I. CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
This study was conducted to focus on the effect of traditional reading performance vs. reading partnership. It was done in a group of grade five pupils with reading difficulty in English. These students were selected because they are classified as poor readers based on the result of PHILIRI. It is through this reason that the researcher intended to improve pupils’ reading performance. Partner reading is a strategy that improved pupils’ reading skills by assigning independent reader as partner of pupil having difficulty in reading. Pre assessment data were collected using the result of the standardized pre-test in the reading inventory. The target pupils for the intervention were grouped into two-controlled and experimental group. The controlled group practiced intervention using the traditional reading process wherein the teacher guided the pupils in the reading process while the experimental group practiced reading through the help of their reading partner. They practiced reading for 30 minutes within lunch break every day for 6 months. After the completion of the intervention period, the students again took the reading post-test to determine if their reading skills improved. The results from the PHILIRI post-test indicated that both the controlled and experimental group improved their reading skills based on the increased mean scores. The reading inventory post-test also indicated that the number of slow readers increased from frustration to instructional; however as next suggested possible step would be to lengthen the duration and extend the reading partnership strategy to other grade levels to see if could have more impact on reading performance of pupils at other grade level.
Introduction
The ability to read and understand plays a vital role in pupils’ learning both in and outside the school. The reality about classroom set-up is there are students can read effectively and there are also students that can read but cannot comprehend so they fail to grasp ideas and thus categorize as reader in frustration level. Reading skills allow students to seek out information, explore subjects in-depth and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. When they cannot read well, they become discouraged and frustrated leading to absences in school and worst possible scenario might result in high school drop outs, poor performance on tests, and other negative reactions, all of which can have major and long lasting consequences for the school and mostly for the pupils. A pupil with reading difficulty developed low self-esteem and feel neglected. Without proper motivation and assistance, the pupil might end up losing interest in reading and learning. Through the researchers keen monitoring and initiative reading partnership strategy was utilized as intervention that improved reading skills.
Partnership can commonly defined as two parties or individuals agreeing to cooperate or to unite (The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary). According to (Bryant et al, 2000) Partner Reading has demonstrated success with students of different ages. Wayne Wright (2015), “partner reading- in which partner read alternating sentences aloud to each other- was found to be a very important component of the Expediting Comprehension for English Language Learners (ExC-ELL) model for secondary school ELLs because it provides opportunities for students to practice comprehension strategies, comprehend content, and practice appropriate prosody” (Wright, 2015).
Partner reading is an easy to implement intervention that helps increase reading fluency, especially for students who have been identified with reading disabilities or have low‐achieving reading abilities (Vaughn et al., 2000).
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The focus of this literature review is to determine the effect of traditional reading intervention vs. reading partnership. In reviewing the literature, main points are given emphasis such as paired reading and partner reading.
Paired reading is a research-based fluency strategy used with readers who lack fluency. In this strategy, students read aloud to each other. When using partners, more fluent readers can be paired with less fluent readers, or children who read at the same level can be paired to reread a story they have already read. Paired reading can be used with any book, taking turns reading by sentence, paragraph, page or chapter. (2019) WETA.
Partner Reading has demonstrated success with students of different ages (Bryant et al, 2000). Most reading interventions are designed for students in third grade or below. However, there are students who continue to struggle with reading in later grades. Research has been done that shows Partner Reading to also be effective with middle school students (Bryant et al, 2000). Most middle schools do not have fluency building skills in their curricula (Bryant et al, 2000). However, Partner Reading can be used to supplement teacher instruction while increasing fluency. It is important for middle school students to be able to read fluently because of the amount of increased reading they are required to do (Bryant et al, 2000).
In a study conducted by Bryan et al. (2000), the effects of Partner Reading on middle‐school student’s achievement was examined. The same three groups of learners that were chosen in the Fuchset al. (1997) study were also used in this study, but the students were from a different age group. Twenty teachers implemented Partner Reading as part of a peer tutoring program and 20 did not implement the intervention. The program was administered for 15 weeks with pre‐treatment and post treatment data collection. Greater reading progress was found in the classrooms where Partner reading was used (Bryant et al, 2000).
Partner reading is an easy to implement intervention that helps increase reading fluency, especially for students who have been identified with reading disabilities or have low‐achieving reading abilities (Vaughn et al., 2000). Partner Reading is an efficient way to keep all students engaged in what they are doing regardless of their level of achievement, while also providing them with immediate feedback and error correction (Fuchs et al., 1997). It is an effective time saving strategy for teachers that can help students with all different levels of reading ability. In conclusion, Partner Reading is an intervention that should be used in the classroom because of its success.
III. ACTION RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This action research study focused on improving reading performance through reading partnership strategy among grade five-suflower pupils of Binubusan Elementary School with the end goal of proposing measure to improve reading performance among other pupils of the school.
Specifically, this sought to answer the following questions:
1. What is the effect of traditional reading intervention vs. reading partnership in the reading performance of grade V-Sunflower pupils of Binubusan Elementary School?
2. Is there significant difference on the reading performance of the respondents who used traditional reading intervention and those that used reading partnership?
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