Analyzing Critical Reading Comprehension Strategies in Farsi Textbook of Sixth Grade in Elementary School: The Mindscapes Approach

In critical reading, the learner challenges the writers' views by investigating pieces of evidence and questioning to comprehend better the viewpoints of the writer. The aim of this study is to analyze 39 techniques and six reading strategies in Farsi textbook of sixth grade in elementary school based on the mindscapes approach (Carter, 2011) to clarify the correspondence extent of this book with the theory. The strategies include learning styles, active reading, main idea, critical thinking, question-answer relations, and text features. To fulfill the purpose, in this descriptive-analytic paper Farsi textbook of sixth grade among Farsi textbooks of elementary was studied based on the mindscapes theory. The used Critical reading strategies in each lesson were identified by their correspondences with strategies of the model and finally the whole correspondence of the sample was done quantatively. The data of 165 strategies was collected by researcher- made checklist from lesson texts, stories, read and memorize, read and think and all tasks including reading comprehension, comprehension and reception, reading and understanding, knowledge (language and literature), listen and say and lesson research. The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The investigating of strategies frequencies showed meaningful difference among them.Discussion and The findings indicate that all strategies have been used in this textbook, although their varieties and frequencies are different. The learning style strategy is in consistent with the model. The active reading and question types are nearly consistent while main idea, critical thinking and text features are inconsistent with this approach. On the whole, the textbook is not in line with the critical reading strategies of mindscapes approach making its revision inevitable to promote the learners' reading comprehension.