ABSTRACT
This study aimed to determine the effectivity of teacher’s management in teaching strategies for enhancing learners’ reading ability in Cotabato City Division for the school year 2022-2023.
The data gathered were collected and encoded and subject to statistical procedures such as describing the teacher’s offline classes and the learners’ reading ability of the potential readers. Pearson r correlation was used to determine the relationship between the teacher’s management of teaching strategies and the learners’ reading ability of the potential readers.
After the data has been gathered, it was tallied, analyzed, and interpreted with the help of a statistician.
Results showed that the Grade IV teachers of Cotabato City Division had highly managed their phone calls, modular approach, and monitoring tool during the reading offline class. They gave the potential readers the tools that can help them succeed and enhanced their reading ability.
The reading ability of the potential readers in terms of phonemic awareness, word recognition, spelling, and comprehension is higly performed after the intervention had been given during the reading offline class.
The data shows a significant relationship between the teacher’s management of teaching strategies and the learners’ reading ability of the potential readers. This implies that the strategies used by the teacher during the reading offline class were helpful to improve the reading ability performance of the potential readers. It also implies that the teaching strategies cater to the expected skills to be learned or enhanced by the potential readers.
Keywords: Management, Offline Classes, Potential Readers, Cotabato City Division
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Background of the Study
Today’s educational advancement is inextricably linked to the science and technology advancement. The required knowledge always keeps up with advancements in technology on a worldwide scale. Teaching and learning in the classroom has to be original and creative in terms of education. In this instance, learners’ current levels of mastery of classes, particularly reading skills, are relatively poor.
Reading is an integral part of every educational process as all the subjects taught at all levels of the educational system involve reading (Cimmiyotti, 2013). Despite its importance, reading is one of the most challenging areas in the education system. In 2018 global survey called Program for International Assessment (PISA), the Philippines ranked last among 79 countries. When Corona Virus 19 or COVID 19 hits the world, children were not allowed to go to their respective schools. Learner’s reading ability during COVID 19 was deteriorating due to lack of learning on how to read. It is undeniable how the lockdown situation greatly affected Filipinos’ mental health and fitness. Children were not immune to the problems of lockdown either. With schools pivoting to remote learning, traditional methods of teaching have been upended and a number of concerns have arisen. In fact, as the result of a recent study, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regards students in the Philippines as having poor reading skills.
In several ways, the public health crisis has hampered students’ exposure to reading and literacy. Students learning remotely may have fewer opportunities to hold books in their hands and practice turning pages left to right. Those learning in-person are finding classroom bookshelves empty or limited due to safety protocols.
Snowling and Hulme (2015), cited in Brooks (2016) note that children who respond poorly to literacy intervention tend to have oral language weaknesses and that it is possible to improve oral language skills by interventions focusing on developing listening skills, vocabulary and narrative skills. The ability to read is essential for academic success. One of the most crucial abilities that every learner must master is this one. All study areas require it as a prerequisite. Because a learner who struggles with reading may also struggle in other subject areas. For those who struggle to read, there is a risk that the main purpose of being able to read becomes lost. The desired outcome is that children not only can read, but want to read. For this reason, reading needs to be motivating and meaningful.
Cited in Manila Bulletin in December 2019, many Filipino learners are struggling to meet the learning standards in early language, literacy, and numeracy. The DepEd has strongly encouraged all elementary and secondary public schools to intensify their advocacy, particularly reading. Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in DepEd memorandum no. 173 s. of 2019 said that the 3Bs initiative would help strengthen the Every Child a Reader Program (ECARP), which primarily aims to equip learners with reading skills to make them proficient and independent readers in their grade level. Briones asked all offices at the Central, regional, and schools Division Offices and school levels to respond to the 3Bs initiatives by intensifying their advocacy for reading and pledging their commitment to make every learner a reader at his or her grade level.
Under Parliament Bill 209, the program will be known as the Supplemental Academic Learning Amelioration Program (SALAP), which aims to improve the learning competencies of students and boost their confidence as they transition from lower to higher grades. Reading will be prioritized to develop the critical and analytical skills of learners. With this, the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education required all schools in the BARMM Region to have their remedial classes especially on reading in first two consecutive months of the school year 2022-2023, every Thursday and Friday.
At every stage in a pupil’s development, oral language is an important factor in literacy development. In young children, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, a focus on oral language skills can have benefits for both reading and writing (Educational Endowment Foundation, 2016 & 2017, Kamil et al, 2008). During a pandemic, the majority of students at public schools do not have access to the internet; they would prefer to purchase food instead. Some students lacked smartphones because their parents couldn't afford to purchase one. Offline classes are available to learners in public school such as printed reading materials and phone calls. Teacher reaches their learners thru phone calls; they communicate to their learners for them to learn how to read using the printed reading materials given.
A good reader has a chance to learn well across the board, whereas a potential reader has a potential to lose interest across the board. It is crucial to solve this ongoing issue in the education sector. There are a variety of reasons why a learner struggles with reading. To assist a student become a proficient reader, a teacher and parent should collaborate. Contacting parents and guardians can be a game changer in terms of establishing an effective reading at home. The educational materials and the teacher's teaching methods should be tailored to the needs of the student. To meet the needs of the potential readers, support for teachers from the school, division, central office, and the community should also be provided.
see PDF attachment for more information