by Janette S. Villanueva
In a scholarly research study, Bashir and Matto mentioned that good reading performance is a strong weapon for the students to excel in life. Reading is considered to be one of the most fascinating and enriching things man had discovered. As what Olivar said, reading is a habit where students learn, gain knowledge and develop new skills.
Unfortunately, students are deprived of the opportunity to learn and develop reading abilities in a normal classroom set-up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chances of achieving better academic performances are hindered. Nevertheless, teachers still continued to measure and describe the learners’ reading performances in both English and Filipino through the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (PHIL-IRI) in support of the DepEd’s advocacy on Every Child a Reader Program, which aims to make every Filipino child a reader and a writer at his/her grade level.
The Phil-IRI Group Screening Test (GST) can tell teachers whether students are reading at, above, or below their grade levels. The individually administered Phil-IRI Graded Passages can be used to assess students’ Oral Reading, Silent Reading Comprehension and/or Listening Comprehension levels but unfortunately due to Covid-19, graded passage wasn’t implemented.
As we experienced the educational challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are challenged to widen or increase our learning modalities. Included here is the Reading intervention program via Online or virtual modality. It is necessary and a must to conduct remedial reading exercises in order for learners to be able to access and explore virtual learning resources as they are expected to be readers in their respective “reading grade levels”. In the same manner, Joji Recamara in his International Research Study recommends that an innovative remedial reading program is recommended to help learners attain a favorable change in their reading performances, most especially those who are still in the slow reader category.
Pines City National High School has this Reading Intervention Program called “READ” which stands for Reading Enhancement to Advance Development that is composed of different reading activities. To mention some are the following: Mother and Son/Daughter Storytelling or Father and Son/Daughter Storytelling; 5-minute daily reading exercises; 4 o’clock Reading Habit and the Modular Enhancement Reading Activity. Through this READ Program, learners were at least exposed to varied techniques, strategies, exercises in executing reading activities for them to be able to achieve the highest level of reading ability during this new normal.
In any form or style of reading intervention activities, teachers all share the same instructional goal to help students become fluent readers who understand what they read.
Finally, Teacher Quotes Reading Intervention in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development expressed that early intervention is critical. When intervention is delayed, it takes multiple times of intervention in the higher grades compared to the lower grades due to increasing materials for the students to read and learn from.
Thus, reading intervention activities must be given attention despite the global pandemic while the learners are younger. In our simple ways we could still uplift the reading abilities of the learners and allow them the chance to discover and explore the wonderful world and adventures that are accessible only to competent readers.**
