Abstract  The aim of the study is to gain an understanding of how two teachers in the lower level of compulsory school, through the way they organize the teaching of reading with a focus on reading aloud, give pupils a possibility to converse about texts in order to develop an understanding of the texts. The study builds on two observations that focus on the possibilities that teachers give the pupils for conversation and the activities that deepen their understanding of the text they have read. Supplementary material consists of interviews with the two teachers. The collected material has been analysed with two analytical tools, sequential reading elements and textual mobility. The theoretical premises for the study are the sociocultural perspective (Säljö, 2012), reception theory (Rosenblatt, 2002; Langer, 2005) and Christie’s (1998) view of the teaching process in terms of macro-genres. The teachers’ comments from the study show that both teachers have the intention to ask reflective questions which give the pupils a chance for conversation at both associative and interactive level, but the observations showed that most of the teachers’ questions gave the pupils a possibility to move within the text through text-based mobility.

This study focuses on inferential comprehension instruction in the classroom. The overall aim is to study the way in which four teachers are designing their lessons to develop their students’ ability to make inferences in literary text in the Swedish subject. The main focus is to explore what teaching modules may look like to promote students’ ability to make inferences (e.g. text choice, group size and method) and how the teachers motivate their didactic work. The study is also focused on the opportunities and challenges associated with inferential comprehension instruction. The methods used are qualitative studies using observations and interviews. The material consists of observation notes and interview recordings. The concept of inference and reading comprehension is consistent in the study and focuses on the importance of explicit instruction to improve the students’ inference comprehension. The models of inferential instruction are used to analyze the empirical material. The results show that teachers prefer to teach their students in groups of approximately 12 students, and they choose texts that are close to the students’ everyday life and in which a lot of inferences can be made. The majority of the teachers in the study demonstrate how they use the inference strategy by the method think aloud, to show their students examples of how to think and for them to use the strategy on their own eventually. All teachers remind the students of their own background knowledge, which is proven to increase the students’ ability to make inferences. This study shows that the possibilities with the teachers’ inference instruction lead to a deeper understanding among the students when reading. The challenges are lack of time when preparing, impatient students, and if the students do not activate the right background knowledge from the beginning, which will lead to misunderstandings while reading the text.

The dissertation Litteracitet genom interaktion [‘Literacy through Interaction’] spotlights how literacy interaction can work in the primary school’s multilinguistic environments. It investigates conversations that occur in and around teaching about writing. The study material was collected from three different schools from year zero to year three, and special focus is given to what I call literacy chains. These chains are connected by the fact that they all concern a writing assignment that every pupil must complete, which in my material involves the text types narrative, factual text and poem. During the teaching sequences that unfold, there is an interplay of literary events in connection with speech, writing and various artefacts. My main object of inquiry is the interaction that occurs in these literacy chains. The dissertation demonstrates that the teachers’ lessons with the class as a whole lead to fixed conversational patterns, with pupils asked questions that require specific responses. The conversations tend to form either a so-called IRE pattern, where the reader’s initiative for a question demands a given answer in response which is then evaluated by the teacher, or a list pattern, with the pupils filling in answers. In situations involving the whole class, persistent, determined pupils are needed to break into the teacher’s monologue. When persistence wins out, from the pupil’s perspective, pupils can contribute new aspects to these conversations. In small groups and in one-on-one conversations, there are more pupil initiatives, since conversational patterns are not as fixed or predetermined. One key finding is that multilinguistic resources are sometimes made use of even though the schoolwork is usually based on a single-language conversational norm. Yet it is clear that multilingualism is a useful resource regardless of the teacher’s language background. On several occasions, we encounter participants who together construct a multilinguistic environment where languages are interwoven. All three literacy chains provide pupils with clear templates for writing, which determine what the pupils are supposed to do. The writing template in the poem chain serves as support for their writing but is not a straitjacket. This can be compared to the template for the factual text, which includes a copy of the model text. The written language norm of writing properly is communicated in great detail by the teachers to the pupils. Writing properly is not just having good, legible handwriting, but in school the writing norms to be applied in writing assignments are made relevant. On a more general level, the study illustrates that material resources vary in the schools, from green chalkboards to classroom resources that include laptops. However, schoolwork is predicated on paper-based writing. There is built-in stress, since schoolwork is governed by time, with a schedule that determines learning activities down to the minute, with them ending at a precise time. There is a race against time. / Avhandlingen belyser hur litteracitetsinteraktion kan gå till i grundskolans flerspråkiga miljöer. Det handlar om samtal som uppstår i och kring skrivundervisning. Undersökningsmaterialet är insamlat från tre olika skolor inom skolår F-3, och i det materialet är det särskilt det som jag kallar litteracitetskedjor som uppmärksammas. Kedjorna hålls samman av att de berör en gemensam skrivuppgift, som i mitt material handlar om texttyperna berättelse, faktatext och dikt. I de undervisningsförlopp som uppstår samsas litteracitetshändelser knutna till tal, skrift och olika artefakter. Mitt huvudsakliga analysobjekt är interaktionen som uppstår inom litteracitetskedjorna. Avhandlingen visar att lärarnas genomgångar i helklass leder till fasta samtalsmönster genom att de ställer frågor till eleverna som kräver bestämda svar. Samtalen tenderar att bygga antingen på s.k. IRE-mönster, där läsarens frågeinitiativ pockar på ett givet svar som respons, vilket sedan evalueras av läraren, eller på ett listmönster, där elever fyller i svar. I helklassituationer krävs det envisa och målmedvetna elever för att bryta igenom lärarmonologen. Genom att trägen vinner, ur elevperspektiv, kan eleverna bidra med nya aspekter till samtalen. I smågrupper och samtal en mot en förekommer fler elevinitiativ, eftersom samtalsmönstren inte är så fasta och förutbestämda. Ett viktigt resultat är att flerspråkiga resurser ibland tas i bruk, även om skolarbetet oftast bygger på en enspråkig samtalsnorm. Men det är tydligt att flerspråkighet är en användbar resurs oavsett lärarens språkbakgrund. Vi möter vid några tillfällen deltagare som tillsammans konstruerar en flerspråkig miljö där språken flätas ihop. Alla tre litteracitetskedjorna erbjuder elever tydliga skrivmallar, vilket reglerar vad eleverna ska göra. Skrivmallen i diktkedjan fungerar som ett stöd för skrivandet, men ingen tvångströja. Att jämföra med faktatexten där det sker en avskrift av modelltexten. Skriftspråksnormen att skriva fint förmedlas nogsamt av lärarna till eleverna. Skriva fint är inte bara att ha en fin och läsduglig handstil, utan i skolan relevantgörs de normer för skrift som ska tillämpas i skrivuppgifter. På ett mer allmänt plan illustrerar undersökningen att materiella resurser varierar i skolorna från den gröna krittavlan till klassuppsättningar med laptoppar. Skolan stöder sig dock på en pappersbaserad skriftlighet. Det finns en inbyggd stress, för skolarbete är reglerat av tid. Skolan regleras av ett minutbundet tidsschema och de lärande aktiviteterna klipps av utifrån exakta klockslag. Det pågår en kapplöpning med tiden.