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.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om hur lärare i årskurs 4-6 beskriver att elevers läsförståelse kan utvecklas med hjälp av samtal om texter inom svenskämnet. Syftet uppfylls genom att följande frågeställningar besvaras: Hur använder sig lärare av samtal om texter i läsförståelseundervisningen? Hur beskriver lärare att samtal om texter kan påverka elevers läsförståelse? Intervjustudien har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i den sociokulturella teorin om hur lärande sker i en social kontext samt i Vygotskijs teori om den proximala utvecklingszonen. Intervjustudien har en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer använts som metod för datainsamling. Fyra lärare som undervisar i svenska i årskurs 4-6 har intervjuats. Resultatet visade att lärarna beskriver att de använder sig av samtal om texter för att utveckla elevers läsförståelse. Det framkom att eleverna får samtala om olika typer av texter i skilda sammanhang men att läsförståelseutveckling förutsätter att eleven får möta texter på rätt nivå och som engagerar. Slutsatsen i intervjustudien är att de intervjuade lärarna uppfattar att samtal om texter har betydelse för elevernas utveckling av läsförståelsen och att lärarna använder sig av det i undervisningen. Eleverna behöver med stigande ålder bli mer självständiga i arbetet med läsförståelse och i samtal om texter, för att det ska bli möjligt behöver lärarna modellera olika strategier för både läsförståelse och textsamtal. Lärarna beskriver dock inte hur de konkret gör för att med tiden överlämna ansvaret för samtal om texter till eleverna. / The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how teachers in the grades 4-6 describes that pupils can develop their reading comprehension by using text talks within the Swedish subject. The aim is to be fulfilled through answering the following questions: How do teachers use text talks in the reading comprehension education? How do teachers describe that text talks can affect pupils reading comprehension? The interview study has its theoretical starting point in the socio-cultural theory and how learning takes place through a social context and in Vygotskijs theory of the Zone of Proximal Development. The interview study has a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews have been used as a method for collecting data. Four teachers who teach Swedish in grades 4-6 were interviewed. The results of the study shows that teachers describes that they use text talks to develop pupils reading comprehension. The result also showed that the pupils get to talk about several types of texts in different contexts, but that reading comprehension development requires students to be exposed to engaging texts at the right level. The conclusion of the interview study is that the teachers who were interviewed perceives that text talks are important for students’ development of reading comprehension and that the teachers use text talks in their teaching. With increasing age, the students need to become more independent in the work with reading comprehension and in text talks, for this to be possible the teachers need to model different strategies for both reading comprehension and text talks. However, the teachers do not describe exactly how they hand over the responsibility for text talks to the students over time.

International reading comprehension studies, like PIRLS and PISA, state that the reading comprehension of Swedish students has decreased significantly since 2000. As a consequence, the National Agency of Education has made reading comprehension teaching a prioritised field in terms of further education for teachers. There has also been a change in Lgr 11, the national curriculum for compulsory school, where it is stated that teaching in reading strategies shall be a part of the central content throughout compulsory school. When the pupils reach upper secondary school level, reading comprehension education is no longer a part of the curriculum. Today, students at upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities currently share the same curriculum as the ordinary upper secondary school. As from July 1st 2013, the new upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities will start, and the new curricula for each subject for these school forms will be in use (National Agency of Education). The Swedish Schools Inspectorate and several reports indicate that there are deficiencies concerning too low challenges on individual level in the teaching of Swedish at upper secondary level for students with learning disabilities. The teaching is predominantly on individual level, causing lack of interaction between students. One main school objective is to prepare these students for an active participation in society. It is vital that students receive instructions when reading, in order to increase their reading comprehension. The basis of the study is a research based teaching program for reading comprehension teaching, called Reciprocal teaching (Palinscar and Brown 1984). The program has been modified and modernised with the aid of interactive media and the computer program Power Point. The aim of the study is to examine whether the reading comprehension and the motivation for reading are affected by the teaching program Reciprocal teaching. Method: Three 17-year-old students at upper secondary school for individuals with learning disabilities have participated in the study for four weeks. During the study, the students' participation and commitment were observed. The reading comprehension was tested before and after taking part of the program. Result: According to tests, the ability to decode a text has increased for all the students, which is an important factor for understanding a text. The commitment and motivation have increased and the students state that reading and talking about texts together was good. Interactive media with graphical support combined with structured questions from the teacher contributed to the students' increased commitment.