A Content Area Reading-Based Strategic Intervention Materials for Grade 7 Mathematics

Abstract

The integration of reading into the content area like mathematics makes the content area more meaningful because they are connected to one another. Various studies have shown that because of the many similarities, reading skills and mathematics reinforce each other when taught together. Under this framework, this study focused on the development and validation of instructional materials called content area reading-based strategic intervention materials (CARB-SIMs) which utilized the idea of using reading skills as a vehicle for learning mathematical concepts. The contents of the developed materials were based on the least mastered skills of Grade 7 students of Mariano Marcos Memorial High School which include: (1) Operations on Integers, (2) Changing Fractions to Decimals and Vice Versa, (3) Laws of Exponents and, (4) Number Problems Involving Linear Equations in One Variable. Appropriate reading skills such as recognizing cause and effect relationship, sequencing events, comparing and contrasting and, noting significant details were matched to these identified least mastered skills to facilitate the learning of the concepts. All passages included in the developed CARB-SIMs underwent the New Dale-Chall Readability Testto ensure that the overall readability of the texts was suitable for Grade 7 learners. The checklist for evaluation and perception surveys were employed as the main instruments while the weighted mean was used to determine the overall assessment of the materials. Six peer evaluators examined the quality of the CARB-SIMs in accordance with the standard criteria released by DepEd in 2009. On the other hand, twenty-five Grade 7 students enrolled in s.y. 2017-2018 and who were taking remedial classes were subjected to try-out for a period of three weeks. Subsequently, a perception survey was administered to the students to gain insights on the acceptability of the developed materials. Findings revealed that the developed CARB-SIMs obtained an overall evaluation of 4.42 interpreted as highly acceptable. Furthermore, learners believed that (1) the presentation of concepts were appropriate and clear, (2) CARB-SIMs helped them master the identified skills in Math and English, and (3) CARB-SIMs encouraged them to learn more topics in Math. Based on these results, the study concluded that CARB-SIMs are highly approved instructional materials that may be utilized in classroom discussions to aid in remediation and enhancement of student performance in mathematics.