Date

2014

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Rick Bragg

Keywords

middle school, middle school content areas, reading specialists, shared story reading, Social Learning Theory, teacher read-alouds

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Education | Educational Methods | Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching | Teacher Education and Professional Development

Abstract

The possession of strong literacy skills will improve the quality of life for all children. Teacher read-alouds is a well-used practice within the elementary grades because of the intellectual and behavioral benefits for the students. However, there is a lack of research on this practice for middle school students. The purpose of this qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the perceptions of middle school reading specialists toward read-alouds across the content areas. The participants were five reading specialists from one rural public school system and one suburban/rural public school system in Maryland. The reading specialists were interviewed about their knowledge and experiences with read-alouds in the classrooms. The findings indicated that middle school teachers read aloud to their students, and the reading specialists supported this practice for many intellectual and behavioral reasons. Data were collected, coded, and analyzed through the use of the NVivo 10 program. Two overarching themes were identified, which confirmed the importance of read-alouds across the content areas and the need to implement this practice in the middle school classrooms. Implications for classroom practice as well as for future research are provided.

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