Integration of Moral Story Reading Sessions as an Intervention to Bullying and Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This is a descriptive-comparative study, which looked into the effects of reading stories with moral lessons to the extent of manifestations of bullying and the reading comprehension of Junior students of SY 2017-2018 based on the account of 105 Junior High School teachers in Moncada District Schools. To gather data, questionnaires were distributed to the teachers. Data were tabulated, analyzed and interpreted through descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings reveal that during before the implementation of the intervention (3rd Quarter), verbal bullying gained the highest mean at 3.88 and cyberbullying got the lowest mean at 3.17. On the reading and comprehension of the students, Teachers perceived that their students sometimes had reading materials and exposure at home; were sometimes interested in reading; had reading and comprehension difficulties; and sometimes had reading activities at home and in school. After implementation of the intervention in the 4th Quarter, it was observed that the incidences of bullying were reduced but the reading comprehension did not dramatically improve. The research concludes that the extent of manifestations of physical, verbal, social and cyber bullying among high school students can be lessened in schools through integration of reading stories with moral lessons. However, there was no evidence that it improved the reading and comprehension of the students. The research recommended that teachers must integrate reading stories with moral lessons in order to modify bullying behaviors of students. After reading stories, teachers must provide time for students to reflect and share their reflections in class. Through this, students will be able to relate their experiences with the stories and with the encounters of their classmates. Another study may be conducted to look into other factors that will improve the reading and comprehension of the students.