MOBILE READING BANK: ITS IMPACT ON THE GRADE-SIX

STRUGGLING READERS DURING THE PANDEMIC

OF ABILAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL,
BUENAVISTA, AGUSAN DEL NORTE

Marie Ann C. Aragon

Marie Luz D. Ayo

Barbara N. Labadia

Marlon G. Vergara

Introduction and Rationale

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to the education

sector and has affected the lives of people all over the world. According to United

Nations Sustainable Group, the pandemic has created the largest disruption of

educational systems in history which affects nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than

190 countries and all continents.

In the Philippines, the new normal education policy is taken into consideration

in the planning and implementation, to sustain and provide quality education despite

pandemics. DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones stated that "No Filipino learner will be

left behind amidst the crisis”. However, community quarantine and lockdown faced

more challenges especially in the reading abilities of the pupils. Reading is viewed

as a social skill that requires active participation, interaction, and involvement of

learners (Reza & Mahmood, 2013). It is one of the four skills which need to be

learned and has a considerable role in language teaching to strengthen the skills
which are acquired by the students in listening, speaking, and writing (Maxom, 2009:

139). Moreover, reading skill affects the other skills learning process. Besides, the

students have to be able to achieve reading competencies as urged by the national

curriculum.

In Abilan Elementary School, 41% or 22 out of 53 Grade-Six pupils belong to

the frustration level based on the PHIL-IRI results in school-year 2018-2019. Further,

as observed during home visits, pupils are getting slower in reading. Moreover, the

alarming presence of non-readers in the lower grades remains to be the number one

problem in our school. Due to community restrictions and health issues, it’s a hard

way to follow up with these learners, thus, making reading a problem even harder to

solve. Now, that they are learning from home, without a teacher to guide and teach

them, learners who cannot read are left behind. Poor performance in all the other

subject areas is affected, especially, only a modular printed learning modality is

employed in our school.

With this situation, The Mobile Reading Bank caters to answer the problem

of the struggling readers where this serves as a mobile library. Designed to bring

books and other learning materials to learners who are struggling readers. The

Learning Resource Team or a group of teachers will facilitate free reading sessions

every week in an identified purok. Furthermore, the result of this study hoped to

provide interventions and recommendations that will become a basis to improve the

reading abilities and academic performance of the pupils.

 Research Questions

This study aims to intervene program for the struggling readers of Grade-Six

pupils in Abilan Elementary School.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the reading profile of Grade-Six pupils based on PHIL-IRI results

before the implementation of the program?

2. What is the reading profile of Grade-Six pupils based on PHIL-IRI results

after the implementation of the program?

3. Is there a significant difference in the reading level of struggling readers

before and after the program?

4. Based on the findings, what intervention will be used to improve the reading

abilities of the Grade-Six Pupils?

References

● UN Sustainable Development Group

https://unsdg.un.org/resources/policy-brief-education-during-covid-19-and-beyond

● Sociological Theory and Reading Comprehension (Reza & Mahmood, 2013)

https://www.google.com/search?
q=Sociological+Theory+and+Reading+Comprehension+(Reza+%26+Mahmood
%2C+2013)&rlz=1C1GGRV_enPH818PH818&oq=Sociological+Theory+and+Readin
g+Comprehension+(Reza+%26+Mahmood
%2C+2013)&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.7666j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-
8&safe=active&ssui=on

● (Maxom,2009:139)
https://www.google.com/search?q=(Maxom
%2C+2009%3A+139).&rlz=1C1GGRV_enPH818PH818&oq=(Maxom
%2C+2009%3A+139).&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.2243j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-
8&safe=active&ssui=on