abstract: The federal No Child Left Behind Act has set the goal that all students in every state shall be proficient in reading by 2014. Arizona teachers face the challenge of having 100 percent of their students meeting or exceeding grade level reading standards assessed by Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS). One of my goals as a reading teacher is to widen the range of options my students will have. My goal every year is to have my students read at or above grade level. I also am committed to inspiring students to become motivated to love literacy because voluntary lifelong reading is important in peoples' lives. The purpose of this study was to investigate conducting brief, interactive, weekly reading conferences during daily Scaffolded Self-Selected Reading (ScS-SR) sessions while incorporating Transactional Strategy Instruction with a pair-share with a partner, and to see if it would improve my students' reading motivation and comprehension. Data were collected via the Motivation to Read Profile Survey and Interview, informal observations, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency Test (DIBELS: ORF), and Oral Reading Records used by my school district. Findings concluded that students tended to become more willing readers, with several of them explicitly attributing their newfound willingness to read to my efforts. Most students became somewhat more aware of their reading experiences, explaining how different types of books in ScS-SR affected them. All students' reading comprehension performance improved, with measureable increases in students' instructional reading levels, retellings, and meaningful miscues that students attributed to leveled books, strategy instruction, and retellings. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Leadership and Innovation 2011

Detta examensarbete handlar om lärares syn på lässtrategiundervisning. Då mina egna erfarenheter inom skolans årskurs 1–3 vittnar om att läsfixarna används som metod trots att det inte finns forskning som stödjer metoden, har intresset legat i att undersöka lärares syn på läsfixarna som metod. Ett hett ämne inom skoldebatten har länge varit svenska elevers sjunkande resultat i läsförståelse enligt kunskapsmätningar som PISA. Detta menar Barbro Westlund, lektor i läs- och skrivutveckling och deltagare i flera forskningsprojekt, beror på bristande förmåga att plocka fram de rätta strategierna i mötet med olika texttyper. Westlund betonar vikten av att undervisa om lässtrategier ämnesspecifikt vilket ökade mitt intresse av att även undersöka hur lärare använder läsfixarna i samhälls- och naturorienterande ämnen. Undersökningen bygger på sju intervjuer av verksamma lärare i årskurs 1–3 samt en observation av ett lektionstillfälle. Resultatet visar en positiv syn på läsfixarna som metod som går att knyta till tidigare forskning. Resultatet har även visat på att metoden till största del används i svenskämnet, men att det på flera sätt går att använda strategierna ämnesspecifikt. Den positiva synen på läsfixarna som metod väcker nya frågeställningar om varför det saknas vetenskapliga bevis på att metoden är effektiv för läsförståelseutveckling. Det här är dock något som öppnar nya dörrar för vidare undersökningar i bredare omfattning på huruvida läsfixarna som metod hjälper läsaren att utveckla läsförståelse eller inte. / This master thesis is about the teachers view of reading strategy teaching. As my own experiences within the school grades 1-3 testifies that “läsfixarna”, which is a method of reading comprehension strategies, as method is used despite there existing no research that supports the method. For this reason, thesis aims to investigate the teachers’ view of “läsfixarna” as a method. A hot topic in school debate has been for a long time the decreasing results for reading comprehension for Swedish students in knowledge test like the PISA test. This is a cause according to Barbro Westlund, a senior lecturer in reading and writing development and participant in multiple research projects, of the lack of ability to use the correct strategies when encountering different kinds of text. Westlund emphasizes the importance of teaching about the reading strategies specific to the study which increased the interest to also investigate on how teachers use “läsfixarna” in society and science studies. The present study is based on seven interviews with working teachers in grades 1-3 and an observation of a period. The results are show a positive view of “läsfixarna” as a method which is also connected to earlier research of reading comprehension strategies. The results also suggest that the method is largely used in the Swedish subject, but it is also possible to use the strategies in various subject-specific ways. The positive view of “läsfixarna” as a method raises new issues, as there is no scientific evidence that the method is effective for reading comprehension development. This is something that opens doors for further and new investigations to a much wider extent on whether “läsfixarna” as a method help readers to develop reading comprehension or not.