ABSTRACT
The qualitative research study using the phenomenological research design aimed to formulate an enrichment program on the challenges encountered by the remedial reading teachers in reading engagement strategies in the Schools District of Banate. A researcher-made interview guide was used to gather data from nineteen remedial reading teachers of the different schools in the district. The data gathering instrument was subjected to face and content validation by a panel of experts. Thematic analysis was utilized for descriptive data. Based on the information gathered during the in-depth interview on remedial reading engagement strategies of remedial reading teachers to learners with reading disability, responses were guided reading through phonics, provided more reading materials, individualized reading instructions, and create graphic organizers chart and pictures. On the challenges encountered they were poor reading comprehensions, lack of interest in reading and absenteeism. For how remedial reading teachers cope with the challenges the responses were sufficient reading materials, more activities within their interest and patience and encouraging.
Keywords: Challenges Encountered, Remedial Reading Teachers, Reading Engagement Strategies
INTRODUCTION
Reading is life. If 80% of man’s activity involves reading, then students be made conscious on what type and how the reading materials be chosen for personal and academic purpose. It is a basic tool for learning across areas of discipline (Villamin, 2004).
Flavel (2007) said that it is a general knowledge that guides the readers in monitoring their comprehension processes by selecting specific strategies to achieve goals. Different kinds of information require different kinds of processing and place different demands on the learner.
Motivation to read can be defined as the likelihood of engaging in reading or choosing to read. In the same study, they added that motivation to read and reading achievement are higher when the classroom environment is rich in reading materials and includes books from an array of genres and text types, magazines, the Internet, resource materials, and real-life documents (Gambrell, 2009).
A remedial reading teacher in the Philippines or a reading specialist in the U.S. and majority of the European countries is a professional teacher who has an adept background and training in honing the reading abilities of students in general and assists struggling readers to improve themselves (International Reading Association (IRA), 2018).
Although a remedial reading teacher mainly helps struggling readers, they also support other teachers in improving literacy education practices.
Remedial reading teachers are frontrunners in elevating the reading achievement of students in schools. In the Philippines, there has been a continual enrichment of the reading skills of struggling readers through the initiatives of remedial reading teachers rely so much on different factors, some of which are knowledge and the skills that they have (Gatcho, 2019).
It is appropriate for a teacher to observe each student in various situations. This will allow the teachers to draw conclusions about students who fared well or poorly in varied teaching-learning activities. Some prefer reading when motivated. Although, others may love to read, they may also struggle with relating materials to life experiences and other content due to lack of background knowledge.
Research indicates that students perform differently according to combinations of such things as task, passage type, purpose, prior knowledge available (Villamin, et al (2008).
As a teacher assigned to reading, the researcher found difficulty in this present situation. Minimizing risks, dealing with stress, worrying about the implementation of schools’ programs and staying COVID-19 free have become her top recurring concerns during the pandemic with no guidelines on how to address problems of teachers as well as learners.
Hence, the researcher is determined and find out the challenges encountered by remedial reading teachers on reading engagement strategies as basis for enrichment activities in the schools District of Banate during the school year 2022-2023.
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