”Räknas detta också som text?” Lässtrategier i ett ämnesintegrerat arbete med läromedelstexter

Abstract

This article responds to the need of further qualitative insight into teachers’ supporting students’ factual reading by introducing reading strategies. Inspired by ethnographic methods and action research, the material of the study consists of observations and audio recordings (20 lesson) of teaching in Grade 4 which integrated the subjects Swedish and Science (Physics and Biology). The analysis is mainly based on Langer’s stances for building knowledge in academic disciplines and a social-semiotic perspective inspired by Macken-Horarik’s knowledge domains. The findings show that the classroom interaction involved considerable attention to both the features of the disciplinary texts, verbal as well as visual, and the process of reading. The reading practice allowed the students to share previous experiences and discover a need for new information. However, the teacher and the students largely relied on informal metalanguage and foregrounded connections to everyday experience, rather than using a more elaborate metalanguage to explore how knowledge is construed from the perspective of physics and biology. Implications for teaching reading strategies in ways which promote students’ engagement with disciplinary content are discussed.