Enhancing the Reading Comprehension Level of Grade 2 Pupils of Candelaria Elementary School 1& 2 through Project CALIBER

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Results of the 2017 Phil-IRI Pre-test in English revealed that 50% of the Grade 2 pupils belongs to the Frustration level, and 35.49% are non-readers. The main reason of the problem is pupils' poor reading comprehension which can be rooted from lack of one-on-one practice in reading and lack of practice in answering questions about a story. With this kind of result, it is necessary that a reading intervention program be given to the said pupils to address the root cause of the problem and a research to be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.

METHODS

This study was conducted to all grade two pupils of Candelaria Elementary School 1&2 using the quasi-experimental design. The pupils were pre-tested using a story with 10 comprehension questions. After giving the Basic Everyday Reading Pamphlet, which is composed of word lists and 20 stories with five comprehension questions, a posttest comprising of another story with 10 comprehension questions was administered to the pupils. Mean scores of the pupils in the pretest and posttests were taken in order to determine the effect of Project CALIBER in the pupils' comprehension. T-test for dependent sample was utilized to find if there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores regarding the pupils' comprehension.

RESULTS

Table 1. Pre-test and post-test mean resultPre-test Posttest Computed t-value Tabular Value (.05) 3.775.497.841.94Result showed an increase in post-test mean which signified improvement in comprehension skills of the pupils as presented in Table 1. Pupils got an average score of 3.77 in the pretest and 5.49 in the posttest which showed an increase of 1.72. It supported the statement of Coyne, Zipoli, & Ruby (2006) that early intervention can be of help to the students’ success in enhancing their reading competencies. Moreover, t-test showed significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores with a computed t-value of 7.84 which was higher than the tabularvalue of 1.97 at .05 level of significance.

DISCUSSIONS

The results implied that early intervention can help young pupils to meet success in reading. Based on the results of the pretests and posttests, it is insinuated that Project CALIBER was an effective tool in enhancing the reading comprehension skills of Candelaria Elementary School 1 & 2 though adequacy of time in administering the intervention was indispensable.