An Assessment of the Reading Levels of Grade 7 students of Looc Integrated School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Reading without comprehension is just like eating without digestion. Reading is a skill that should be developed by students as a way of getting knowledge. It cannot be separated from every learning process and our daily life. It is quite surprising that there are still struggling readers in junior high school. Most of the students cannot grasp the idea of the text and they cannot understand what the text is all about. Our students can be classified as independent, instructional, and frustration readers based on the results of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI).

METHODS

To identify the reading levels of the Grade 7 students of Looc IS for the School Year 2018-2019, the Phil-IRI instrument was used. The Phi-IRI Group Screening Test (GST) was conducted to all 250 Grade 7 students. The GST was composed of a 20-item comprehension exam based on the set of leveled passages. The scores of the students served as a tool for classifying students’ performance in terms of the reading difficulty level and they were categorized as equal, above and below. They may be classified as independent, instructional, and frustration readers.

RESULTS

The scores garnered in the GTS showed that out of 250 students, only 10% are independent readers or those who can read on their own without any assistance. 36% are instructional readers, or those who can read with the support of the teacher, and 54% are frustration readers or those who can no longer read and understand the text on his/her own. The independent readers or those students reading at their level were able to answer lower than 14 out of 20 questions (74%) correctly.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrated that students under instructional and frustration level got scores lower than 14 out of 20 questions. The teacher needs to conduct an individualized assessment to further describe the child's reading performance. The results of this study will encourage teachers to design and to provide appropriate reading instructions to students to improve their reading levels.