Bawat Bata Bumabasa 
3B’s Initiative 
(DM 173, s. 2019)
Pambansang Pagsasanay sa Pagtuturong Panliterasi  
Session 1
The Nature of Reading
 
Learning Action Cell Session Guide 
 
Prepared by:

Rosalina J. Villaneza, PhD

Chief Education Program Specialist
Bureau of Learning Delivery
Department of Education Central Office
Objectives

At the end of the session, teachers should be able to:

1. Examine the teaching practices that will help uncover their belief in the
reading process;
2. Explain the nature of reading;
3. Realize that the reader has a significant role in the reading process and
that his/her attitude and motivation affect his/her reading performance;
and
4. Apply research – based practices in teaching children learn to read and
read to learn

Key Understandings

Reading is one of the fundamental skills a child needs to learn to succeed

in life. It is also the foundation of one’s ability to learn and ultimately, the ability to
function properly in an ever-changing society. Developing good reading habits is
vital to a child’s future not just academically, but in everyday life as well.

In addition, reading is essential to just about everything in life – from

cooking to driving to just getting through school. It is important to start at a young
age and teach a child the value of reading so they will grow to practice it often and
value their ability to do so.

Yet, reading is a very complex matter and new discoveries are made in the
field all the time, requiring adjustments in the teaching process. As teachers, we
make a lot of decisions that affect learning. This entails a thorough understanding
of what learners need to learn, how to analyze their strengths, and how to correct
any misunderstandings they have.

2
 10 Reasons Why Reading is Important for Kids:
1. It expands their vocabulary.
While reading, they might come across ​words they have never heard​ –
prompting them to find out what they mean. As a result, they add it to their
vocabulary.
2. It makes them better at it.
Practice makes perfect. The best way to get better at reading is just to do it!
3. It helps build independence and self-confidence.
As they learn that they no longer have to rely on their parents to read things
to them, they develop a sense of independence. Through reading, they can
begin to understand the world on their own.
4. It keeps them safe.
Traffic signs have words and so do warning labels. Reading allows kids to
understand when something says it could harm them.
5. It helps them make sense of the world around them.
As they learn to read they are able to determine what things around them
say – from signs to stickers to labels. Being able to read helps them
understand what is what and the purpose it serves.
6. It leads to their future academic success.
A child must be able to read in order to even progress through school.
Reading is essential to following the instructions on the test and being able
to even understand or answer the questions.
7. It enhances their imagination.
As a child reads, they can begin to imagine where the characters are. They
might even create their own little world, as well. Reading enhances their
imagination by forcing them to picture what the character actually looks like
and who they are.
8. It entertains them.
It gives them something good to do – especially once they can start reading
chapter books with no pictures, forcing them to really get into their
imagination and therefore, really get into the book as well.
9. It improves their grammar.
Through reading, they can see how the author composed their sentence
structure and grammar. This can also help improve their communication
skills as they determine how it should be read using clues such as
punctuation.
10. It improves their writing skills.
Because reading helps improve their vocabulary, communication, and
grammar skills, it ultimately ​improves their writing skills​ as well.

Current Perspectives on Reading

1. Reading as Process

3
 a. It is a complex process of making meaning from a variety of symbols
and conventions.
b. The readers use three primary sources of information or cues to read a
text:
▪ Meaning – to tell if what they read makes sense with our prior
knowledge and fits with the sense of the story.
▪ Structure – to verify that what is read sounds like language patterns
of speech (grammatically correct) and / or book language.
▪ Visual Graphophonic – to check that words look right or have correct
letter / sound association.
c. Three types of processing are done:
▪ Bottom-up processing – from parts to whole
▪ Top-down processing – from whole to parts
▪ Interactive processing – whole to parts to whole

2. Reading as Comprehension
● Comprehension occurs in the transaction between the reader and the
text.
● The more background knowledge a reader has that connects with the
text, the more likely he/she will be able to make sense of what is being
read.
● According to the schema theory, individuals have organized world
knowledge which are stored through a series of networkable solutions
known as schema. These can be activated or retrieved when needed.
● Reading comprehension involves thinking.

3. Reading as Skill vs. Skills

● Reading is viewed as a unitary skill that we use to process text.
● This unitary skill can be analyzed in terms of component subskills or
global skills.

4. Reading as Strategy
● Readers use cognitive and metacognitive strategies to achieve
comprehension. If comprehension breaks down, the use of fix-up
strategies can be helpful. For example, when children stuck, they can:
- reread the text;
- read on;
- read aloud;
- look at illustrations;
- check surrounding sentences;
- ask for help.

5. Reading as Development
● Reading is an interplay of one’s experience, oral language, and ability to
interpret written symbols.
● Reading and writing have their roots in a child’s earliest attempts to
communicate and make meaning.

4
 ● Reading development is correlated with other aspects of child
development – physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio – emotional.
● Oral language development is an integral part of beginning reading
instruction.

Materials Time Allotment

2 hours
● Session PowerPoint presentation
● manila paper
● metacards Alignment to the PPST
● marker

References

Ambruster, Bonnie B., et. al. (2000). Put Reading First: The Research
Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. USA: Center for the
Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) through the
office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Gunning, Thomas G. (2000). Creating Literacy Instruction for All Children
Third Edition. Needham Heights, MA : Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson
Education Co.
Hermosa, Nemah N. (2002). The Psychology of Reading Diliman, Quezon
City : University of the Philippines Open University.
Tankersley, Karen. (2003). The Threads of Reading Strategies for Literacy
Development, Virginia, USA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Tankersley, Karen. (2005). Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12; Reinforcing
the Threads of Reading. Virginia, USA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Visser, Evangeline & Hanggi, Gary M. (1999). Guided Reading in a
Balanced Program. USA: Teacher Created Materials, Inc

Procedure

Introduce the session by saying: “Good ______ everyone. I am _______from

DepEd ______. I will be delivering the session of Dr. Rosalina J. Villaneza, Chief
Teaching and Learning Division, Bureau of Learning Delivery, Central Office on
“The Nature of Reading”. Before we start, let us take note of the following session
objectives.”

1. Examine teaching practices that will help uncover belief in the

reading process;
2. Explain the nature of reading;
3. Realize that the reader has a significant role in the reading process
and that his/her attitude and motivation affect his/her reading
performance; and
4. Apply research – based practices in teaching children learn to read
and read to learn

5
Activity 1 (10 minutes)

Anticipation Guide:

Directions:

1. Divide the big group into five small groups.

2. For each of the following statements, put a check under “Agree” or
“Disagree” to show how you feel. Discuss your responses with your group
and come up with a consensus.

Agree Disagree
______1. Before children learn to read they should know the sounds of _______
Most letters.
______2. The more symbols (letters or words) there are in a text, the _______
Longer it will take to read it.
______3. We gather meaning from what we read. _______
______4. When one reads one tries to find some cues in an effort to _______
Make sense of the written text.
______5. Visual information provided by maps, charts, or pictures help _______
Young readers store and retrieve information they have read.
______6. A reader who is familiar with the subject matter of a text _______
Already has a basis for making sense of it.

Analysis 1 (5 minutes)
Discuss their answers, have the participants keep their work until after the
abstraction.

Possible answers
1. Agree – Awareness of the sounds of the language is a fundamental skill
in learning to read. This leads to associating the sounds (phonemes)
with the corresponding letter symbols (graphemes).
2. Disagree – This is actually true. But if smaller sense units (words,
phrases) are combined into bigger, coherent ones (sentences,
paragraphs), the whole is much faster to read than if they are separate
or incoherent. Therefore, learners will read more successfully, if given
whole meaningful units of text to read rather than disconnected bits.
3. Disagree​ – The word “gather” implies that somehow the meaning of a
text is there in the words and all we need to do is pick it up. The
construction of meaning that occurs in reading is usually a combination
of decoding and understanding words, phrases, and sentences – the
text (bottom –up processes) and one’s previous knowledge or schema of
the text content and genre (top – down processes). The more
background knowledge a reader has that connects with the text being
read, the more likely the reader will be able to make sense of what is
being read.

6
 4. Agree – When one reads, he tries to find some cues in an effort to make
sense of the written text. The available language information consists of
sounds and symbols (graphophonic cues), language structure or
grammar (syntactic cues), and knowledge which is part of the reader’s
background (semantic cues). These cues answer the following
questions: Does it look right? Does it fit the sense of the story?
5. Agree – Sometimes, a reader does not have sufficient background
information about a text. A diagram, a chart, or any picture cues can
help young readers to better understand what they read.
6. Agree – The more background knowledge a reader has to connect with
the text being read, the more likely the reader will be able to make sense
of what is being read.

Activity 2 (10minutes) Think – Pair – Share

​Think over to answer these questions in an activity sheet, discuss it with the
group after 2 mins.
1. How did you learn to read?
2. What do you do while reading?
3. How do you experience/s in learning to read influenced the way you
teach your learners to read?

Analysis 2 (10 minutes)

Ask:
1. How did you feel about the activity?
2. What are the common answers given to the questions?

Q: How did you learn to read?

Probable Answers​:
o By learning / reciting the alphabet.
o By associating the sounds with the letters of alphabet.
o My mother (aunt / brother / sister) taught me.
o My teacher taught me.
o By looking at pictures in the book and identifying words
about each picture.
o Others

Q: What do you do while you read?

Probable Answers​:

o I decode words.
o I try to understand what I read to get the meaning.
o I try to find some clues so I can understand what I read.
o I try to connect what I know with the topic or subject
discussed in the text.
o I try to make sense of what I read.
o I try to create a mental picture of what I read.
o Others.
Based on the given responses what insights / learnings / realizations did

7
 you have about reading?
Possible Answers​:
a. Reading is a complex cognitive (thinking) activity.
b. Reading is taught not caught.
c. Reading is both word recognition and comprehension.
e. Others.

Abstraction (45 minutes)

(Using the video)

Directions:
Say: ​We will deepen our understanding on the Nature of Reading
thru this video lecture/demo from Dr. Rose J. Villaneza. Before
watching the video let us read and understand the following questions
and will try to answer them in the process:

1. What is Reading? What does ​dynamic process​ mean?

2. What are the important and/or crucial elements needed by the reader to
be able to interact with the text.
3. What are the five alternative views about reading?
4. Using the Chart provided fill in the column as indicated:
Nature of Key Its implication to you as What do you
Reading points/Your reading think are the
(Views take away teacher/supervisor/school challenge/s
about head based on
Reading) what is/are
the reality/ies
in the field?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Give each group 10mins. to discuss their individual answers. Ask a

member to share their discussion.

Closing It

Have the participants review their answers in the Anticipation Guide.

Discuss

Reflection Questions

1. How do you think children should be taught to read?

2. Why do you think we still have none readers even in the higher grades?

8
Application (30 minutes)

Have the participants do a Professional Development Plan.

Show the slide of the PDP.
Say: ​Let’s make a Professional Development Plan. In this PDP, you will write what
you will STOP, SUSTAIN and START. STOP is what you will stop doing as
regards your practices in your reading class. SUSTAIN is what you will continue
doing in your reading class. START is what you will start/begin doing in your
reading lessons.

Give the participants enough time to answer before asking for volunteers to share
to the big group their PDP.

Closing

Let’s read this.

Children Learn to Read and Write

Good readers aren’t born.

They’re created.
Created as the evening clock stands still
and the minutes of a bedtime story reign supreme.
Lovingly read each night.

Good writers aren’t born.

They’re taught.
Taught to revere writing, as an important tool, the nuts
and bolts linking them to the world beyond.
Guaranteed to strengthen the mind of an impressionable child.

Good readers and writers aren’t born.

They’re inspired.
Inspired by teachers who value reading and writing, as the keys to
knowledge and success.
Who read and write like they breathe…
Continuously, steadily, automatically.

​Adapted from “A daughter learns to read”

By Mardi C. Dilks, The Reading Teacher,
Vol. 56, No. 3 November 2002