Promoting Pupil Learning In Reading Using Phonetic Calendar

Abstract

Reading is deemed as an essential macro skill in learning most of the subjects in the k-12 curriculum. The ability to read is generally recognized as one of the most important skills a learner should have. It is a tool of the inquisitive mind and a vehicle for obtaining ideas. The individual, who reads well, has to his command a means for widening his mental horizon and for multiplying his opportunities for experiencing. Phonetic Calendar is an instructional material that supplement whatever available material the teachers are using for enhancing the skills of the struggling readers in their school. It is also promotes learning in reading of struggling pupils in reading English of Grade IV to catch up and cope in the readingskill requirement in grade 4. Phonetic Calendar is originally developed by the researcher as an intervention to promote pupil's learning in reading. Each struggling reader will be invited to participate in reading activities. These activities will be completed by pupils for 20 minutes every weekday, over a five week period. These activities will require struggling readers to read set of words from A to Z and then answer reading test afterwards. a set of words will be given every day. After five weeks of completing the reading activities, pupils will then complete the post-test in reading. The pre and post-surveys are exactly the same. Pupils post-tested using the validated reading test to determine their reading levels.The action research project employed a Pre-Experimental Design. It will consist of only one designated treatment group (X1). The participants are not randomly assigned. The participants are in a 4th grade class at Mangandingay Elementary School. With this one-group pretest-posttest design, the single group were pretested (O1) to record their performance before the treatment, exposed to a treatment (X), then post tested (O2) to see if there is any change. The symbolic Design is O1XO2 where the difference of O1 is explained by X. The intervention is anchored on Lev Vygotsky's theory in childhood development. Vygotsky's gives teachers a dominant role in supporting children's growth, (Brooks, 2011)