Text

theses

Reading is key in all aspects of education and improving reading instruction continues to be an issue of national focus. Although there is considerable research on the nature of teaching reading from a variety of viewpoints, little has focused on student perspectives, particularly at younger levels. The purpose of this case study is to describe early readers’ perceptions of “good” reading and how they view themselves as readers, in two classrooms with teachers who have slightly different philosophies about reading instruction. This study focused on two second-grade classes. First, a survey was used to identify two teachers with differing theoretical orientations to reading instruction. Then, six students from each class were selected based on benchmark assessments and other criteria to ensure maximum variation. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with each teacher to gain an understanding of their reading beliefs and practices, and with the targeted students to shed light on their perceptions about reading and themselves as readers. To help understand the classroom culture and the context for reading instruction, various typical classroom documents were collected and three observations of each class’ reading period were conducted. Using a social constructivist framework, the data was analyzed using both deductive codes from relevant literature, as well as inductive codes that arose from patterns in the data. The findings were developed into two separate case studies of each class, which were then compared using cross-case analysis. The results of this study highlight students’ propensity to look to observable factors and use social comparison to evaluate and set goals for themselves as readers, thereby suggesting that the classroom culture can influence students’ perceptions. In addition to the explicit reading instruction being delivered, students gather more implicit information as they perceive it from the standards and norms in the classroom.

ETD_6956

Ed.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Renee R. Osterbye

doi:10.7282/T3S75JBN

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.