The purpose of this study was to examine the metacognitive reading strategies of five children, four to six years of age, who were reading fluently prior to formal instruction in grade one. Fluency was judged on whether the children could conduct meaningful reading (Smith, 1988) with relative smoothness (Duffy and Roehler, 1989). Methods of this case study included semi-structured interviews, role playing, observations and informal miscue analyses of oral reading. The children's personal characteristics and home environments provided a context for their reading strategies, and particular attention was given to the caregiver-child interactions which may have facilitated the development of metacognitive reading strategies.Findings suggest that each of the children utilized a variety of metacognitive reading strategies and showed individual preferences for certain strategies, as indicated by the number of times these strategies were used. The children also responded differently to particular research methods, a finding which supports the employment of a variety of methods when studying young children. Findings from this study also draw a relationship between caregiver-child interactions and the development of particular metacognitive reading strategies. RESUME Les stratkgies mktacognitives de lecture de cinq Iecteurs prPcocesDans ce mkmoire de maitrise on a examint (Brenna, 1991) la planification, l'autoguidage, et les activitks d'tvaluation de cinq enfants, Qgts de quatre A six ans, qui savaient lire couramment avant l'enseignement formel de l'tcole. Les mkthodes utilistes dans cette Ctude de cas comportaient des entretiens semi-directifs, des jeux de r61e, des observations, et des analyses informelles de mkprises en lecture orale. 54 BRENNAOn a dkveloppk des profils metacognitifs de lecture pour chaque enfant en termes de connaissance de texte (Wason-Ellam, 1994) aussi bien que de connaissance de soi et de la tache (Baker et Brown, 1984). On a dkcrit les caracteristiques personnelles des enfants et de leur environnement familial en tant que contexte de leurs stratkgies de lecture et on a accordk une attention particulikre aux interactions enfant-intervenant susceptibles d'avoir facilitk le dkveloppement des strategies mktacognitives de lecture.Chacun des cinq enfants a utilisk diffkrentes stratkgies mktacognitives de lecture et a manifest6 des prkfkrences personnelles pour l'utilisation de stratkgies particulibres qui garantissent une lecture significative. Lors de l'identification de mots, les lecteurs les plus avancks avaient tendance ii se focaliser sur une combinaison d'indices grapho-phonkmiques, syntaxiques et semantiques, alors que les lecteurs moyens du groupe recouraient davantage B la syntaxe et A la semantique. Le lecteur le moins avanck recourait B des indices grapho-phonkmiques B l'exclusion de toute autre information.L'information fournie par cette ktude peut Ctre utiliske pour ktablir une relation entre les interactions enfant-intervenant et le dkveloppement de stratkgies mktacognitives de lecture ...

This qualitative case study explored the relationship between comprehension strategies and graphic novels in one Grade 4 classroom, utilising children as informants. The primary research questions related to children's applications of metacognitive reading comprehension strategies as well as the potential for graphic novels to support the students' development as readers. Findings demonstrated that the children were able to apply two types of strategies to their reading of graphic novels: 'keys' that supported form-specific comprehension strategies and 'master keys' that supported more general comprehension strategies that could be applied to other types of texts. Student preferences for graphic novels aligned with their preferences for reading narrative novels and non-fiction, and did not align with preferences regarding comics or cartoons. Student preferences for reading graphic novels increased throughout the study. Fluent student responses to graphic novels through process drama were identified. Implications of the study involve the employment of graphic novels to support metacognitive strategies for reading and writing as well as to facilitate process drama.

This study, framed through a lens of Radical Change, examines selected Canadian and American picture books featuring characters with disabilities. While aspects of diversity such as cultural difference are consciously included in contemporary children’s books, differences related to disability are often absent. In this study, qualitative content analysis identifies patterns, trends, and themes related to characterizations that involve disabilities, proposing critical literacy as a framework through which children may interrogate messages in text and illustration.

A study of 50 contemporary Canadian novels for children and young adults explores patterns and trends regarding the construction of characters with disabilities, becoming a frame for the portraits of three Canadian authors, including a self-portrait. An adaptation of the Bakhtinian notion of the chronotope, applied to literary theory, provides a lens within which aspects of time and space are identified in relation to the internal chronotope of these characterizations, as well as in relation to the external chronotope of particular authors’ iterations, within their work, of actual space and time. A conceptual framework of critical literacy is used to highlight implications for including as classroom resources, texts about characters with disabilities.

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