1) verbal usage of the elements of art, 2) comments regarding the elements of the story- setting, characters, events, problem, solution, 3) discussion of topics relating to personal experiences, 4) the dialogue of art media and the importance of art, and 5) distinct qualities of the picture book message theme articulated through artistic response. Art opened up the world of expression for the nine participants in this qualitative case study. Through the elements of art and artistic response combined with Caldecott literature, children were able to convey knowledge through an alternative pathway in order to enhance their listening/viewing comprehension of the picture books. Furthermore, documented evidence of the motivation of the participants indicated the value of exploration of rich literature and creative expression through artistic representation.

Reading deficits in students in Grades 4 to 12 are evident in American schools. Informational text is particularly difficult for students. This quasi-experimental study (N=138) investigated sixth-grade students' achievement in social studies using the Reciprocal Mapping instructional routine, compared to sixth-grade students' achievement taught with a traditional approach. The Reciprocal Mapping instructional routine incorporated explicit instruction in text structure using graphic organizers. Students created their own graphic organizers and used them to write about social studies content. The comparison group used a traditional approach, students' reading the textbook and answering questions. Students for this study included sixth-graders in the seven sixth-grade classrooms in two public schools in a small, rural south Florida school district. A focus of this study was to determine the helpfulness of the intervention for at-risk readers. To determine students considered to be at-risk, the researcher used data from the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), 2011-2012, that considers Level 1 and 2 as at-risk readers. The quasi-experimental study used a pretest-posttest control group design, with students assigned to treatment groups by class. Two teachers at the two rural sites were trained on the Reciprocal Mapping instructional routine and taught students in both the experimental and control groups for an equivalent amount of time over a 5-week period. Results of the 3 x 2 factorial ANCOVA found a significant positive difference favoring the experimental group's social studies achievement as compared to that of the comparison group as measured by the pre/post unit test from the social studies series (McGraw-Hill, 2013), when controlling for initial differences in students' reading FCAT scores. Interactions for high-risk struggling readers were investigated using the significance level p < .05. Due to no significant interaction the main effects of treatment were interpreted. The pretest was used as a covariate and the multivariate analysis was found to be significant. Therefore, analysis of covariance was run on each of the dependent variable as a follow-up. Reciprocal Mapping was found to be significant in posttest scores, independent of gender and level of risk, and while holding the pretest scores constant. Findings showed there was a significant difference in the performance of the high-risk reading students taught with the Reciprocal Mapping intervention who scored statistically better than students in the control group. Further study findings showed that teacher fidelity of implementation of the treatment had a statistically significant relationship in predicting posttest scores when controlling for pretest scores. Study results indicated that improving students’ use of text structure through the Reciprocal Mapping instructional routine positively supported sixth-grade students’ social studies achievement.

With the implementation of more rigorous reading standards nationwide, teachers are feeling less secure about their abilities to teach students to become proficient readers. Utilizing Bandura's theory of self-efficacy as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how teachers perceived their self-efficacy to teach complex reading standards to struggling readers. Seven middle school English language arts teachers from 2 schools in a southern school district participated in this study. The research questions addressed teachers' understanding of the recent Common Core literacy standards and perceptions of their own self-efficacy to teach mastery of these standards to struggling readers. Semi-structured interviews with teacher study participants were recorded, transcribed, coded, and then analyzed in search of common themes. Findings showed that teachers perceived themselves to be knowledgeable about the literacy standards but, believed themselves unprepared to teach mastery of the standards to students who read significantly below grade level. Middle school teachers in this study claimed they had received no training that emphasized effective strategies for struggling readers and believed that training in such strategies and more collaboration with colleagues would increase their self-efficacy to enhance reading skills of struggling students. The resulting project created from the findings was a series of professional development sessions for middle school teachers to explain reading strategies that support the reading development of struggling readers. This study could affect positive social change by identifying ways in which middle school teachers may become more empowered to teach struggling readers. When teachers are empowered, their confidence and self-efficacy levels increase, and students benefit from effective instruction.

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The efficacy of reading interventions on elementary students’ decoding and word reading skills and reading comprehension has been well-established in the literature. The efficacy of online reading interventions, however, is unknown. This study adapted an in-person reading fluency intervention for synchronous online implementation and examined its effectiveness in a single-case research design. Three struggling readers in grades 2 and 3 participated in an 8-week online reading intervention. Pre-test, post-test, and progress monitoring data were collected and analyzed. The results indicated that the online RAVE-O intervention was effective in increasing the participants’ accurate word reading and decoding skills as well as their reading comprehension. The adapted intervention was implemented with fidelity and maintained its efficacy in an online setting. For struggling readers who cannot access intervention resources in person, an online reading intervention such as the one used in this study could have a positive effect on their reading skills. / Graduate

The consequences of less than proficient reading skills are well documented. In educational settings, as children progress through the grades, the expectation that they acquire content knowledge through reading continually increases. However, many children lack the proficient reading skills that would enable them to acquire content knowledge through reading. Consequently, less than proficient reading skills are associated with academic failure and academic avoidance behaviors such as absenteeism and discipline problems. This study examined the effects of sheltered instruction on the academic and non-academic behaviors of a group of struggling readers. A causal-comparative research design was used to compare MCT2 Language Arts scores, attendance, and number of discipline referrals of 28 sixth grade struggling readers attending a rural school in northern Mississippi. Paired-samples t tests were used to compare measures of the dependent variables of students when they were in a traditional classroom setting to when they were in a sheltered instruction classroom setting. The results of the data analysis failed to detect any statistically significant differences between the measures of the dependent variables under the two conditions. Therefore, it appears that sheltered instruction did not have an effect on the academic and nonacademic behaviors of struggling readers. However, there are limitations to the findings of this study. The two most serious limitations are the small sample size and the incomplete data sets. With this small sample size, the t tests may not have been robust enough to detect statistically significant differences. In addition to the small sample size, each of the dependent variables had cases where data were missing. Consequently, a replication of this study is one of the recommendations of this study. Another recommendation is that the effects of sheltered instruction on student achievement be examined after students have been exposed to the treatment for multiple years.