The purpose of this Master's thesis is to contribute to a betterunderstanding of children's free time reading book practices by studyingpupils in the school library and their processes of finding and borrowingbooks for themselves to read silently in the classroom, so called free timereading books. The study also includes observations of the staff's role,particularly the school librarian's in supporting pupil's book selection.The empirical material consists of field notes from an etnographic studywhere pupils in 4th grade (aged 10-11) and staff were observed duringthree school library visits. The theoretical framework is inspired byLennart Björneborn's concepts of information practices in libraries:serendipity, integrative library interface, mediation flow and affordancespaces.The study shows that pupils' search for free time reading books in theschool library is relatively routine-based at the same time as it isspontaneous. The process is an interplay with factors such as time,display and interaction in the integrative library interface. In the presenceof adults, finding books becomes an imposed task for the pupils.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to find out how the central content of the compulsory school curriculum (Lgr11) is handled in three teacher?s manuals for instruction in reading and writing for grade 1, and how these consider interaction and variation in learning how to read and write. Through a qualitative analysis with a hermeneutic approach, the three teacher?s manuals in Swedish for grade 1 were subjected to a close reading. The result shows that parts of the central content of the curriculum are considered, but that it is by studying exercises and texts that these become visible.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to identify discourses within the school library field and to analyse which professional identities the discourses result in for school librarians. The empirical data consist of 71 articles from Swedish journals concerning school libraries and school librarians, between the years 2000-2003. The theory and method used is a discourse analysis which is inspired by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This form of discourse analysis was chosen since it was useful when identity was the focus of study. The analysis is accomplished in three steps.

This essay examines the decline of reading comprehension in Swedish schools, and also aims to provide insight into the debate concerning a literary canon and its usage in schools. While some claim that the literary canon is only a list of irrelevant white dead men which only serves to perpetuate feelings of alienation in, for example, female students, others see it as a means to bring society together using the only literature that stood the test of time. This essay will look to studies concerning reading comprehension, and questions regarding reading habits which our own students answered. It will also explain the different viewpoints of both sides of the canon debate.There are several studies that show this decline in reading comprehension, PISA and PIRLS being the foremost of them. They point to a trend where the reading skills of boys are much worse than those of girls, a trend which still has not panned out.Bloom and the different researchers who are the basis for Verhaest's thesis are of the opinion that canonical literature serves a purpose in that it teaches students aesthetic literary values.

The aim of my ?two years master thesis? was to examine school administrators perceptions about important information literacy skills that the students should be able to control, perceptions about what role the teachers and the librarians have in teaching students information literacy and perceptions about the collaboration between these groups. My questions have been: Have the school administrators reflected upon the conception of information literacy? What conceptions do school administrators have about important information literacy skills that the students should be able to control? What role do they consider the teachers and the librarians to have in making all students information literate? How do they consider the collaboration between the teachers and the librarians work? What role do they consider themselves to have on a management level to make all students? information literate? I used a phenomenographical method and carried out six qualitative interviews with school administrators from five senior high schools in the municipality of Gävle. Both public schools and independent schools were included in the study. Most of the school administrators considered information literacy to be the same as criticism of sources, which they also considered as one of the most important information literacy skills.

A reading campaign, Läsrörelsen The Reading Movement took place in Sweden 2000 until 2002. It was started by some adult educationists, and was supported by over 120 organizations. The aim of my study was to examine which messages the campaign wanted to mediate. As the campaign meant that reading was important for democracy, I wanted to study if there was any public debate about reading around 1900 when the democracy process had just started in Sweden. I have also studied if reading is regarded in the same way by the rulers of Sweden as it was by the campaign.

AbstractThe phonics is traditionally firmly established within reading acquisition in Swedish schools. The curriculum, Lpo 94 gives spacious independence regarding the question of method and we have to be aware of our own point of view when we are making the decision regarding the method of reading acquisition. Is it tradition or is it our linguistic point of view that is the determining factor? Through this study of literature, different publications from different times are being studied and the ideas and the linguistic point of view are being discussed. Through comparing between the curriculums that have been replaced of one another, and attending to linguistic discussion and research, we will be able to see a change in the linguistic point of view.

The purpose of this study was to compare reading development assessments with writing assessments to create an understanding about the relationship between the reading and writing ability of children. Another aim of the study was to look at other factors that cohere with the ability to read and write, such as background and socio-economic status. Our hypothesis was that explicit instruction in writing is necessary to develop good writing skills. We chose to conduct a quantitative study containing an inquiry, a dictation and a writing task. We compared our results with reading assessments based on a reading development schedule (LUS).

AbstractThe phonics is traditionally firmly established within reading acquisition in Swedish schools. The curriculum, Lpo 94 gives spacious independence regarding the question of method and we have to be aware of our own point of view when we are making the decision regarding the method of reading acquisition. Is it tradition or is it our linguistic point of view that is the determining factor? Through this study of literature, different publications from different times are being studied and the ideas and the linguistic point of view are being discussed. Through comparing between the curriculums that have been replaced of one another, and attending to linguistic discussion and research, we will be able to see a change in the linguistic point of view.

This is a thesis about 9-12-year old girls and their leisure reading. The purpose of this study is to examine their reading experiences. The method we use is a combination of qualitative interviews and studies of literature. The thesis shows that there seem to be four basic needs in girls that can be satisfied by leisure reading; the need to develop language skills; the need to be entertained; the need to gain knowledge of the world and the need to get help to resolve personal issues. The interviews with nine girls show that they primarily read for fun and that the knowledge and insights that are conveyed in literature come in second place.

The purpose of this essay is to present research-based literature and in that find basic practics that benefit the process of reading comprehension in the further reading. To get a broader perspective and a practical school related, we also held a small empirical study in the form of interviews with six active teachers. We discussed among other things, what reading means, the use of textbooks, how the reading process is conducted and so on. The results were correlated against the reported literature and the curriculum. It revealed a gap between theory and practice.

The main purpose of this study is to identify and compare classical pianists' understanding of sight-reading. Six pianists were interviewed, four professionals and two students. All of them concidered good sight-reading ability to be an advantage, especially when rehearsing, but most important is to be a good musicians performing music thoroghly gone through..

The purpose of my study is to investigate teacher?s perceptions of their mission in the preschool class, and how they work to promote children?s written language development. What methods and working methods they use to awaken curiosity and motivate children to read and write. I am using the qualitative research method to get answers to my questions. I have made four qualitative interviews with four teachers in preschool classes from different schools.My questions are:What conceptions does teachers have about their mission in a preschool class?What different methods and approaches does teachers use to stimulate and wake children?s curiosity for reading and writing development?The theoretical basis for my study is the socio-cultural perspective, where learning occurs in interaction.

While almost 23 percent of the students in the Swedish upper secondary school are foreigners, only a fraction of the school libraries? collections consists of literature written in other languages than Swedish or English. This study examines how five school librarians experience the task of working with literature composed in foreign languages in the multicultural and multilingual school of today. The results of the qualitative interviews are analyzed in relation to the legislation and policy documents that the school libraries are working by, and also in relation to the theoretical framework of sociocultural theory and the theories on second language acquisition developed by linguist Jim Cummins.The study shows that while multilingualism is discussed as an important matter in the legislation and policy documents that the school libraries work by, the librarians in this study largely view the question of foreign literature as peripheral. Most part of the librarians connects first language reading to leisure-time activities rather than curricular activities, and stresses that the Swedish language should be prioritized in Swedish schools.

The main thing we wanted to find out with this thesis was, can reading aloud help the natural language development. We also wanted to know how libraries in Sweden work with reading aloud and if children with reading and writing problems are being helped by being read to. We also wanted to find out what authoritarians on literature think a good reading-aloud novel should contain. To find this out we decided to do a literature study, we have taken part of a number of authoritarian opinions on this matter and we also studied some theories on this subject. We also decided to do a couple of interviews to exemplify how regular libraries work with reading aloud.