Bicol University

Graduate School
Legazpi City

Good Practices in Reading Instruction in

Villahermosa National High School

Villahermosa Rapu-Rapu Albay

Submitted in partial fulfilment

In (Masters in Reading Education)

By

MARICEL B. UBALDO
VILLAHERMOSA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
VILLAHERMOSA RAPU-RAPU ALBAY
 REMEDIAL and ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

INTRODUCTION

In this growing and changing world, reading plays a great role. It is reading that can do much
good to an individual because it enables him to expand his horizon. It is also reading that one
can also cope with the avalanche of knowledge, modern technology and can be a resource of
great knowledge. Proficiency in reading stimulates and develops the mind therefore it should
not only be applied to meet school activities, but the same proficiency should find application in
the social, cultural and political life of an individual. One who can read is likely to become
socially, culturally, politically, literally competent and functional and this is the kind of citizen our
country needs. Knowing that reading is a magic key to the world, enlightenment and recognizing
it as a basic tool for learning in all subject areas one should strive to master the reading skills.
Through reading, one’s curiosity, question and absence of knowledge is being filled with
answers and clarity. It also enables the students to acquire a rich fund of ideas, develop his
ability to concentrate and induces intellectual activity, be informed about the changes, latest
happenings and many other facts that the world has. Reading is also a form of survival in a
sense that everywhere in man’s surrounding or even in a little object he is using, he see
different signs and written directions which require him to read. If not, he probably gets in a
wrong track or he might do something that is not necessary. It is almost impossible for a person
to get through the day without reading especially now that his world is already civilized and
competitive. So the ability to read is one of the most important of human accomplishments.
Most probably, reading is one of the activities that provide man with great satisfaction because
when an individual reads, he acquires much information that he never imagine as real. Thus,
reading is really a great skill that one should develop. But in learning to read there are factors
that may affect the reading ability of the child and these are intelligence, interest, language
facility, auditory discrimination, motivation, attitudes toward reading and even home
background. According to Coleridge, there are four kinds of reader. First is like an hour-glass and
their reading being as the sand and leaves not a vestige behind. Second is like the sponge which
imbibes everything and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. The third is like a
jelly-bag, allowing all that is pure to pass away and retaining only to refuse and dregs. The
fourth is like the slaves in the diamond mines of Golconda, who cast aside all that is worthless
and retain only pure gems. This applies in learning to read and other learning areas where
children do not progress at the same rate. In acquisition of learning, of course there are
problems that block or delay their learning or they may lack several factors that may also
influence the acquisition of reading ability. There are strategies used in order to help our
learners surpass these problems and one of which is remediation. Remediation or remedial
teaching was identified as a process of re-teaching. This is use in order to address child’s specific
needs and inadequacies. The purpose of this is to overcome weaknesses discovered in any
aspect during reading or in activities given during the delivery of lesson in the class. It will also
help students who are having problems to fully understand the basics of the subject. Believing
in the effectiveness of this strategy, Villahermosa National High School decided to come up with
remedial classes for the students to gain mastery of the least mastered skills not just in reading
and language but even in other subject areas where students failed to understand specific skill
given by the teacher. Villahermosa National High School is one of the secondary schools under
the municipality of Rapu-Rapu Albay and is directly supervised by the Department of Education-
Division Albay. People here mostly earned their living through fishing, coconut farming, mat
making, labourer and some entrepreneurship based solely on micro eco like sari-sari store and
other small enterprises. Just like in any other places where people encountered some difficulties
and manage to survive, the main difficulty or problem here in Villahermosa is the absence of
“signal” that makes it hard to make a call or send a text message and it is also impossible to
receive any message from other places whenever you are in this place. Another is we have to
cope with environment where electricity is not available from morning until four in the
afternoon, meaning people here enjoy the use of electricity only from four in the afternoon
until twelve midnight. That is why most of the people here opt to buy solar panels where they
can enjoy the electricity that comes from the heat of the sun. Most of the students here came
from other sitio’s and barangay; some will ride in “habal-habal’ to go to school but
unfortunately there are some students who walk some miles just to attend their classes. During
rainy days, only few students are able to come to school because the access to school is difficult
especially for those students that are walking. As of now, there are 685 students who are
officially enrolled and this comes from junior and senior high level. Remedial classes in
Villahermosa National High School involves all class advisers and subject teachers and followed
scheduled which is approved by the principal of the school. There are no minimum or maximum
numbers of students that are required to attend the remedial class. The number of students
attending the remedial class depends on the number of students who did not reach the mastery
level during the test given after each discussion. Villahermosa National High School come up
with the schedule that will give students an opportunity to master the unmastered skills in all
learning areas and each of them is allotted a one hour to conduct their remediation classes. The
goal of these remedial classes is to help students gain mastery on those least learned skill which
were found during the assessment given by the teacher. There are also students who are
considered as struggling readers and what we do is to perform remedial reading on that
particular student during the vacant period of the teacher. Through these remedial reading
students are required to read words, phrases and stories according to their ability and needs.
They are also being taught topics for example in language, vocabulary and how to develop their
comprehension skills. Aside from mastering the least learned skills, remedial classes also serve
as a safety valve for students because they are able to work in their appropriate level and
eventually help them avoid getting a failing grade. Remedial classes can help in promoting
positive environment within the classroom because students can ask many questions as they
can to understand the subject rather than developing a feeling of learning those skills
immediately.
 OBJECTIVES

Following to the policy of the Department of Education that “No one should be left behind”,
Villahermosa National High School decided to have this remediation or enrichment program
that would not only help students be promoted to the next level but will also help them master
the least learned skills. In this study, it aims to know how remediation helps in the development
of students learning not just in reading but to other subject areas as well. Specifically, this will
help on how to:

A. Determine the least learned skills in reading.

B. Determine the least learned skill in terms of a vocabulary and reading comprehension
skills.
C. Determine the effects of remedial classes to the students reading and academic
performance.

Methods

To determine the least mastered skills and the reading level of the students, revalidation of pre-
test and post-test was being conducted in the school. The purpose of this is to check whether
the test contain questions that are aligned to the competencies for English grade 7. To find out
if the test really contains question that will help assess the target skills of the learners. After the
test was revalidated, the school conducted diagnosis to determine the reading skills acquired by
the learners and also their reading difficulties as well as the reading level whether the learner is
on the frustration, instructional and independent level. The diagnosis was in a form of informal
reading inventory, written test using teacher made test to determine the reading skills, reading
difficulties as well as the reading level. After conducting the test, it was check and an item
analysis was made and the result was interpreted. The reading level was also determined by
using this formula; number of correct item divided by the number of items multiplied to 100,
example if student got thirty correct answers it will be divided to fifty items and multiplied to
100 and the result will determine if this student belongs to frustration, instructional and
independent level. The students who were found out with severe difficulty were also
 interviewed. Likewise in determining the least mastered skills of the students the formula used
is number of students who got the correct answer divided by the total number of tested and
will be multiplied to 100.

I will include here pictures kan pagmeeting on how are we going to conduct the remediation or
enrichment program, pictures showing the conduct of diagnostic test and the interview kan mga
aki with severe difficulty.

RUBRIC FOR DETERMINING GOOD PRACTICES

Dimensions/Areas Effectiveness Replicability Criteria Sustainability

Technical Gender
& Relevance Economic Feasibilit Sensitivit
Adaptability Social y y
Pragmatic Practices
Needs Assessment /
Program Design /
Work Place /
Project Management /
Information or /
reporting system
Volunteer Recruitment /
Program Evaluation /
Organizational Practice
Governance /
Financial/Grant /
Management
Stakeholder /
Context Specific Practices (Teaching and Learning)
Instructional Materials /
Instructional /
Strategies/ Delivery of
Lessons
Interaction with /
students
Assessment /
Workshop on How to make activity sheets focus on the least learned skills in all subject areas.