Date Approved

5-31-2023

Embargo Period

6-1-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Reading Education

Department

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Susan Browne, Ed.D.

Committee Member 1

Valarie Lee, Ed.D.

Committee Member 2

Xiufang Chen, Ph.D.

Keywords

Literature Circles, Multicultural Texts, Self-Efficacy, Students With Disabilities

Subject(s)

Children with disabilities; Multicultural education

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Disability and Equity in Education | Language and Literacy Education

Abstract

This study seeks to determine what happens to fourth grade students with disabilities reading self-efficacies when they participate in inclusive literature circles with multicultural literature. The purpose of this teacher research was to investigate strategies to improve reading self-efficacies of students with disabilities, investigating what would happen if students with disabilities were placed heterogeneously with their peers while reading books with characters with disabilities and how that influenced their reading self-efficacies. Four students with a disability were integrated with their general education peers in their inclusive classroom to participate in literature circles for four weeks. The multicultural books were books that contained characters with disabilities. Baseline data from the Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS) was used to assess students' self-perceptions in reading. When analyzing the data, the three major themes within the study are: (1) Students' perceptions of disabilities and how they changed throughout the literature meetings; (2) Students made connections to the text through representation of their experiences; and (3) Students had an increased engagement and belief in their ability. The results suggest that over time, inclusive literature circles with multicultural texts can slightly improve the reading self-efficacies of students with disabilities.

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