A Special Education Perspective on Reading Aloud in Schools

The aim of the study was to investigate how reading aloud is organized in the class-room and if the teachers made any adaptations for students with reading comprehension difficulties. Three teachers and two special education teachers were interviewed about their views on reading aloud and adaptations. Two students were interviewed about their experiences of listening to read-alouds. The results of the study showed that the students appreciated to listen to their teachers reading aloud and to take part in conversations about the text. The teachers who had been educated by Skolverket, Läslyftet, used comprehension strategies during the reading aloud lessons and found the strategies to be a good adaptation for the students with comprehension problems. The special education teachers mostly worked with students with word- reading difficulties. They did not use read-alouds and comprehensions strategies in their teaching. The study also indicate the importance of implementing research in education.