L’apprentissage par la lecture d’élèves d’une classe ordinaire de 3e année du primaire dans une école en milieu défavorisé

Academic achievement for all students is central to Quebec governmental policies (MÉQ 1999; 2003a, MÉLS 2006 ; 2009,). One of the many skills sets students acquire at school is learning through reading (LTR). LTR is essential to academic success for every student and is formally introduced into the education program during the 3rd year of elementary school (Cartier, 2007). However, some students have difficulty engaging in this relatively new reading context. This difficulty is observed, in general, among several primary school students, including those from disadvantaged areas (Labrecque et al., 2012). In order to support schools located in Montreal’s disadvantaged areas, a program was set up in the early 2000s (MÉQ, 2003a). One of its proposed orientations corresponding to LTR, Cartier and Bouchard (2007, 2010) have developed and evaluated a pedagogical approach supporting LTR for students from one disadvantaged school in regular elementary class (Cartier et Bouchard, 2007, 2010). Several factors may contribute to the problem faced by Québec’s elementary school students regardless of socio-economic divisions, however, these problems are more evident in schools located in disadvantaged areas. One of the important factors is related to the way teachers are supporting their student’s LTR experience. Different types of support can be offered through LTR activities and engagement, via evaluation and feedback, but these methods are not always efficient (Armand et al., 2008, Cartier, et al., 2017, Durand & Chouinard, 2006, Martel & Lévesque, 2010, Mottier Lopez & Laveault, 2008, Paré, 2011). In this context, given the difficulties encountered by some students, the question of this research is: how do third-grade students in a regular classroom and disadvantaged school learn through reading? To answer this question, Cartier and Butler's (2016) model of self-regulated learning (SRL) in complex situations places LTR (Cartier, 2007) as an example of self-regulated learning in a complex activity. This model proposes to understand how an individual learns, taking into account the individual and context relation. Several dimensions are to be considered in this relation. On the side of the individual, his personal history, emotional and mediating elements enter into a relation with the process mobilized in action. For example, prior knowledge, metacognitive knowledge and past experiences can influence how students learn through reading. On the side of the context, his historical, social, community and schooling enter into relation with the individual and the way the student mobilizes his process. The LTR situation is composed of different components (activity, opportunities, texts and learning areas), each of which has criteria for judging the quality of the situation. The student's LTR process is defined in the individuals-context relationship. In the action of the activity, the student can freely interpret the task and its expectations. To achieve this, he can use the instructions provided, but also his previous experience and knowledge of similar activities. While still in action, the student pursues a specific goal that may or may not be linked to the learning objective (Cartier, 2007). Students can also develop self-regulation strategies to control their learning and cognitive strategies to facilitate processing of the information read. Support may be given to the student, including formative evaluation that provides feedback to the student in the process. Students can also self-assess their process, or co-evaluate it with a colleague to identify areas for improvement in the next LTR cycle (Cartier, 2007). The literature review of eleven empirical studies shows that the interrelationships between context, LTR situation, and LTR process are important to consider in understanding how Grade 3 students in elementary schools located in disadvantaged areas learn through reading. Based on the theoretical model selected and the findings from the literature review, two research objectives were set: 1) to explore the presence of various portraits of LTR in elementary grade 3 students; and 2) describe the LTR process of these students according to the various portraits obtained. To achieve this, a multiple case study (Stake, 2013, Yin, 2014) was carried out using traces left in the learning booklet by 12 students of a regular class in the 3rd year of elementary school in a disadvantaged environment where an LTR approach had been developed. This approach included a series of tasks that allowed the students to strengthen and support cognitive strategies and SRL (Cartier & Bouchard, 2007) The results obtained in the first research objective made it possible to identify four portraits among these students : 1) active, metacognitive and performing students ; 2) active students who become more or less metacognitive and performing during LTR ; 3) active, non-metacognitive and non-performing students ; 4) more or less active, non-metacognitive and non-performing students. The results in the second objective illustrated the four portraits with four cases of students. A major and notable difference between the four portraits is that active, metacognitive and performing students had the most prior knowledge at the beginning of the activity and that more or less active, non-metacognitive and non-performing students had the least prior knowledge. Cognitive strategies were used appropriately by students and could be explained by the teacher's support in the activity. Adjustments to the choice of strategy to be used were made by the students of two portraits (active, metacognitive and performing students and active students who become more or less metacognitive and performing during the LTR situation). The results of this study are important in describing the regular classroom context of a disadvantaged school where twelve students, supported through various tasks, engaged in four different ways in the same LTR activity.

Keyphrases: Learning through reading, Self-regulated learning, Self-regulated reading, Content learning, Elementary school, Third grade