RIZA C.

CAMACHO
1211114
BSEd-English
EDUC115 – Remedial Instruction in English
Saturday 1-4pm

“Comprehension, Key to Reading Advancement”

Reading is one of the five macro skills along with listening, writing, speaking and viewing. It is

the most crucial skills considering the fact that it is widely used on our day to day activities. In

our fast-changing world, with the improvement of technologies, reading education enhancement

was never visible.

“Children’s literacy development begins when children start formal education in

elementary school.”

(Allington & Cunningham, et al, 2009)

Reading so as the other form of education begin at home and parents are considered the first

teacher to activate individual’s knowledge and skills. Parents are the ones accountable to give

their children a head start, by nurturing their young mind at home. But then, Allington and

Cunningham’s idea is precise, for formal education activates in elementary school. It is the duties

and responsibilities of every primary teachers to nurture the mind of the students entrusted to

them by the parents.

 “Quality Education begins with quality teachers who are paid well”

(Sen. Angara, In his Press release last March 11, 2019)

Paid well or not, teachers have to fulfill their vows of providing quality education. And this

quality education must be given on the primary years of every child. Elementary years will serve

as the foundation of moral, social and mental stability of students. Teachers have more

understanding when it comes to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary, which

are the components of reading, as compare to parents.it is true that parents can teach the basic

alphabet, but not the proper and right way of learning how to read.

“Progress in reading comprehension is lagging behind the improvement in mathematics

over the past two decades.

(Based on the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP))

While the improvement in Mathematics is pursuing, reading was left behind. How could that be

possible? Math is merely not all about numbers and computations, it includes reading of

instructions, questions and analysis of problem solving. If mathematics improves, reading

comprehension should somehow improve also. The result of NAEP is contradicting to below

statement which proves that success in mathematics is brought by one’s knowledge to language.

“The association between language proficiency and trends in math performance are difficult to

disentangle from social and cultural factors. However in the overview of the research on race,

ethnicity, social class, language and achievement in math, research that had been carried out in
the US up to the early 90’s, Secada (1992) found sufficient evidence that “language proficiency,

no matter how it is measured, is related to mathematics achievement.”

(MacGregor and Price, 1999)

Vocabulary, number and symbol sense, as well as the ability to read and comprehend word

problems are important factors affecting achievement in Math. The connection between

Mathematics and reading comprehension is beyond measure…it is deep. But both syntax of the

language and syntax of math has something to do in processing symbols.

The problem with reading and better understanding of mathematical equation lies primarily to

comprehension. Reading as we all know is the ability to convert symbols to written form while

comprehension is the ability to grasp something. And so, reading comprehension is the ability to

read and understand information presented in written form. To be able to improve reading

comprehension, educators may consider strategies like Think Aloud, Reciprocal Teaching,

Teacher read Aloud and etc.

In Think Aloud, teacher must stop occasionally to entertain questions from the students and ask

them to say out loud what they’re thinking about the selection that they are reading. When

students are guided when reading, their comprehension skills will definitely improve. Students

can even share their predictions over the text and be able to connect it with their life and

experiences. This may also help the teacher in assessing the type of students he/she has.

Reciprocal teaching opens the way for cooperation and collaboration among students. They can

discuss the text using student-to-student language, in this case students are comfortable of
discussing their own understanding of the selection that they are reading. It is a teacher guided

strategies where each member should take turn of pretending to be a teacher. this strategy

masters the art of clarifying, predicting, questioning and summarizing.

Teacher Read Aloud is a strategy whereas teacher will read the text out loud. Like the “pop corn

method”, students will also read the text out oud. Mastery of fluency and advancement in

vocabulary are the aspects improves in this kind of strategy. Students follow or mimic the proper

pronunciation of the words and on the spot, they can clarify unfamiliar words to the teacher.

Another factor why reading proficiency was not improved is our educational system.

“The reading crisis affecting our public schools is the result of blunders of the

Department of Education (DepEd), starting with that harebrained decision to scrap the

time-tested “No Read, No Move” rule for Grade 1 sometime in the early 2000s.”

(Estanislao Albano Jr , Philippine Daily Inquirer , April 26, 2019)

Children should not be accelerated to next grade without mastering the reading proficiency.

Also, the teacher must bear in mind that he/she needs to produce competent pupils within his/her

jurisdiction and should never pass the burden of having non-readers to the next teacher.
References:

Buendicho Flordeliza C.,” Developmental Reading 2” Pages 3, (Book)

Dr. Fite Gene “Reading and Math: What is the connection? A short review of the literature”

https://www.emporia.edu/dotAsset/9acbacde-104d-4b37-b13a-ffc1ec7885cb.pdf, accessed

October 9, 2019

“The Problem with reading – Philippine basic education”

https://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2015/02/the-problem-with-reading.html, accessed

October 9, 2019

https://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2019/0311_angara.asp, accessed October 9, 2019

Estanislao Albano Jr, ”Department of Education ‘to blame’ for reading crisis”

https://opinion.inquirer.net/120962/department-of-education-to-blame-for-reading-crisis,

accessed October 9, 2019