Abstract

The declining results of reading comprehension, and possible reasons for this, has been a topic discussed in our society for several years. As a measure, the government introduced a new knowledge requirement in reading comprehension, and a compulsory assessment support in Swedish, for the first grade from the first of July 2016. The aim of this study was to investigate how some teachers work with pupils who are learning to read, based on the Swedish Agency for Education's assessment support. A qualitative approach was chosen because it would better show the teachers experiences of the matter. The data collection was conducted through interviews with four teachers from different schools. These four teachers are currently working in the second grade and have worked with the assessment support since it was introduced in 2016. In the analysis was used a socio-cultural perspective. The results of the study showed that the participating teachers use different teaching materials, strategies and practices to offer an education that meets their students' different needs. The study showed that the assessment support took too much time from teaching, but that it gave a concrete verification for the teacher. All the teachers in the study agreed that the assessment support did not show any student results that they did not previously know of.

Keywords

Assessment support, reading, reading development, reading comprehension, sociocultural theory, proximal development zone, first grade, assessment.