A READING TEACHER IS A LOVING TEACHER

Avegail Alarcon Constantino

avegail.constantino@deped.gov.ph
Division English Coordinator
Master Teacher 1

When I become a mentor, this advocacy serves as

my inspiration, “Be responsible with whatever you

teach and be ready to answer this question, “How

many souls have you corrupted?”, when you teach

the young souls wrongly, that wrong will be right

because for them your teachings are always right.

The journey of my teaching career commenced last

July 9, 2001, at Quezon National High School but,

the real battle began when I become one of the first master teachers of Palawan

who passed the qualifying examination

and was promoted to a master teacher

on February 12, 2007, specializing in

reading intervention programs with my

special learners. It was like a feeling of

unfathomable surprise being forcibly

ripened to conform to its expected

duties and responsibilities. On the

other hand, I’m not really skeptical

about the work transition since, by

faith, God has given me this desire of assisting and mentoring my colleagues and
of course, molding my learners in learning, and the love for reading has been my

passion with a specialty in reading intervention programs.

I do believe that learners are anticipated to be readers and functionally

literate as they step up in secondary but it has already been a common problem in

our school, our district, other districts, divisions, a collective struggle, and word of

mouth not just in the community I belong, the entire Philippines and the rest of the

states whether they are from the first world or third world countries as revealed by

Ratziel San Juan from the Philstar.com (released last December 3, 2019) stating

that we ranked the lowest in reading comprehension among 79 countries. I’m not a

superhero but the hyperbole of moving mountains paradoxical for some becomes

reachable in the simplest ways with a devotion and dedication to my sworn

vocation. That’s why, as a language teacher I love to teach grammar, phonology,

its structure, and everything that encompasses English. Back then, our former

principal, assigned all those struggling readers, particularly the Grade 7 and some

learners at higher levels with difficulty in reading form part of my intervention

program as I pull them out of their regular classes. I had this advocacy of helping

them and assisting them in reading during the program and comprehension

followed afterward. In the real sense, seeing learners have an interest in reading

books, fliers, or other references thereby elevated their reading level from absolute

non-reader to merely frustration undeniably served as my ultimate success and

fulfillment as a teacher, and looking at their eyes how happy they were as slowly

they improved. Knowing that students at this level are exposed to different texts

that challenge their cognitive capacity where they are held to reflect on how they
decode the texts to acquire learning. Though, the sad reality nowadays of making

students read their textbooks is hard and is especially harder than making them

read books or references for the pleasure of reading as they don’t seem to be

interested in it these days anymore. “Such boring stuff”, they reacted. As

technology goes more complex learners rarely bowed up with a nice little book

when it was too hot to play outside because they are more preoccupied with

watching TV, going to the place they like, using their mobile phones, playing online

games, or updating their FB accounts with new Tiktok.

Still, I firmly consider that the many benefits our students could reap from

reading regularly should make the challenge of encouraging them to read from a

small reward to pay like reading develops a person’s creativity, comprehending

concepts and ideas, develop critical thinking skills, thus, ensuring our students will

be able to think and make good decisions which I enjoyed sharing with all my dear

students. Meanwhile, in my second year as a master teacher, I met a young timid

boy who barely knew anything made a spark in my heart. I had two pull-out

sessions in my class; one in the morning and another one in the afternoon. In the

morning, I catered to two to three non-readers with a tutorial session among

special programs that should be heightened and go back to the very beginning,

one of which was that student, Ronald (not his real name). Here are the one-on-

one, two on two, and all three instances of the reading approach. While, in the

afternoon, were all those struggling readers who needed follow-up on

pronunciation, syllabication, phonology, and comprehension activities. The

intervention requires full devotion of both mind and soul because an innocent mind
has placed his/her trust within his/her reading teacher to bridge him from novice,

be an avenue to learn how to read, and somehow understand what he is reading.

The beginning had many failures and frustrations but a reading teacher should not

have an eye of a defeated guru, especially with Ronald, but rather concerned and

loving eyes willing to grasp their hands and be their source of hope believing in

them little by little that they can make it. There were times that they wanted to give

up especially Ronald, because of the many complications they were facing before

going to school. As to Ronald, he oftentimes gets absent or when he’s present his

attention seemed to be on his empty stomach. We got along together and felt pity

for his situation, he shared his sentiments and that one of his major worries was

that nobody can teach him, nobody can do those follow-ups at home. His parents

were all usually out for work looking for something to be placed on their table, and

his elder sibling seldom have spare time because he also had some important stuff

to finish. I took a home visitation, conducted interviews, and solicited background

from his former teachers in elementary and there I found reasons for being such a

non-reader. Back there, I started contemplating those anxieties wrapping around

his current condition. A series of more simplified yet serious sessions is the only

hope. A serious but caring schedule that slowly assists not only him but all of them

in reading sessions with preference to what they actually need. Yes, we had rough

attempts in reading sessions, and it’s normal, especially when a learner

himself/herself is not willing to attend the reading intervention program, or no

matter how keen they are, factors like household chores, sibling conflicts, family

problems, financial limitations, and other related conflicts which I believe most of
our learners do encounter, and there were times our learners ignored and escaped

their schedules as they were distressed and bullied by their classmates because of

their presence to the special classes of intervention. As a teacher, I started

opening wide my two hands to support them, I stripped my austere and idealistic

point of view in teaching beginning learners so that I could win their trust, boosted

their self-esteem, and bit by bit monitored their progress and Ronald as well. We

oftentimes extended schedule of classes which was later appreciated by my

learners and their parents too. It’s a relief, that I don’t need to fetch them one by

one instead it’s another way around, I was the one whom they visited to remind

me, it’s time. I even brought snacks, and lunch taken from my own pocket so that

these young learners have something to eat as their incentive for attending my

program and seeing them improving. I took notes of all their progress, and

struggles, especially of Ronald, I would never forget the time when he already

knew how to read the words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and the whole

selection all by himself, he reacted “kaya ko rin pala!” “Salamat po mam hindi nyo

ako sinukuan”, that mere instance I discretely exploded with immeasurable

happiness and that realization was not really Ronald’s success, but mine, the

moment I saw the tears of joy dropped from his eyes while reading the text was a

fulfillment of my soul, finally I could brag without hesitation that I haven’t corrupted

innocent souls. When the final evaluation period arrived after 3 long quarters, they

all returned to their regular classes as my task was already accomplished.

This time, I’m a designated Division English Coordinator of SDO Palawan,

and my knowledge of intervention programs paves the way to doing technical

assistance in helping the division resolve such problems of reading teachers, their

willingness to help our learners learn to read should be from the heart where

compassion and genuine concern guide us as we carry our learners not only to

achieve our ultimate goals but also their goals because all of them have different

stories to tell as why for so many years they weren’t able to read and understand

what they are reading. As they finally learn how to read, the next level will be

easier, thereby reading is essential in order to learn whatever subject it may be.