Reading Skills of Nagsipit Elementary School Pupils: Basis For Remediation Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Teachers play a vital role in the development of reading skills of the pupils. They should be trained well on how to teach reading effectively to improve the reading skills of the pupils and to help in enhancing their academic performance.

Aquino (2004), has added that reading is an active dialogue between the author and the reader. It is a process that requires thinking, imagination, reasoning, problem solving, and evaluating. To develop reading comprehension, it is important to learn the different reading skills or strategies. Reading comprehension is the ability to group meaning of a written text.

Nagsipit Elementary School has long been dreaming to have pupils who are readers. To attain this, they should fall under Instructional and Independent level. It is not enough that pupils can read. A reader should read with comprehension. If pupils are functional readers, it will have a positive impact in the academic performance of the school as a whole.

Because of what the researcher found out, she deemed responsible for the performance of the school as a whole and so she conducted this school action research to improve the reading skills of the pupils and to enhance the competence of teachers in teaching Reading.

METHODS

The study used a descriptive-evaluative method through data collection of reading levels in the pre-and post-test. The researcher, with the help of the advisers, used stories with comprehension questions in the different grade levels and computed for the reading level. With that, she determined the pupils who will undergo remedial and other intervention to improve their reading skills. These were the non-readers and frustration level from Grades 1 to 6.

RESULTS

The results showed that although the number of pupils under frustration level increased in the post-test, the number of non-readers were reduced. Most of the pupils enhanced their reading level. Some of the non-readers improved to frustration level while pupils under frustration level developed into either Instructional or Independent level.

DISCUSSIONS

In order for pupils to love reading, teachers should provide print-rich environment that will encourage the learners to know how to read. Having classrooms with different reading materials would be very helpful to make the pupils read rather than do nothing inside the classroom. Remedial programs like Project DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), Project REMEDIAL (Reading Makes Everyone Develop into Active Learners), and Remedial Lessons during Supervised Study need to be continued in order to produce functional readers.