Improving The Reading Performance of Grade 3 Learners Using Multimodal Reading Instruction (School Level)

Improving The Reading Performance of Grade 3 Learners Using Multimodal Reading Instruction (School Level)

Evelyn M. Viray
Aplaya Elementary School, Schools Division Office I Pangasinan

Received: 20 February 2023; Revised: 04 March 2023; Accepted: 09 March 2023; Published: 06 April 2023

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to develop multimodal reading instructions during COVID-19 pandemic for grade 3 learners. The subjects were the 33 Grade 3 pupils of Aplaya Elementary School, Lingayen III District, Schools Division Office I Pangasinan during the school year 2021-2022. The development of the instructional materials was based on the result of the teacher-made test in reading English. The researcher used a quasi-experiment. The respondents (19 or 57.6%) had their level of computational performance assessed as poor in the given multiple tests prior to the utilization of Multimodal Reading Instruction aimed at improving their reading performance and academic performance in English. There were 14 learners (42.4%) whose performance in the test was found satisfactory while none (0.0%) proved to be outstanding. On the other hand, a comparison of how they fared in the posttest after they were taught in English using MRI reveal a marked improvement in their level of performance. Notably, there were no longer learners whose performance was poor (0 or 0.0%) while there were just 10 (30.3%) learners whose performance was satisfactory and 23 or 69.7% were assessed as outstanding.  This study looked into the influence of Multimodal Reading Instruction (MRI) as intervention in improving the reading fluency of the respondents. Results of the study reveal how the utilization of multiple modalities in reading instruction yielded positive results among the respondents. Teachers are then enjoined to explore multiple modalities or platforms in the development or of interventions aimed at addressing reading loss among elementary learners.

Keywords: Fluency, Intervention, Multimodal Reading Instruction, Multiple Modalities, New Normal, Reading Loss

CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

Reading is the foundation for future learning. Contends that low achievement in reading in early primary grades has important long-term consequences. Consequently, how a child is reading by third grade is a strong predictor of future academic success and achievement later in high school. (Smith 2021) Notes how reading influences children’s vocabulary and language development. He further stressed that vocabulary development by age 3 has been found to predict reading achievement by third grade. Specifically, vocabulary development comes from rich interaction between children and their parents or caregivers. Dialogic reading is key and parents who read, tell stories, or sing songs tend to develop larger vocabularies and become better readers. (Lang 2021)  These were all stalled by the pandemic as highlights in his article relative to the changing patterns of growth in oral reading fluency of elementary students during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Yeatman 2021) Indeed, education has faced unprecedented disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. It brought to the fore a widespread concern among parents, educators, and policymakers alike that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in substantial deficits in student learning (Kuhfeld, Soland et al., 2020), particularly when it comes to formative skills such as reading. Dorn et al. (2020) underscored how results of standardized assessments (e.g., the NWEA MAP1) that focus on a suite of skills suggest relatively losses, especially in reading. Fuchs (2020), thus, calls on the focus on the foundational skill – reading fluency of young learners. According to current president of the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP), the key issues faced by the Philippines are on literacy, fluency, and comprehension. This was brought to the fore by the 2018 and 2019 results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which showed that Philippines got lower scores in reading comprehension, mathematics, and science than most of those surveyed in other nations. Based on the findings, over 80 percent of Filipino learners surveyed did not reach the minimum level of proficiency in reading. Such dismal results on the performance of Filipino learners in international assessments compelled DepEd to urgently address the issues and gaps in attaining quality basic education in the country. (Frederick S. Perez 2020), In the context of the new normal education, the employment of strategies that targets the varied learning styles of learners across all learning modalities is highly encouraged if not required. Such approach typical of the teaching and learning process in the new normal is the integration of multimedia in instruction. In the wake of the capacity building of teachers vis-à-vis the different learning modalities, DepEd has been advocating the use of multimedia platforms specifically where blended learning is concerned. This brought to the fore the employment of multimedia-aided instruction across all learning delivery modalities. Equally, the employment of multiple modalities has also become the typical mode in carrying out reading instruction in the new learning setup. The researcher teaches Grade 3 learners at the Aplaya Elementary School (AES). Learning to read is one of the first major challenges that children face when they begin elementary school. Not only are the Grade 3 expected to fluently read text aloud which not only depends on more basic single-word decoding skills, but also requires words to be fluently read in the context of sentences. Thus, in view of the reading difficulties noted by the researcher of her learners relative to word miscues and oral reading fluency, the school’s reading program, it seeks to address the reading ability of the learners at AES. Apart from the struggling readers in the grade level, the first 3 weeks of the new school year 2021- 2022 brought to the fore the concerns of the researcher with regards to the Grade 3 learners’ reading skills. Since the school implements blended learning modality this school year, syllable readers and learners with poor comprehension skills were noted across all learning delivery modalities. These were observed during their participation in online classes, in the outputs they submitted, in the results of the summative test. Added to this are the learners who are not reading at their grade level. Learners have diverse literacy needs. In view of the diverse ways by which the pupils learn and their preferred learning delivery modalities, the researcher makes use of multiple modalities in teaching reading. Learning opportunities in reading provided to the Grade 3 learners explored the ways in which they learn best. Content presentations and learning tasks are developed and presented using various platforms and multiple modalities vis-à-vis the learning delivery modalities. Thus, reading instruction and/or activities employed strategies that allowed the Grade 3 learners to process information through multiple modalities. It was in this context that this study was conducted. It sought to look into the impact of multimodal reading instruction in improving fluency of the Grade 3 learners at Aplaya Elementary School during the school year 2021- 2022.

INNOVATION, INTERVENTION, AND STRATEGY

The aim of education in the 21^st century is to move away from the traditional practices of teaching with one modality for all students in a lesson. In this vein, the strategy, Multimodal Instruction in Reading recognizes that students learn in different ways which consequently called to task the researcher to recognize that learners need reading instruction with strategies that allow them to process information through multiple modalities. Through the use and creation of multimodal texts, the Grade 3 learners were provided with opportunities to use linguistic, visual, and audio modes to experience, conceptualize, analyze and apply meaning. Moreover, the use of multiple modes of teaching reading to engage students in meaningful literacy activities addressed the learners’ varied reading interests and difficulties. (Kennedy 2020) Specifically, Multimodal Reading Instruction focused on reading sessions and reading assignments that combined more than one media type such as text (alphabetic or numeric) symbols, images, pictures, audio, video, and animations based on the learners’ preferred learning delivery modalities. These were duly reflected in the Weekly Home Learning Plan and in the reading, activities prepared and utilized by the researcher. The activities under this study were done following the   Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) protocol of Department of Education for the safety and wellness of everybody. Having the learner engage simultaneously or in close sequence with the material using two or more of their sensory “modalities”. For example, a student using manipulatives during phonics instruction may be engaging their visual, auditory, and tactile modalities. Learners are not only immersed in technology, but also in visual ways of learning.

ACTION RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study aimed to improve the reading fluency of the Grade 3 learners at Aplaya Elementary School, Lingayen III District, by using the Multimodal Reading Instruction (MRI) as an innovation or strategy in reading during the school year 2021 – 2022.

Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of reading fluency of the Grade 3 learners before and after the intervention?
2. Is there a significant difference on the level of reading performance of the Grade 3 learners before and after the intervention?

ACTION RESEARCH METHODS

Participants and/or other Sources of Data and Information:

The subjects of this study were 33 the Grade 3 learners handled by the researcher at the Aplaya Elementary School during the school year 2021 – 2022. They were chosen as respondents of the study as they belonged in the class handled by the researcher and so as not to disrupt the classes or teaching routines in the other learning delivery modalities. Non-probability sampling was used in this research.  As it the is most commonly means a purposive sampling method that includes specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. This research study will employ quasi-experimental specifically the non-equivalent group design. A pretest was administered to both the control and experimental groups after which the strategic reading approach was used in leveling selected reading topics to the experimental group. Following guidelines for health protocols.

DATA GATHERING METHODS

This study used the one group pretest-posttest design. An experimental design, according, to Williams (2012), supports or refutes a hypothesis using statistical analysis. The said design was appropriate for this study as it established a significant difference in the level of reading fluency of the Grade 3 learners after their exposure to the intervention, Multimodal Reading Instruction (MRI).  Learners’ reading level were diagnosed by the use of Phil-Iri materials. A content-validated test questions was used as the primary tool in gathering the data needed.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND REFLECTION LEVEL OF READING FLUENCY OF THE TARGET LEARNERS DURING THE  PRE-ASSESSMENT-TEST AND POST-ASSESSMENT TEST

This section presents the level of reading fluency of the Grade 3 learners in English based on the results of the pretest and posttest. The learners earned scores based on how many items they answered correctly in the said tests. The results of the level of reading performance of the Grade 3 learners based on the results of the pretest and posttest are presented on the foregoing tables. Ary (2010) stated that the most common research instruments used in qualitative research are observation, interview, and document analysis. In this study, the researcher uses observation through the reading skills of the learners to collect the data.

Table 1 Distribution of learners’ Pretest and Posttest Scores

*DE=Descriptive equivalent

Majority of the Grade 3 learners (19 or 57.6%) had their level of computational performance assessed as poor in the given multiple tests prior to the utilization of Multimodal Reading Instruction aimed at improving their reading performance and academic performance in English. Also, the data in Table 1 reveal that there were 14 learners (42.4%) whose performance in the test was found satisfactory while none (0.0%) proved to be outstanding. On the other hand, a comparison of how they fared in the posttest after they were taught in English using MRI reveal a marked improvement in their level of performance. It can be noted, too, that there were no longer learners whose performance was poor (0 or 0.0%) while there were just 10 (30.3%) learners whose performance was satisfactory and 23 or 69.7% were assessed as outstanding. It is noteworthy that there was an increase in the number of learners whose performance in the posttest in English was outstanding just as there was an increase, too, in the number of learners whose performance in the test improved from poor to satisfactory after they were taught using MRI. An increase in the statistical data relative to the mean (10.87 to 22.81) is also noted. The increase in the mean is indicative of an increase in the level of performance vis-à-vis the level of reading fluency of the Grade 3 learners in the posttest. The results uphold what Fuchs (2020) and Lang (2021) maintain and recommend about strategizing the reading instruction in view of the noted reading loss during the pandemic. The results of the study affirmed the good there was to the employment of multimodal reading instruction deem appropriate for the new learning setup to cater to the learning and literacy needs of the learners across all learning delivery modalities.

Table 2 Significance in the Level of Reading Fluency of the Grade 3 Learners in English Before and After Exposure to Multimodal Reading Instruction

The data in Table 2 calculated the difference between the observed means (10.88 and 22.09 respectively) representative of the pretest and posttest results of the Grade 3 learners in English. A significance value (P-value) and 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of the difference is shown, too. In the procedure, the P-value is the probability of obtaining the observed difference between the means if the null hypothesis was true. As shown in the tabular data, the t-value is -14.5976 while the p-value. is .00001. The decision is significant. This means that the difference between the performance of the Grade 3 learners in English before and after they were taught reading using multiple modalities is significant. Learners need differentiated process and content of learning according to their learning style, interest, and readiness. Multiple modalities influence the literacy and learning of the pupils. Through the use and creation of multimodal texts, learners can use linguistics, visual and audio modes to experience conceptualize, analyze, and apply meaning. All in all, the results support stressed about giving particular attention and intervention to the foundational skills of the learner where reading skills is concerned, their fluency in reading. (Perez 2020) The results of the study have shown how the intervention, multimodal reading instruction, paved the way for increased level of reading performance among the Grade 3 learners at Aplaya Elementary School. The results of the study show how adapting and innovating the reading interventions to the preferred learning delivery modalities of the learners yield positive results in terms of their reading performance. Moreover, it can be drawn from the results of the study that giving particular attention to the foundational skills of the learners with regards to their reading skills results to an enhancement in their reading ability. Teachers are then enjoined to innovate and customize the reading interventions they develop or employ to target the multiple ways in which the students learn best.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The entirety of this work is not made possible without the people who are instrumental in enabling me to finish this study. It is just fitting that I give due recognition to the contribution they have extended for the successful completion of this work. The researcher would like to express her profound thanks and grateful appreciation to all who have given their support, assistance, and efforts in the completion of this study. Sonia C. Adversalo, EdD PSDS, for her insightful advice for the completion of this study. The researcher would like to express her sincere gratitude to her school head, Marites G. Pascua, Principal I, who was extremely helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support, and guidance. Deepest gratitude also goes to the members of the faculty at Aplaya Elementary School for the support, suggestions, kindness, and encouragement which motivated the researcher to complete this fruit of labor. This study would not be complete without mention of the support given to her by her parents and siblings. Above all, to God Almighty, for His divine love for making this possible. E.M.V.