SOAR (Self-paced Output-based Advancement in Reading) Program: helping the reader in each Westian soar

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Reading is an important life skill. In the academe, the necessity to read is more apparent: examinations need to be read; textbooks are printed materials that need to be read; online sources for research also requires one to read. Hence, the alarming results of the Phil IRI for Grade 7 enrollees -a staggering annual average of more than 70% of the learners at the level of frustration for 3 consecutive school years -needed to be remedied. This study provided a means for the students at the frustration level of reading to bridge the gap and become functional readers.

METHODS

Developmental research, an approach that is focused on the systematic study of designing, developing and evaluating instructional programs, was utilized in this study. The study was done in batches due to limited resources. For the initial cycle, 30 of the 124 G7 learners under the frustration level was randomly selected. With the Phil IRI results as baseline, the respondents underwent the Self-paced Output-based Advancement in Reading (SOAR) program within a span of 2 months. A posttest (using the same Phil IRI questionnaire) was then administered and the reading level of the respondents as gleamed on the posttest are then compared to the pretest results. The second cycle of the program was conducted with another set of 30 randomly selected G7 learners at the frustration level of reading.

RESULTS

The first cycle of the SOAR program yielded positive results. Out of the 30 respondents, 24 or 80% were able to increase their reading abilities. Of these 24, 19 beneficiaries were able to attain instructional level of reading. Of the 19, 5 beneficiaries were even able to advance to independent level of reading. The second cycle also showed a similar positive result with 12 learners reaching the independent level of reading.Of the various reading programs that the host school has implemented, none posited the same results as the SOAR program.

DISCUSSIONS

One of the innovations of the SOAR developmental research is its self-paced and output-based reading materials. The materials of the SOAR program stimulate a learner to grow and improve at a pace s/he is most comfortable with; making the results more meaningful and concrete. This, as the researchers believe, is the main reason as to why the program succeeded where other reading programs failed. The study has also been benchmarked by other schools and has been selected as Division representative for the Regional search for the Best Reading program for 2 consecutive years.