CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

eading is a lifelong activity

that we engage in on a
regular basis. People read for
a
variety of reasons, including
entertainment and enjoyment,
as well as knowledge and
information. Reading is an
important part of the
teaching-learning process for
students. It will
be difficult for learners to
comprehend ideas and
concepts if they lack reading
skills. Through
its many reading
enhancement programs, the
Department of Education has
placed a strong
emphasis on the development
of reading abilities among
Filipino students
eading is a lifelong activity
that we engage in on a
regular basis. People read for
a
variety of reasons, including
entertainment and enjoyment,
as well as knowledge and
information. Reading is an
important part of the
teaching-learning process for
students. It will
be difficult for learners to
comprehend ideas and
concepts if they lack reading
skills. Through
its many reading
enhancement programs, the
Department of Education has
placed a strong
emphasis on the development
of reading abilities among
Filipino students
Reading is a uniquely human activity characterized by the translation of symbols,

or letters into words and sentences that communicate information and mean something

to the reader. Reading is fundamental in helping us find and convey information (Adele

Keyser, 2021). Reading is a lifelong activity that we engage in on a regular basis. People

read for a variety of reasons, including entertainment and enjoyment, as well as

knowledge and information.

Reading is the key to skillful learning and better living. The learners who read

well develop better understanding and effective adjustment towards life’s situations.

When the learners understand what they read they could identify, classify, build,

organize, synthesize, make adjustments and arrived at proper decisions. Reading

enhances empathy and social understanding in individuals (Djikic, M., et al., 2017).

Reading is an important part of the teaching-learning process for students. It will

be difficult for learners to comprehend ideas and concepts if they lack reading skills.

Reading therefore is one of the potent areas where the learners must be placed under

and where an appropriate design may be addressed or utilized to assure the learners to

learn effectively the basic skills in reading. A reading intervention must be designed

(Chard, D. J., Harn, B. A., Sugai, G., & Park, Y., 2017).

Through its many reading enhancement programs, the Department of Education

has placed a strong emphasis on the development of reading abilities among Filipino

students. Recent results of the reading inventories in Grade 7 shows high percentage of
non-readers and frustrated readers among the learners as revealed by the standardized

tool known as Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI). The outcome is

concerning, given that they are in Grade 7 and a Junior High School student,

respectively, and are not reading at their grade level.

Poor reading performance is one of the various problems that a teacher

encountered as she teaches. While such problems could be attributed to some causes

such as social, economic, environmental or psychological factors. It is then a vital task of

all concerned especially the teachers to improve the quality of instruction to help the

slow readers and readers at-risks acquire the basic knowledge and skills in reading

which could be utilized as avenues to undertake other subject areas prescribed in the

curriculum. However, if the problem is not addressed properly and promptly, it will have

a negative impact on students' learning and achievement in other subjects due to their

poor reading skills. They are struggling to comprehend the teachings in several learning

areas, as comprehension is required in all disciplines and without such abilities, they are

barred practically from learning effectively and meaningfully to the other subjects in the

curriculum. In other words, reading skill is very crucial to be mastered by language

learners (Bab, 2018).

Remedial reading measures would then be expected if the students could not

come up with their expected performance. This is one way of knowing and meeting the

needs of pupils. It is through remedial teaching and implementation of interventions

which will help the pupils in achieving better reading skills and comprehension. The

interventions are targeted strategies and activities that best fit the students’ needs. One

such intervention is noontime reading program through phonics approach. When

students are given assistance, encouragement and challenges that one intends to

improve performance, they will be inspired to study that would enable them to perform
better than they ordinarily do. A study found that the program significantly improved both

reading performance and comprehension skills (Heewon Yang, Yoonhee Hwang, and

Jeongsook Eo, 2016).

Knowing the importance and the benefits of reading, it is in the juncture that the

proponent will conduct this action research study entitled “Improving the Reading Skills

of Slow Readers and Readers-at-Risk in Grade 7-Tulips of Bayugan Comprehensive

National High School Through NRS using Phonics Approach”.