Developing reading comprehension skills through SCRATCH program

The aim of this research is determined as how to improve the reading comprehension skills of those fourth-grade primary school students who have difficulties in reading comprehension via SCRATCH program. In the research it was adopted action research method. It was implemented during totally 15 weeks in the fall semester of the 2015-2016 academic year in a primary school where the students with a middle socio-economic status in Eskişehir go. Participants of the research consist of eight fourth-grade students who have problems in reading comprehension and were selected according to the criteria of sampling method. Multiple data collection tools were used in each different phases of the research. These tools include "The Informal Reading Inventory", "Participant Selection Forms", "Reading Comprehension Development Level Determination Forms" and "Readability Assessment of Rubric" for quantitative data collection. Besides, observation notes, researcher's diary, video recordings, teacher interview forms and student interview forms and student's projects prepared via SCRATCH program were used for qualitative data collection. The quantitative data of the research were analyzed with W-test of Kendall, which calculate reliability factor among the scorers and correlation analysis. Also, error analysis inventory was used for the grading of participant and developmental forms related to reading comprehension. On the other hand, the qualitative data were analyzed via MAXQDA software, after analyzing with the thematic analyzing method. In conclusion, it can be said that the use of SCRATCH program in educational activities may develop reading comprehension skills of the fourth-grade students, who have problems is reading comprehension. Key Words: SCRATCH program, Reading comprehension, Action research.