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CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM

Background of the Study

Reading is the process of looking at a series of written

symbols and getting meaning from them. During reading, the eyes

receive written symbols such as letters, punctuation marks and

spaces and the brain convert them into words, sentences and

paragraphs that communicate something to the reader. It can be

silent or aloud. Reading is a receptive skill in which

the reader receives information. But the complex process of reading

not just requires the skill of speaking, so that words can be

pronounced correctly. Reading is considered reading at all, when

there is comprehension.

Reading, as defined by Leipzig (2011), is an active process

in which readers interact with text to reconstruct the message of

the author and give meaning based on their own experiences.

Birkerts (2013) strongly-held belief is that reading is a primary

shaping influence that exerts its greatest formative effects at

the earliest stages but remains a vital factor throughout

development. He notes that our earliest reading experiences are,

generally, of being read to. While being read to is quite different

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from self-direct reading, its influence as a precursor event is

mighty and needs to be considered.

The Institute of Reading Development (2011) presents four

stages of reading development. First is learning to read where in

this stage, children are beginning to recognize letters and the

sounds they make. Second is developing independent reading which

begins when children achieve fluency in beginners’ reader books,

usually during Grade 2. Third, reading with absorption when

children achieve fluency in children’s novels, usually in Grades

3 or 4. Lastly is critical reading where children undergo

transformation, physical, emotional, and cognitive changes

starting in middle school and continuing throughout high school

and adulthood.

Pang, Muaka, Benhard and Michael (2013) posits that the real

progress in reading depends on oral language development, an

observation that suggests that children learn to read by

associating the written form with speech. For children to know how

to read they must learn the vocabulary, grammar and sound system

of the oral language in which the reading takes place.

Dickson and Neuman (2015) similarly believe that there is a

connection between oral language and early reading. Therefore,

prior knowledge is of language might be one factor contributing to

the reading difficulties experienced by learners.

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Reading may be the single most important skill for children

to learn, as it’s a portal to the world of knowledge. Learning to

read is prerequisite for success in our literate society (Hines,

2009, p.21). According to Professional Development Services for

Teachers (PDTS), reading is a strand of literacy that is the

primary builder of an intelligent population. That is why it is a

dream of every teacher to have reader pupils. However, despite the

effort but by teachers to develop reading ability of the learners,

there are still some learners who fails to develop this skill.

With so many struggling readers with various reading

difficulties, it is imperative that teachers not only identify

struggling readers, but know the best reading intervention

practices. Reading is an essential skill in life and reading

intervention can be fundamental for many students to find success

and be better able to achieve academics.

According to a research by Haring and Eaton on their

Instructional Hierarchy, interventions should be targeted based on

four phases or stages of learning. First is acquisition of new

skills, characterized by slow and inaccurate performance. A

student in this phase would require high modeling and ready

feedback with the goal of improving accuracy. Second phase is

proficiency, after a student becomes accurate but is working

slowly. This student responds to repetition and over-learning with

the goal to increase the student’s speed of response. Third is

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generalization, meaning the student is accurate and fluent but now

needs to generalize newly learned information to different

setting, to use the skill in a wide possible range of setting.

Finally, adaptation, in that the student can adapt, or modify, the

skill to fit new tasks or situations.

According to Mathes (2005), early intervention allows

students to get help before reading problems become entrenched and

complicated by self-concept issues. It can impact how children

think, how they learn, and who they are, changing the lives of

tens of millions. Recognizing difficulties in reading in the early

years is the key to making the necessary interventions to close

the gap in learning.

One of the ways many schools seek to improve literacy growth

is by adding reading intervention programs to existing literacy

curricula. The main purpose of reading interventions is to improve

students’ reading by helping increase their decoding, fluency,

comprehension or vocabulary.

Statement of the Problem

This study will determine the effectiveness of Resort for

Learning as a reading intervention to slow and non-readers of

Grades II and III in Calao Elementary School, Prieto Diaz District,

Schools Division of Sorsogon, for school year 2018-2019.

Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions:

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1. What is reading profile of the Grades II and III pupils of

Calao Elementary School as revealed in Pre-test and Post Test?

2. Is there a significant difference in the pretest and posttest

results?

3. What is the level of effectiveness of the Resort for Learning

as a reading intervention to slow and non-readers in Calao

Elementary School as perceived by the teachers?

4. What may be proposed as a result of the study?

Significance of the Study

This study aims to provide beneficial results to the

following:

Students. The result of this study may benefit the students

as the reading interventions aims to address the slow and non-

readers.

Teachers. The result of this study may encourage teachers to

plan and develop their own reading intervention to help learners

with difficulties in reading.

School Administrators. They may encourage their teachers to

adapt and develop interventions to address the learners with

difficulties in reading and learning. In addition, they may support

through implementing programs to upgrade the existing intervention

or in developing one.
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Reading Coordinators. The findings of the study may provide

them guide in working towards the improvement of teaching reading

particularly through interventions.

Parents. This study may help them understand the importance

of guiding and supporting their children in learning as well as in

reading. They might help in encouraging the learners to develop

their skill and love for reading.

Researcher. The result of this study may serve as their guide

in teaching reading and addressing slow and non-readers through

the help of reading interventions. Furthermore, other researchers

may be able to utilize the findings of this study in determining

the effectiveness of reading interventions to address slow and

non-readers.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study determined the effectiveness of Resort for

Learning as a reading intervention to slow and non-readers in Calao

Elementary School, specifically Grades II and III pupils.

Respondents of the study are Grades II and III pupils and

teachers of Calao Elementary School. Eighty-five pupils are

included where thirty-five are grade 2 and fifty are grade 3. Four

teachers were also included, were two are teachers in grade two

and the remaining two are teachers in grade 3 where the other one
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is the proponent of the Resort for Learning in Calao Elementary

School, Mrs. Michelle D. Rubio, Master Teacher II.

Excluded in this study are Kinder and Grades I, IV, V and VI

pupils and teachers of Calao Elementary School.

Definition of Terms

For better understanding of this study, the following terms

were conceptually and operationally defined:

Effectiveness. This refers to the degree which something is

successful in producing a desired result (Meriam-Webster, 2010).

In this study, it pertains to the responsiveness of the students

and the teachers on the Resort for Learning as a reading

intervention.

Resort for Learning. This is the name of the reading

intervention studied in this research. The proponent of this is

Mrs. Michelle D. Rubio, Master Teacher II of Calao Elementary

School.

Reading Intervention. It is a way to improve students’ reading

by helping increase their decoding, fluency, comprehension or

vocabulary. In this study, it pertains to the Resort for Learning

as a reading intervention in Calao Elementary School.

Pre-test. It refers to a diagnostic test given to students to

determine their strength and weakness along the competency (K to

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12 Basic Education Curriculum). In this study, it is a test given

to the student to know their reading profile.

Post Test. It is a test administered after a lesson or

instruction to evaluate the progress achieved and to identify if

the goal is attained (K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum). In ths

study, it is a test given to the students to know their reading

profile after being a beneficiary of the Resort for Learning as a

reading intervention.
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CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL, CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORKS

OF THE STUDY

This chapter present a review of related literature and

studies in which bear significance to the writer’s study. It also

includes the state-of-the-art, the gap bridge by the study, the

conceptual framework and hypothesis.

Related Literature

The researcher came across a number of related readings. This

gave the researcher a clearer understanding of her study and

support to the findings.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution, article xiv, section 2

declares that the state shall: Establish, maintain, and support a

complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to

the needs of the people and society. It is the responsibility of

the Department of Education as one of the agencies concerned in

educating the students to develop, adapt, implement and integrate

programs that will address the needs of the nation.

One of the needs that arises nowadays is the need of school

children to learn and develop reading skills. Because of some

indicators, students nowadays particularly in elementary grades,

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have difficulties in reading and decoding the information from the

reading materials. The number of slow and non-readers are

increasing and this is alarming in part of the teachers on what

strategies, interventions, or programs they would do to address

these problem. One solution that might greatly help is having a

reading intervention program.

In Calao Elementary School, to address the non-readers and

slow readers in the school, Mrs. Michelle D. Rubio a Master Teacher

II, come up to a reading intervention she named Resort for

Learning. It started as her reading intervention for her advisory

class with difficulties in reading since November, 2014. She wanted

to develop their reading skills and love for reading believing

that the more they will read, the more they will know and learn.

Eventually, she proposed the Resort for Learning to be a site of

remedial reading in the school. The purpose of this is to improve

the reading skills of the school children particularly the slow

and non-readers. Reading materials suited to their level can be

found in the place with different learning stations.

According to Nyathi (2011), many learners lacked adequate

reading skills because of improper foundation in learning and

reading. Some of the learners are not familiar with books unless

they enter school. Some are due to lack of reading materials while

others are because of parents themselves are inclined to reading.

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Lerner (2010) reports that children who get off to a poor

start in reading rarely catch up; poor first grade readers are

likely to continue to be poor readers.

Murray and Johnson (2012) believe that age is a great

determinant of language and reading development, and that the

younger a person the easier is to learn or acquire and read the

language.

The cited literature implies that reading is success if taught

at an early age. The learner’s familiarity of the language in which

reading is taught brought high percentage of success in reading

while readers in unfamiliar language have high percentage to fail.

In relation to this study, the researcher has observed that

most of the students find difficulty in reading English language.

Furthermore, those pupils who are more exposed to reading materials

are not only able reader but could read with comprehension. These

observations lead to the fact that reader pupils taught reading at

an early age and are exposed to reading materials while those with

reading difficulties are mostly unfamiliar with reading materials

and lack reading activity at home.

As to the effectiveness of the Resort for Learning being

studied in this research, based on the post test conducted, after

they’ve undergone the said reading intervention, the students’

reading profile moved up to the next higher level. This is because

they are exposed on a lot of reading materials in the Resort for

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Learning suited for their reading level and are practiced and

remediated in reading in almost every day of schooling.

In another note, Nutall (2012) posits that learner who are

able to read in their first language are more likely to read and

write in their second language. Reading difficulty in first

language becomes a hindrance in reading development in their second

language. Similarly, Dickson and Neuman (2014) confirms that there

is a strong transfer of reading habits from one language to

another.

As confirmed by the literatures mentioned, before the child

could learn in the second language, he must be a reader of the

first language first. The familiarity of the learners to the first

language may be the cause of his success in reading that language.

This idea is also adapted by the Resort for Learning. In the first

station, mother tongue words can be found as their first step

throughout the reading intervention program.

According to McGuiness (2011), decoding words is a very

important aspect of the reading act, without which reading

comprehension is impossible. Decoding is a prerequisite skill to

reading, and the lack of it presents learners with difficulties

when reading. In this respect, Murray and Johnson (2012) cautioned

teachers against long sentences with beginners, asserting that

when reading letter-by-letter and word-by-word s/he might not be

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able to hold all the information in short memory long enough to

understand the sentence as a whole.

As the literature suggests, reading is a skill that should be

developed in a step by step process: identification of the letters

in the alphabet, recognizing the phoneme of the letter, decoding

the text and comprehension. Reading therefore must be taught by

procedure and this must be considered by teachers.

Relating to the present study, the Resort for Learning has

several stations that suites for the reading level of the learners

with difficulties in reading. Each station increases in level until

they reach the final station wherein they would be considered as

readers already. In the station 1 are mother-tongue words. In

station 2 are picture words. In station 3 is the Marungko Approach

and family words. There are also consonant blends in station 4 and

phrases in station 5. And in the station 6 are sentences and short

paragraphs.

According to National Assessment of Education Progress

(NAEP), progress in reading is lagging behind the improvement in

the past two decades. NAEP believes that over twenty years, the

students reaching the proficiency in reading grew from 27 to 34

percent. Since reading is one of the subject in high-stakes

standardized tests, there is no doubt that schools are paying extra

effort on teaching students how to read and remedial reading,

consequently, teachers explore and develop different strategies

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and intervention to teach reading effectively and address students

with difficulties in reading.

Related Studies

Various studies were also found related to the present study.

The Resort for Learning was found to be an effective reading

intervention to help students with difficulties in reading.

On the study conducted by Hartney (2011) on the reading

ability of grade 3 pupils found out that the learners experience

difficulties in reading the second language (English) because they

are not their primary language.

Another study conducted by Yankelovich (2010) found out that

most children are reading but are not reading enough. Despite the

importance placed on the reading for fun, only about 3 in 10

children can be classified as high frequency readers who read books

for fun every day. Furthermore, the study generated to the result

that second language readers have difficulty in decoding texts.

However, constant practice in reading is needed to be a competent

reader.

Similar to the present study, as observed in the Resort for

Learning, the researcher has hypothesized that learners with

constant exposure to reader materials has improved reading ability

and comprehension.
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On similar study conducted by Ekstrand (2011), revealed that

local reading strategies such as focusing on grammatical

structures, sound-letter, word meaning, and text details tended to

be negatively correlated with first language reading performance.

This might be the because the reader lost focus on the

comprehension of the story but rather focus on its grammatical

structure. While somehow, the readers are familiar with the words

and vocabulary in first language, they are not quite familiar with

their uses and role in the sentence.

This study is also integrated in the Resort for Learning where

in the station 1 are mother tongue words and phrases to address

the difficulty in reading English rather that in Filipino. The

learners are first familiarized with their first language or mother

tongue.

Synthesis of the State of the Art

The cited literatures and studies contributed to the

development of concepts being dealt in the present study. Some

authors have supported that the Resort for Learning being studied

is an effective reading intervention to slow and non-readers and

learners with difficulties in reading.

Both the literatures and studies focused on the difficulties

in reading and how it would be addressed. The solution and ideas

given by the cited literatures and studies were found to be

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integrated in the Resort for Learning at Calao Elementary School

and therefore supported the study on its effectiveness as a reading

intervention.

As cited by the 1987 Philippine Constitution, article xiv,

section 2 that it is the responsibility of the Department of

Education as one of the agencies concerned in educating the

students to develop, adapt, implement and integrate programs that

will address the needs of the nation. Therefore, it is also the

responsibility of the teachers to device and develop programs for

a more effective and efficient teaching-learning process.

Moreover, when difficulties in attaining the educational goal

arises, it is then suggested to make necessary interventions to

address that difficulty.

Since one of the problems faced by the institution and the

teachers is the increasing number of the slow and non-readers,

reading interventions are being done. As being studied in this

research on the effectiveness of the Resort for Learning as a

reading interventions, the cited related literatures and studies

supports it.

Nyathi, Lerner, Murray and Johnson claimed that learners that

are exposed to reading materials and activities at young age has

a greater potential to be readers.

Nutall, Dickson and Neuman also pointed out that learners

must be first familiarized with the first language or mother

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tongue. With that it would be easier for them to learn to read in

their first language. And when they are already readers of their

first language, it would be easier also for them to read in the

second language because they already have prior knowledge and skill

in reading.

These literatures were also found to be evident in the studies

of Hartney, Yankelovich and Ekstrand. Based on their studies, there

are more difficulties in reading the second language. This is

because these learners failed to be a reader first of their first

language

McGuiness implied that reading must be taught gradually

through a step-by-step process and this must be considered by the

teachers in teaching reading to address difficulties and produce

readers.

All of these literatures and studied contributed to the

present research. The cited literatures and studied were found to

be evident and practiced in the Resort for Learning as a reading

intervention. As the station 1 is all about learning the first

language or the mother tongue words before moving to the next

stations or next level in reading since studies implies that

teaching and learning reading must be done in a step-by-step

procedure. Moreover, learners are also exposed to a number of

reading materials suited for their reading ability or level.

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Gap Bridged by the Study

The reviewed studies were conducted to determine the

effectiveness of the Resort for Learning as a reading intervention

to address the slow and readers in Calao Elementary School.

However, these studies focused on the difficulties in reading and

what might be done to address it.

On the other hand, there is a lack of studies on the

effectiveness of reading interventions to address the difficulties

in reading specifically the slow and non-readers. Hence, this is

the gap bridged by this study.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual paradigm shown in Figure 1 shows the

relationship of the input, process and output system. The inputs

are reading profile of the students revealed in the pretest and

the level of effectiveness of the Resort for Learning as a reading

intervention in Calao Elementary School as perceived by the

teachers. Process employed in this study was a survey to the

teachers and post test as shown in the paradigm. The output is the

result of the post test and survey showing that the Resort for

Learning is an effective reading intervention in Calao Elementary

School to address the slow and non-readers of Grade I, II and III.

Feedback showed the interrelationships of the variables.

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Input Process Output

• Reading profile • Reading • Reader pupils

of the Grades Intervention of Grades II
I, II and III (Resort for and III in
pupils as Learning) Calao
revealed in the • Post test Elementary
pre test. • Survey School

Feedback

Figure 1. Conceptual Paradigm

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research design, the sample and the

instruments used. Also included the data collection and data

analysis procedures.

Research Design

This study determined the effectiveness of Resort for

Learning as a reading intervention to slow and non-readers of

Grades II and III in Calao Elementary School, Prieto Diaz District,

Schools Division of Sorsogon, for school year 2018-2019.

The study used a descriptive research design because the data

were meant to be described as reflected in the instrument. The

respondents were the pupils and teachers in Grades II and III of

the school. The primary instrument used by the researcher was the

pre-test and post test of the oral reading test for grade 2 and

Phil-IRI for grade 3 for school year 2018-2019. Survey method

utilizing a researcher-made questionnaire-checklist was also

employed as an instrument. The data gathered were analyzed and

interpreted with the use of appropriate statistical measures and

tools.
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Samples

The sample of this study were the Grades II and III pupils of

Calao Elementary School and the respective teachers handling the

sample class. Table 1 shows the distribution of the respondents.

TABLE 1

The Respondents

Groups Frequency Percent

Teachers 4 4.50 %

Grade 2 pupils 35 39.30 %

Grade 3 pupils 50 56.20 %

Total 89 100 %

The respondents of this study were 4 teachers, 35 grade two

pupils and 50 grade three pupils.

The Instrument

This study used the pre-test and post test result of the oral

reading test of grade 2 and Phil-IRI of grade 3 for school year

2018-2019 as the primary instrument to determine the effectiveness

of the Resort for Learning as a reading intervention to address

the slow and non-readers in Calao Elementary School.

A questionnaire-checklist was also used as an instrument to

determine the level of effectiveness of the Resort for Learning as

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a reading intervention to slow and non-readers in Calao Elementary

School as perceived by the teachers.

Data Collection Procedures

The researcher was guided by the series of steps in gathering

data for this study. Prior to the conduct of the study, permission

was requested by the researcher from the proponent of the Resort

for Learning, Mrs. Michelle D. Rubio, Master Teacher II and the

School Head of Calao Elementary School, Mr. Leo D. Castuera,

Principal I to conduct the study in the school on the effectiveness

of the existing reading intervention there.

Then the researcher ask permission from the school personnel

concerned to access the result of the pre-test and post of oral

reading test of grade 2 and Phil-IRI of grade 3 for school year

2018-2019. The researcher also conducted an interview with the

grade two and three using a questionnaire-checklist regarding the

level of effectiveness of the Resort for Learning as a reading

intervention to slow and non-readers of grades 2 and 3.

Data Analysis Procedure

The data which are the pre-test and post test result of the

pupils were analyzed and interpreted. Mean, frequency and

percentage were utilized to determine the progress in reading

profile of the pupils.

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To determine the result of the interview conducted to the

teachers, average and rank were interpreted.