SCAFFOLDED READING IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

(ScRIP)

RATIONALE

One of the four macro skills that students should develop is the reading skill. Reading can
be defined as an active interaction between the reader and the text. This definition connotes an
active, and a more involved role of the reader. This takes reading several steps forward. The reader
does not only understand the text but goes beyond by agreeing or disagreeing, reacting to the
text, drawing conclusions and synthesizing or creating something new out of what he has read.
Recognition of knowledge of written word information (spelling), comprehension of sentence
structure, and ability to organize ideas in a paragraph, and in more complex literary forms are in
both reading and writing.
Effective reading is reading with speed and accuracy to wade through, to analyze and to
understand details. Intelligent reading is not a mechanical process. It means digging beneath the
surface, trying to determine what the writer actually says and getting the writer’s hidden
implication and motive.
Comprehension is one of the essential factors to better reading. In courses where literature
is involved, comprehension should be presented as a student’s tool to understanding. It is also
important in courses involving word problems, graphics and others. Thus the inability to read and
to comprehend hinders the students to appreciate what they read, paralyzes them to associate
values that they could pick up and impedes them for understanding the meaning of a worded
problem. The failure of interpreting the printed page by the students is attributed to their lack of
the basic reading skills.
It should therefore be the main concern of the teachers to know the abilities, interests and
needs of their students and to craft activities or programs based on these needs to teach poor
readers in a scaffolded manner, and thus develop among them the ability to comprehend at
various levels for it is very useful to all fields of endeavors.
Scaffolding in teaching reading requires development, first, of the phonological awareness
to fluency, comprehension, and then accuracy. In this manner, students get to be taught step by
step, level per level in reading.
A poor reading and poor comprehension limit the students’ understanding of any reading
material. This is the reason why students fail to achieve even the first reading level (literal) and
cannot eventually move to the next level of reading comprehension, and/or worse, the inability to
develop the other receptive skill.
It is therefore felt that something should be done to measure and to enrich the reading
skill and the comprehension level of students to help them excel not only in English but in other
disciplines as well. Hence, this program.