New Era University

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER

#9 Central Ave, New Era, Quezon City

I. PROPOSED TITLE: COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING (CSR): A

CONTENT AREA INSTRUCTION TO IMPROVE READING AND WRITING SKILLS

II. RESEARCH PROJECT PROPONENT: Prof. Serena B. de Castro

MEMBERS: Dr. Marissa R. Operario
Dr. Joseph A. Asuncion

III. INTRODUCTION

This study concerns the identification of reading and writing difficulties in

understanding the texts of content area readings of General Education subjects. Every semester,

professors tried their best to meet the learning competencies students need to learn.

Unfortunately, the expectation of the curriculum has not been achieved. The students have

difficulties in comprehending the written texts and are able to write well-constructed paragraph

on the text being read. The problem faced by students is assumed that they lack prior knowledge;

find it difficult to determine the main idea of a paragraph, extract the important details and make

inference of the text they read. By identifying the area of difficulty in reading such text, the

application of interactive reading approach in teaching will determine if there is better learning.

Based on studies, there is better learning if there is active learning. With this, the use of

interactive reading approach is considered a way to have an active learning for better learning.

Interactive approaches in reading complex materials also called collaborative or cooperative

learning activities such as; simulation games, and sharing activities will direct to speaking
engagement activities as well as enhance writing skills. Specifically, this study will look into

reading skills such as, getting the main idea as part of the writing skills. There are promising

methods that may be used to ensure the student/learner performance which requires for a good

strategy. One of which is the Collaborative Strategic Reading or CSR. CSR is effective in

culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms of struggling readers, students with learning

difficulties, average, and high-achieving students. Studies show that this method improved

reading comprehension, vocabulary, and test scores. This is due to the fact that it combines

reading comprehension and writing strategies, and cooperative learning, which is most effective

when used with small groups. Peer interaction in CSR provides opportunities to use academic

language in meaningful communication about academic content and has been found to have

profound impact in persuasive writing (Standish, 2005).

Most of the learners nowadays work well if assigned to work in groups and somehow

give them chance to improve themselves, exert more effort to improve in reading skills. If both

reading and writing skills are improved, they are ready to read numerous pages of their text and

have patience and diligence to even construct well written paragraphs.

Statement of the Problem

This study will determine how Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) instruction will

help to improve the reading comprehension skills of respondent students. Specifically, this study

will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What are the reading and writing difficulties of students in understanding the text being

read?

2. What is the comprehension level of the respondent students?

 3. How does the CSR effectively help to improve the comprehension skills of the

respondent students?

4. Is there a significant relationship in the use of CSR to the improvement of reading and

writing skills of the respondent students?

5. How may the result be utilized in the development of the General Education

Curriculum?

Hypotheses

Ho: There is no significant relationship between the use of CSR to the improvement of

reading comprehension and writing skills of the respondent students.

Ha: The reading comprehension and writing skills of the respondent students are

enhanced if CSR instruction is utilized in the teaching and learning process.

Significance of the Study

This study also aims to help students better understand highly complicated concepts and

be trained to learn them independently. This study may contribute to help the professors teaching

General Education subjects by using the strategies in reading for independent learning and may

be used for the development/revision of the curriculum. A work text which incorporate new

strategies suitable for teaching content area readings will be utilized for the revision College of

Arts and Sciences courses curriculum.

I. METHODOLOGY

Participant/Respondents

This study will be conducted within a descriptive research designed for the

participating freshman or secondary college students of 1st semester SY 2019-2020 aiming to

know the efficiency of CSR in the improvement of their reading and writing skills.

The respondents in this study will be based on the existing classes of the researchers

of 1st semester SY 2019-2020. One class will be used where respondent students are

heterogeneously grouped. They are of different age, gender, comprehension levels, interests.

Various instruments will be used. To collect the data there will be 5 instruments to be used:1.)

the pretest and post test reading comprehension tests, 2.) the CSR learning log, and 3) the

reflection paper to write about their reading problems and feedbacks 4.) graphic organizers and

the 3-4 paragraphs. Pretest and post tests will be conducted to determine the respondents’

comprehension levels. The reading comprehension test is a 50-item MCQ test made by the

researcher constructed containing questions with different reading comprehension skills. The

CSR learning log will be their output using the CSR learning log format based on the reading

materials they used. The learning log will be accomplished following the 3 stages of reading:

before, during and after reading stages. There are 4 reading strategies that students need to learn

and these are incorporated in the said stages which include the following: 1.) Preview; 2.) Click

and Clunk 3.) Get the Gist and; 4.) Wrap- Up. The learning log may be done by group. The

graphic organizers and the 3-4 paragraphs are the expected individual output after they were

fully given the reading materials to read and study.

Experimental Design

The study will utilize Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) reading strategy

instruction and John Dewey’s Inquiry Learning, one of Constructivism Models of Reading.

Incorporating CSR in teaching expository texts, respondent students will be trained to use in a

more democratic way how to approach difficult and challenging text. Through CSR, the students

will learn four (4) reading strategies which start before, during and after reading. This peer-

facilitated learning will help train the students to work independently and cooperatively with

their classmates and be responsible with their learning without depending so much to their

professors. These will also help the students to be aware of the strategies they us e particularly

to reading difficult texts. By constant practice using this strategy, students will be more

motivated to read as effective readers and learners at the same time. Thus, they are expected to

create on their own a meaningful learning as evidenced in their productive output such as

graphic organizes and well- constructed 3-4 paragraphs. This instruction will also address issues

on improving learning habits and literacy and converting the New Era University as a reading

community.

Data Gathering Procedure

The result of the pre-test and post- test which is a 50-item Multiple Choice Test Reading

Comprehension Test and made by the researcher which covered different content area readings

is one of the sources of data. The pre-test and post-test will measure the reading comprehension

levels of the respondent students before and after the CSR intervention. The rest of the sources

of data will be submitted and graded according to a rubric, assessing the reading and writing
skills of the students. The following are the other sources of data: 1.) the CSR learning log,

which will be completed before, during and after reading a particular text.; 2.) a 5-7 reflective

statements, a self-assessment about reading and writing difficulties; 3.) graphic organizers, which

will assess how they were able to construct meaning and interpret the text read; and 4.) a 3-4

paragraph which will examine the improvement of their writing skills.

Data Analysis/Statistical Technique

The respondents in this study will be based on the existing classes of the researcher of 1st

semester SY 2019-2020. One class will be used as a descriptive research. This group is

heterogeneously grouped in their classes. They are of different age, gender, comprehension

levels, and interests. To collect the data there will be 5 instruments to be used:1.) the pretest and

post test reading comprehension tests, 2.) the CSR learning log, and 3) the reflection paper to

write about their reading problems and feedbacks. Pretest and post tests will be conducted to

determine the respondents’ comprehension levels. The reading comprehension test is a 50-item

MCQ test made by the researcher constructed containing different reading comprehension skills.

4.) graphic organizers, which will assess how they were able to construct meaning and interpret

the text read; and 5.) a 3-4 paragraph which will examine the improvement of their writing skills.

The study will use the descriptive research data analysis to measure the reading and

writing skills of the respondent students. The pre-test and post-test scores will represent the

reading comprehension levels of the respondent students before and after CSR intervention. The

test of hypothesis will use the T-TEST statistical instrument to measure the difference between

the scores before and after the CSR intervention.

 BUDGETARY REQUIREMENT

BUDGET PLAN
Item Estimated Cost
School supplies P 1000.00
Encoding and Computer researches and supplies P 2000.00
Statistical analysis P 1000.00
Reproduction of Results P 1000.00

Total P 5000.00

TIMETABLE
Project Duration : 1ST Semester SY 2019- Start Date: August 2019
2020
Completion : December 2019

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