Browsing by Author "Eskelinen, Henna"

Low reading comprehency is connected to pupils with low reading skills. There are several reading strategy programs that could be teached at schools in order to enforce reading comprehency. It is not clear though, how much and in which way do textbooks in average lend themselves for such teaching methods. In other words, are certain characteristics of a textbook (for instance in lay-out) likely to support reading comprehency or not? Reciprocal teaching (RT) is a method for enhancing reading comprehency and it is based on four reading strategies: predicting aims at activating relevant background knowledge before reading, clarifying aims at critical evaluation during reading, questioning aims at concentration on the main ideas of the text, summarizing aims at allocating attention to the major content and also checking one’s understanding. In this study two finnish textbooks are analysed from the point of view of RT. Aleksis 9, which is a textbook of finnish language and literature for 9th graders, is compared to Aleksis 9E, which is a special education version of the former. The analysis concentrates on certain characteristics of lay-out and content that are first linked to RT’s four strategies. Also the characteristics that help to use the book are analysed, as well as some principles of easy-to-read lay-out. The qualitative methods used are content analysis and linquistic analysis. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the books differ as they give opportunities for carrying out RT. The study indicates that Aleksis 9E suits better than Aleksis 9 for strategies of predicting and summarizing. In addition it seems to be better organized and is therefore easier to use than Aleksis 9. Aleksis 9E also achieves the principles of easy-to read lay-out better than Aleksis 9. Therefore Aleksis 9E gives more opportunities for carrying out RT in average than Aleksis 9. The lack of Aleksis 9E is though, that some of its text-elements reformed due special education seemed to be more thwarting for reading comprehension than the original text-elements in Aleksis 9. Aleksis 9E would also meet the demands for RT even better, if the sentences were split over lines as instructed in easy-to-read principles. According to results it is possible to utilize certain characteristics of lay-out and content for the use of RT, but the requirements for that depend on each textbook. Therefore, the knowledge concerning reading comprehency should be part of book-production allready very early on, even before the principles of lay-out are being established. Further reseach could be targeted for instance at generating, evaluating and realising certain pedagogical elements on the basis of studies about reading comprehency.