IMPROVING THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF GRADE 7 STUDENTS THROUGH THE

USE OF MULTIMEDIA

An Action Research

By

Reynan O. Verceles

BSE-IV

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in:

Practice Teaching

(Educ 116)

Dr. Fe Madriaga Tangalin

Supervising Teacher

October 18, 2013

I. Situation
Nowadays, reading literary pieces is very crucial among high school students

because they often read for the sake of pleasing the English subject which really

threatens the English teachers. This may be a gesture for us to develop our outdated

strategies and tools in teaching the English literatures for better student

comprehension and appreciation.

To address this alarming truth, I decided to come up with an action research that

concerns to a strategy that could help students to better comprehend texts not just

on a literary level as well as a personal level. Instead of having students simply read

the text, the strategy is meant to enhance the students’ learning so that they

appreciate the literary elements in the text as well as to critically think about what

really happens in real life. Often, students are passive readers and simply search for

only surface level meaning to participate in discussions or do well on the essay or

test assigned after a reading. By the use of multimedia, the given story becomes

more personal and connected to their lives. Through this, students will also come to

appreciate literary devices as well as think critically about issues presented by

selected literature that connect to current events and controversies.

II. Problem
My action research evolved slightly on what happens when I use multimedia as a

reading strategy to increase student comprehension with the text as well as personal

connections students make with the text?

This action research was conducted at Damortis National School, a public

secondary school situated in the locality Sto. Tomas, La Union. In this school, there is

a total number of 961 enrollees for the current school year 2013-2014 of which 281

are grade 7 students. The 35 students from the Grade 7 SPA class were the target

students in this research.

 The school follows the K-12 Curriculum for Grade 7 and 8, Revised Secondary

Education Curriculum for the third years and the Restructured Basic Education

Curriculum for the fourth years.

III. Generation of Alternative Solutions

Many strategies have been developed to teach students how to better

comprehend text before, while, and after they have read something. Some of the

researches regarding the use of multimedia to improve students’ performance are

noteworthy in this paper.

The use of multimedia described here makes use of print texts, film and Internet

to develop and enhance linguistics and knowledge. Through their interactions with

multimedia texts on topic of interest, students become increasingly familiar with

academic vocabulary and language structures.

Meanwhile, using print, film and Internet as resources for studying provides

students with opportunities to gather information through stimuli that will stimulate

their imaginations, engage their interest and introduce them to the raw materials for

analysis and interpretation of both language and context. Students develop solid

foundation in several subject areas and become “content experts” in one. Thus they

greatly increase their overall knowledge base, as well as their English language and

critical literacy skills, facilitating their performance in future college courses.

Integrating the Internet yields the additional benefit of increased student

motivation. Students are eager to begin class and often arrive early at the computer

lab, logging on to the Internet and beginning research on their own. They also often

stay after class to continue working on the Internet.

Overall, students develop greater confidence in their ability to use English

because they need to interact with the Internet entirely through reading and writing.

Using the Internet for focus discipline research not only teaches higher order

thinking skills, but also promotes critical and social literacy as students encounter a

variety of information, synthesizing that information through cooperation and

collaboration with their peers. Members of focus discipline groups generally form
 strong multicultural friendship fostered by their collaborative efforts throughout the

semester.
On the other hand, a study conducted by Kasper (1997) illustrate that teaching

English using multimedia such as print, film, video, Internet to students encourage

them to write a critical analysis on assignments. Overall, the students’ achievement

increased significantly. In his study,most of the students passed on departmental

reading and writing examinations. In addition, their feedback on discussions is very

positive. They express confidence in their ability to use English. They attribute this

improvement to the multimedia model that the texts teach them English and

provide helpful information in other courses and the film and Internet help them

make material easier to understand because they see, hear, and read about the

topic.
IV. Plan of Action
a. Objective
My ultimate purpose in conducting this research was to develop an

understanding of how I could use multimedia in my own teaching to make

students connect with their reading on a deeper level and feel confident in their

ability to understand and discuss a text as well as to learn things about

themselves and the world around them through their experiences. This is

itemized as follows:
1. To enhance student understanding to a given reading texts

through multimedia as a reading strategy.

2. Determine the effectiveness of multimedia by monitoring and

comparing at least three quizzes of the students.

b. Time Frame
This study will be conducted for two months during the off campus

student teaching from August 13-October 10, 2013 , school year 2013-2014.
c. Target Subjects
The target students for the study are the Grade 7 SPA class of Damortis

National High School at Damortis, Sto. Tomas, La Union.

d. Activities To Be Undertaken
 Target Subject Teachers Involved Activities Expected

Results
Grade 7 SPA Reynan O. 1. Use of Increased
class of Verceles multimedia as a
Damortis strategy for a student
National High better
comprehension
School understanding of
the reading text. and
2. Determine the
effectiveness of appreciation
multimedia by
monitoring and on literary
comparing at
texts.
least three
quizzes of the
students.

e. Evaluation Criteria
The results of the quizzes shall be higher than their first quiz. If the scores

exceeded it, then the strategy is effective enough in comprehending and relating

a certain literary piece to life.

f. Research Design

Activities Data to be collected Data analysis

1. Use multimedia as a Recorded quiz Descriptive.

strategy for a better scores from the 3

understanding of the different activities.

reading text.

a. How Brother Leon

Brought Home a

Wife

b. The Mats

c. Wedding Dance

2. Determine the

effectiveness of
 multimedia by

monitoring and

comparing at least

three quizzes of the

students.

V. Presentation and Interpretation of Results

The Grade 7 SPA Record of Quizzes

20 20 20
1 Abat, Donald 10 13 19
2 Aquino, Joshua 11 20
3 Arbis, Mhel Mark 15 20 18
4 Arevalo, Jerome 7 15
5 Bulseco, Jhumark 12 17
6 Erwin Ellarda 12
7 Gomez, Anthony 12 14
8 Javellonar, Rodel 11
9 Laranang, Reynald 20 20 20
10 Laroya, Dexter 13 20 20
11 Marińo, Francisco 20 15 20
12 Munar, Bryan Jay 17 19 20
13 Niduaza, John Mark 15 20 20
14 Padin, Den Mark 20 20 20
15 Prado, Lorenzo 20 20 20
16 Trangco, John Paul 15
17 Zaparita, Jerome 19 20
18 Acedera, Julife 19 20 20
19 Alingcayon, Joanna 11 20 20
20 Amańa, Jessica 20 9 20
21 Cadiz, Geraldine 15
22 Carpio, Dianne 20 19
23 Castillo, Leah Christine 19 20
24 DAcalańo, Bernadeth 20 10 20
25 De Guzman, Rojane Mae 20 20
26 Gacayan, Mary Grace 19 20
27 Hufana, Kimberly 19 11 20
28 Javillonar, Joanna Jennifer 19 20 20
29 Ortiz, Eugelyn 19 20 20
30 Tagalog, Bernadette 19 19 20
31 Supsup, Rhona 20 15 20
32 Valdez, Febe Mae 19 20 20

33 Domondon, Dianna 23 20
34 Banayat, Christine 18 20
35 Japson, Ryan 13 20
 The response from the students to the activities was very positive base on the

data. I recorded the scores and reflected on the result. Students made excellent

participation to class. Many of the students increase their self-confidence in their

reading and comprehension. In their words, it made them “feel smarter.” The

majority of students expressed excitement in the discussion and overwhelmed with

fun from the activity. Most of the students were also very eager to share their ideas

in class. Almost all of the students in the class successfully showed good

comprehension and received the highest scores they deserved.

Overall, I believe I can conclude that using multimedia as a strategy is essential to

student understanding of a text. In my study, I found that when students

experienced the use of this strategy they were able to take much more away from

the text than just the surface meaning or the plot.

I discovered that using multimedia is the most helpful in enhancing students’

comprehension to a certain story. This is evident from the three quizzes wherein the

scores are progressive.

I find the proof for this conclusion in my class record and in the overwhelmingly,

positive comments that my co-student teachers said about the quizzes of the

students. I believe that this was the most useful and successful strategy because it

required the students to work together and to use skills other than literary ones to

learn about the reading material.

VI. Conclusion and Recommendation

The results of the pre- and post-assessments can be summarized as follows: the

respondents have modest gains as a result of the treatment. The respondents saw an

increase in comprehension level. Through the interaction with multimedia, the

students become increasingly familiar with academic vocabulary and language

structure. Connecting with the Internet will make the benefit of increased student

motivation. Students are eager to begin class and often arrive early at the computer
 lab, logging on the Internet and beginning research on their own. They also often

stay after class to continue working on the Internet. Overall, students develop

greater confidence in their ability to use English because they need to interact with

the Internet through reading and writing. Using multimedia provides the students to

gather information through media that encourages their imaginations, interests. Also

it using this technology combined with the sense of teaching will create a successful

teaching method.
In our imaginations, we enjoy and value all the benefits of education on-demand.

We wish the future was here already because deep down inside, we all are lifelong

learners. We just want learning to be easy, personalized. This vision is inviting, yet we

must live and work in present time. And today, the reality stays apart from the

dream. The challenge to educators is clear. We must also establish rigorous standards

of quality in the products, services, and solutions we offer to our youth. We must

learn how to prepare all of our students for lives that are becoming more and more

complex. We must prepare our students to master change.

VII. Reflection
The results of the treatment and the outcome of the research affirm the

hypothesis of the researcher – that increased use of multimedia will increase reading

comprehension levels among students whom the treatment is applied to. The

increase in reading comprehension levels is enough of an increase to justify further

research along these lines.

The implication that further research is justified by the results of this experiment

carries with it some caveats. The first is that while increased exposure to multimedia

has been shown by the research to increase reading comprehension levels, the

additional classroom time allowed for this experiment is not to be realistically

expected as available to the average classroom teacher. A second caveat is that it

may not be realistic for a classroom teacher to give each student the individual

attention necessary to ensure that the student knows how to use technologies for
 research, rather for entertainment, one should focus on to improve comprehension

levels.
Further research is needed in order to understand the best manner this

instruction is to be applied; the researcher is convinced that the effort is one that is

worthwhile. It is vital for the success of our students that they can not only

phonemically decode the words on the page, but that they can also derive meaning

from those words and ultimately comprehend a printed work’s total import.
Finally, using multimedia provides the students to gather information through

media that encourages their imaginations and interests given that they are used

academically. Technology combined with the sense of teaching will create a

successful teaching method.

VIII. References
http://www.adfl.org/bulletin/V12N3/OLD/123045.HTM
http://www.curriculumonline.ie/en/Post-

Primary_Curriculum/Senior_Cycle_Curriculum/Leaving_Certificate_Established/G

erman/German_Guidelines/The_Role_of_Grammar/