Strategies in Improving Reading Comprehension for Primary Grades

Primary education is a basic education that aims to prepare children from Kinder to

Grade 2 in attaining the competence needed in contribution to the society. Since reading forms

the basis for all other areas of learning, it is necessary to ensure that children of the primary

grades attain proficiency in reading.

In the Philippine setting, efforts to promote literacy are encourage by the government,

organizations or even private individuals as the ability to read and write is considered an utmost

priority (Cristobal, 2015). According to Alvermann & Montero (2013), reading is the process

deriving meaning from written or printed text which includes many components. Reading is one

of the basic skills and basic tool for learning. The ability to read is very crucial in this generation

because industrialization is taking place which is an extremely powerful force in human affairs

(Echaure & Torno, 2017). Despite of emphasis on the importance of reading, 2018 Programme

for International Student Assessment (PISA) result release in December 2019, the Philippines

scored the lowest in reading comprehension among 79 participating countries.

"Reading ability is developed through practice. We can only develop fluent readers if we

provide them with text, print and digital, and we practice them through teacher modeling, shared

practice towards independent practice." Perez said. Another reason for Filipino students ranking

last in the exam is poor connectivity in far-flung areas and lack of reading materials.

According to the English curriculum of DepEd (2016), the literacy domains in which

primary grades are to be given instruction are the following: oral language, phonological

awareness, book and print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, phonics and word recognition,

fluency, spelling, writing and composition, grammar awareness and structure, vocabulary
development, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, attitude towards language,

literacy and literature; and study strategies. The key standard for primary students are to be able

to demonstrate eagerness to explore and experience oral and written texts to communicate

meanings and feelings effectively.

According to DepEd Order 18, s. 2017 Guidelines on the Utilization of the 2017 Every

Child a Reader Program (ECARP) Funds for the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy

Program: Professional Development Component, this program aims to develop in Filipino

children the literacy and numeracy skills, and attitudes, which will contribute to lifelong

learning. With this, it is the goal of the Department to improve the literacy and numeracy skills

of learners from Kindergarten to Grade 3 following the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum by

establishing a sustainable and cost-effective professional development system for teachers.

There are various literacy-specific initiatives of the Department of Education purposed to

improve the literacy rate among students and these are “Every Child A Reader Program

(ECARP)”, “The Library Hub”, “a focus in K-3 Curriculum language development”, “The

Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)”, “Journalism program under

Republic Act 7079”, and lastly, activities throughout the year which includes Book Week and

National Reading Month (Cristobal, 2015). Also, there are several reading programs from non-

government organizations that are implementing in schools.

Children have different learning styles, every learner is unique and it becomes a problem

for some children when the reading program does not really matches their learning style

(Ocampo, 1997). It is also the reason why a reading program does not succeed. The students

learn better if teaching method used matches their learning style. Teachers who identify the
learning styles of their students are encourage to match their teaching styles for effective learning

outcomes. Teacher’s awareness of the students’ learning style will help them know what

teaching strategies the teacher will apply.

As being mentioned that the Philippines being lowest in reading comprehension and the

children has different learning styles. This research will discuss the question:

1. What are the teaching strategies that would help improve the reading comprehension?

Sattar & Saheli (2014) found out in their study that teaching reading strategies improves

reading. They conducted an experiential study, they assigned 30 students into two groups

randomly and we’re taught reading text in different ways. The first group was taught in

traditional way while the second group taught with strategies. The purpose of their study was to

get meaning in the text. The activities were very challenging to the students as they got involve

in some problem solving activities to get the meaning out of the written text. The strategies that

motivates students to relate sentences to each other as: Graphic organizer, question answering,

question generation, summation, cooperative learning and multiple strategy instruction.

Moreover, the strategies that encourage students to relate their background and knowledge into

sentences they read such: Background knowledge, vocabulary comprehension and

psycholinguistic strategy. These strategies are all effective based on the study of teaching

strategies in reading comprehension.

According to the study of Brevik (2019), when prioritizing reading instruction, teachers

combined surface-level and deeper-level tasks, scaffold comprehension by offering explicit

strategy instruction based on student needs, and encourage daily use of known strategies, instead

of teaching new ones. Based on the study in addition to the explicit strategy instruction,
visualizing, skimming or scanning, text location, glossary, note taking, summarizing, graphic

organizers, prior knowledge and predicting are the frequent used effective strategies.

Strategies in teaching reading also include motivation. Talley (2017) point out the

reading activities that motivate readers especially the struggling ones. The best reading strategies

are: reading time, small groups, one text, and UNRAAVEL reading strategy. UNRAAVEL

stands for Underline the title, Now predict what the passage is about, Run through and number

the paragraphs, Are the important word in the questions circled, Venture through the passage and

underline the highlight answers to questions, Eliminate incorrect answers, Let questions be

answered by providing support. In this study, it was also discussed reading instructions that helps

the reader through best group strategies: peer tutors, reading level groups, skill deficit groups,

teacher-led small groups, and flexible grouping; in incorporation of groups: after mini lesson,

and remediation; in vocabulary instruction: content clues, word attack skills, and phonemic

words; in comprehension strategies: fluency, vocabulary, monitoring and clarifying, Textual

evidence, and multiple readings. Lastly, the reading strategy influences engagement. The

activities that are more engagement are: games and manipulative, group work, high interest texts,

and plays and poetry. Through the qualitative study done by the researcher teaching strategies

that are more effective were analysed. With the implementation of the reading strategies stated,

students are more engaged, successful, active in learning to read, and develop the love for

“reading to learn.”

Almutairi (2018) investigated the effective reading strategies such as: graphic organizers,

peer-assisted learning strategy, story-mapping and self-questioning. According to the results of

the study, regardless of the different forms that graphic organizers may take (Venn Diagram, T

chart, and spider map), they are found to be an effective strategy that can be used in different
stages of learning for improving students’ reading comprehension, it helps understand text

through organizing ideas, sequencing of events, similarities and differences, identifying the main

ideas, making connections, and making predictions; questioning provides the opportunity to

think about what they reading, be active and independent readers and be able to reflect on their

own reading; story-mapping facilitates the students’ comprehension through visualizing their

thought, allowing them to match the main idea and sequencing idea; peer-assisted reading

increasing the students’ motivation to learn, predict and learn from each other’s personal

connection to the text.

Unlike the studies mentioned above, the study of Tang (2017) differentiates the teaching

style of teachers from Finland and Estonia. Both countries used child-dominated teaching style

but Estonia uses more of this style for Grade 1. Estonian children were taught decoding in

Kindergarten, whereas systematic reading instruction in Finnish schools begins in Grade 1. In

general, the result of the study showed that children who were taught by a teacher deploying the

child-centered style showed the highest performance in reading fluency and reading

comprehension. Also, the result of this study showed that children placed into constructivist

approach program such as individualized schema-based learning, conceptual and transactional

learning, had better reading comprehension than those in the didactic approach programs such as

work book practice, traditional instruction across primary grades.

Moreover, a study of Determan (2013) focuses on key fiction and nonfiction

comprehension strategies and different methods for teaching these strategies in elementary

classroom. One of the key components of the comprehension stated in this study is the activation

of background knowledge, questioning, summarizing and text features. The methodology used in

this study is a monthly activities, that been effective for reading comprehension.
 Teacher is more important in the teaching setting, the study of Hartley (2015) focus on

the attitude of teachers towards the perceived effectiveness of reading comprehension strategies

and interventions. The researcher conducted a survey, and the survey instrument was designed to

ascertain the feelings of the participants in regard to the role of the school in literacy, current

reading levels of the students and teachers attitude toward specific types of comprehension

strategies. In general, the result in this study shows that teachers seem to be very positive in their

perceptions of comprehension skills of the students in terms of the strategies that they employ in

the classrooms.

The gathered strategies in the studies above have differences but also have similarities,

and the common similarities are: Graphic Organizer, Self-questioning, Peer-tutoring, and

Summarizing. Teachers can find or create graphics organizer templates to improve reading

comprehension by helping students to categorize information. Self-questioning during reading is

a strategy that enables students to monitor their reading comprehension and increases their

ability to learn independently (Joseph, et.al, 2016). Peer tutoring was effective at increasing oral

reading fluency for certain students (Dufrene et.al, 2010) and beneficial to both readers (Fuchs

et.al, 2001). Summarization is probably the most significant and encompassing of all reading

strategies available to the learner for effective studying and comprehension (Corder – Ponce,

2000).

The considered major goal to student’s educational success is the well-developed reading

comprehension. In the Philippine context, there are also literacy strategies such as: Read-Aloud,

K-W-L Charts, Graphic Organizers, Vocabulary Instruction, Writing to Learn, Structured Note-

taking, and Reciprocal Teaching. The assessment in research of Echaure & Trono (2017) with

the Grade 1 students results that students are “poor” in graphic organizer, writing to learn and
reciprocal teaching while they are “fair” in Read-Aloud, KWL and vocabulary and “good” in

structured note taking. On the post-test evaluation, students are “very good” in KWL, vocabulary

study, writing to learn and structured note taking and “good” in Read-Aloud, graphic organizer

and reciprocal teaching. In general, there are improvements from the intervention conducted by

the researchers.

The strategies showed effectiveness in students’ reading skills and comprehension. The

researcher agrees in the strategies from the studies. These strategies are needed to be

implemented properly to improve the reading comprehension of the students.

Almutairi, N. R. (2018). Effective Reading Strategies for Increasing the Reading Comprehension

Level of Third-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities.

Alvermann, D. E. & Montero, M. K. (2003). Literacy and Reading. In Encyclopedia of

Education (Vol. 4, pp. 1513-1518). New York: Macmillan.

Brevik, L. M. (2019). Explicit reading strategy instruction or daily use of strategies? Studying

the teaching of reading comprehension through naturalistic classroom observation in

English L2.

Corder-Ponce, W. L. (2000). Summarization interaction: Effects on Foreign Language

Comprehension and Summarization of Expository Texts. Reading Research and

Instruction, 39(4), 329-350.

Cristobal, L. (2015). Literacy in the Philippines: The Stories behind the Numbers.

Department of Education. (2016). K-12 Curriculum Guide English. Retrieved from

https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/English-CG.pdf

Department of Educarion. (2017). DO 18, S. 2017 – Guidelines on the Utilization of the 2017

Every Child a Reader Program (ECARP) Funds for the Early Language, Literacy, and

Numeracy Program: Professional Development Component. Retrieved from

https://www.deped.gov.ph/2017/04/19/do-18-s-2017-guidelines-on-the-utilization-of-the-

2017-every-child-a-reader-program-funds-for-the-early-language-literacy-and-numeracy-

program-professional-development-component/
Dufrene, B. A., Reisener, C. D., Olmi, D. J., Zoder-Martell, K., McNutt, M. R., Horn, D. R.

(2010). Peer tutoring for reading fluency as a feasible and effective alternative in

response to intervention systems. Journal of Behavioral Education, 19, 239- 256

Echaure, J. A. & Torno V. D. (2017). Developing the Reading Literacy among Grade I Learners

in the Philippines.

Determan, M. A. (2013). Effective Comprehension Strategies in Elementary Classroom.

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., Thompson, A., Svenson, E., Yen, L., Otaiba, S. A., et al. (2001). Peer-

assisted Learning Strategies in Reading. Remedial and Special Education, 22, 15-21.

Hartley, C. (2015). Teacher Attitudes of the Effectiveness of Reading Comprehension Strategies

and Intervention.

Hermosa, N. (1992). Literature and Skills: An Integrated Framework. In Ocampo, Dina Joana

(1997). EDR 210 Trends in Reading Instruction. Quezon City: UP Open

University.

Joseph, L. M., Morgan, S. A., Cullen J. & Rouse C. (2016). The Effects of Self-Questioning on

Reading Comprehension: A Literature Review, Reading & Writing Quarterly, 32:2, 152-

173

Sattar, S. & Salehi, H. (2014). The Role of Teaching Reading Strategies in Enhancing Reading

Comprehension. International Journal of Current Life Sciences. 4:11. 10922 – 10928.

Talley, L. A. (2017). Best Teaching Strategies to Help Struggling Readers.

Tang, X. (2017). Teaching Practices in Early Primary School.