READING COMPREHENSION

STRATEGY OF GRADE 9 PM
Introduction
Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate it with what the reader
already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing meaning of words, ability to
understand meaning of a word from discourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identify antecedents
and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the main thought of a
passage, ability to answer questions answered in a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or propositional structures
used in a passage and determine its tone, to understand the situational conveyed for assertions, questioning, commanding,
refraining etc. and finally ability to determine writer's purpose, intent and point of view, and draw inferences about the writer.
There are specific characteristics that determine how successfully an individual will comprehend text, including prior
knowledge about the subject, well-developed language, and the ability to make inferences from methodical questioning &
monitoring comprehension like: "Why is this important?" and "Do I need to read the entire text?" are examples of passage
questioning. Instruction for comprehension strategy often involves initially aiding the students by social and imitation learning,
wherein teachers explain genre styles and model both top-down and bottom-up strategies, and familiarize students with a
required complexity of text comprehension. After the contiguity interface, the second stage involves gradual release of
responsibility wherein over time teachers give students individual responsibility for using the learned strategies independently
with remedial instruction as required. The final stage involves leading the students to a self-regulated learning state with more
and more practice and assessment. The teacher as reading instructor is a role model of a reader for students, demonstrating
what it means to be an effective reader and the rewards of being one.
 It is important to know about the reading techniques that the grade 9 pm students use. We are trying to comprehend
what will be the most effective and least effective reading techniques that have been used so we can talk about their
techniques that are easy to learn and use by the students. Do students fully understand what they are reading? Are they able
to express verbally or written communication what they have read? Professional teachers need to guide students to become
independent and effective in our fast-paced, fast-growing society. To do this we need to start with the basic skill that is used
throughout life; and that skill is reading comprehension.
We already knew that there are many reading techniques that can easily use by the students so that they can
comprehend and understand what the students will read and study. Students can also learn comprehension skills through
education or instruction and some learns by direct experience. Proficient readings depends on the ability of the subject to
recognize words quickly and effortlessly
Over the past few decades, research has revealed a great deal of information about how readers get meaning from
what they read and about the kinds of instructional activities and procedures that are most successful in helping students to
become good readers.
For many years, reading instruction was based on a concept of reading as the application of a set of isolated skills such
as identifying words, finding main ideas, identifying cause and effect relationships, comparing and contrasting and sequencing.
Comprehension was viewed as the mastery of these skills. One important classroom study conducted during the 1970s found
that typical comprehension instruction followed For many years, reading instruction was based on a concept of reading as the
application of a set of isolated skills such as identifying words, finding main ideas, identifying cause and effect relationships,
comparing and contrasting and sequencing. Comprehension was viewed as the mastery of these skills. One important classroom
study conducted during the 1970s found that typical comprehension instruction followed what the study called a mentioning,
practicing, and assessing procedure. That is, teachers mentioned a specific skill that students were to apply, had students
practice the skill by completing workbook pages, then assessed them to find out if they could use the skill correctly. Such
instruction did little to help students learn how or when to use the skills, nor was it ever established that this particular set of
skills enabled comprehension
Theoretical Framework
Teaching Reading Comprehension In teaching reading comprehension, the teacher needs some strategies to make the
students comprehend the reading texts. According Brown (2000: 306 311), the following are seven strategies which can be
applied in the teaching reading comprehension in the classroom:
Identifying the purpose in reading
By knowing the purpose of what the reader reads, the reader can throw the unwanted distraction or information. By doing this,
students know what information they want to know in reading the texts. (Brown, 2000: 306).
b) Using graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom up decoding (especially for the beginning level learners)
At the beginning levels of learning English, one of the difficulties that students encounter in learning to read is making the
correspondences between spoken and written English. Here teacher also need to teach how to read the sound words with sort
vowel sound such as (bat, leg, wish, etc) and the sound words with final silent “e” such as (late, time, bite, etc). (Brown, 2000:
306).
Using efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension (for intermediate to advanced levels)
In advanced learner, teacher can apply reading fast to reduce time consuming in reading. Readers do not need to pronounce
every word and do not need to know the meaning of every word but the comprehension of the text is more important. (Brown,
2000: 306)
d) Skimming the text for the main ideas
Skimming is the one of the most valuable reading strategies for learners. Skimming consist of quickly running one’s eyes across
a whole text (such as an essay, article, or chapter) to find out what the text tells about or to find out the main idea of the text.
Skimming gives readers the advantages of being able to guess the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or massage, and
possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas (Brown, 2000: 308)
 e) Scanning the text for specific information
Scanning is quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information that the reader needs in reading a text.
Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of a key concept, or to list a certain
number of supporting details (Brown, 2000: 308)
f) Using semantic mapping or clustering
Readers can resume the long string of ideas or events by grouping the important key of the word they get from the reading.
The strategy of semantic mapping, or grouping ideas into meaningful clusters, helps the reader to remember the contents of the
text. (Brown, 2000: 308).

g) Guessing when you are not certain

Brown (2000: 309) states that guess are an extremely broad category. Learners can use guessing to their advantages to:
(1) guess the meaning of a word,
(2) guess grammatical relationship (e.g., a pronoun reference),
(3) guess a discourse relationship,
(4) infer implied meaning (“between the lines”),
(5) guess about a cultural reference, and
(6) guess content massages,

Those micro skills can be used for the teacher as strategies to overcome the difficulties in the students’ reading comprehension.
Moreover, the students should encourage themselves to be strong readers. Strong reading comprehension skills help the students
in all the other subjects and in the personal and professional lives on their future.
Conceptual Framework In this study, the researchers believe that reading
comprehension will depend on the profile of the students. In term of their learning skills and understanding has a direct relation
to the comprehension ability of the students.

Reading Comprehension Skills

1. Word Perception
2. Noting Details
3. Getting the Main Idea
4. Sequencing Events
5. Predicting Outcomes
6. Following Directions
Statement of the Problem
1. What is the profile of the respondents in the following terms?
1.1 Age; and
1.2Gender?
2. What is the best strategy to use in student?
Hypothesis
There is no varied reading comprehension strategy
Significance of study
Student:
They can use what’s the best strategy for them to easily comprehend something they are reading.
Teacher:
The teachers can use the best strategy or technique to the students. The students will easily understand what the teachers are
teaching.
Administration:
If the best strategy is suited to the students the administration can implement this strategy to officially teach it to student.
Scope and Limitations
The academic limit: Grade 9 PM session of Upper Villages Christian Academy (UVCA) Time and Place Limit: The study was
conducted in the second quarter of the school year 2018-2019 at Upper Villages Christian Academy (UVCA).

The respondents of the study includes 81 students out of 102 total population of the grade 9 PM session. The research focused
on the reading comprehension strategies most use or suited to the grade 9 pm.
Definition of Terms
The following terms are defined below for better understanding of this research which involves dictionary and
operational meaning.
Academic Performance – refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks
given to them by their teachers.
Comprehension – understanding, grasping of the meaning of something.
Following Direction – ability to follow printed and written directions may be viewed as a survival reading skills.
Getting the Main Idea – ability to indicate what is being said and about the topic or subject matter.
Noting Details – taking notes of the important details in a conversation and in an article.
Predicting Outcomes - ability to predict things that might happen next.
Reading - is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning (reading comprehension)
and/or constructing meaning. It is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to the point where they are automatic so that
attention is freed for the analysis of meaning.
Reading Comprehension – defines as the act of grasping the meaning, significance, or nature of an idea with the intellect and
specifies understanding as its closest synonym.
Sequencing Events – ability to determine the chronology of events in a passage which are not only grammatically linked to one
another, but are also logically related and sequenced.
Word Perception - the ability to identify words and understand their meanings.
Word Recognition – define as a process of producing sounds represented by symbols and putting them together into words.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
This chapter presents literature in foreign and local regarding the problem. Research and studies done by different person all
over the world are mentioned here, and everyone agreed that reading comprehension skills of pupils at present must be given
full attention because it does affect their performance in class and with their future endeavors.
Related Study
Foreign Study:
If the struggling readers in your content classroom routinely miss the point when "reading" content text, consider teaching
them one or more of the seven cognitive strategies of highly effective readers. Cognitive strategies are the mental processes
used by skilled readers to extract and construct meaning from text and to create knowledge structures in long-term memory.
When these strategies are directly taught to and modeled for struggling readers, their comprehension and retention improve.
Struggling students often mistakenly believe they are reading when they are actually engaged in what researchers call
mindless reading (Schooler, Reichle, & Halpern, 2004), zoning out while staring at the printed page. The opposite of mindless
reading is the processing of text by highly effective readers using cognitive strategies. These strategies are described in a
fascinating qualitative study that asked expert readers to think aloud regarding what was happening in their minds while they
were reading. The lengthy scripts recording these spoken thoughts (i.e., think-alouds) are called verbal protocols (Pressley &
Afflerbach, 1995). These protocols were categorized and analyzed by researchers to answer specific questions, such as, What
is the influence of prior knowledge on expert readers' strategies as they determine the main idea of a text? (Afflerbach,
1990b).
The protocols provide accurate "snapshots" and even "videos" of the ever-changing mental landscape that expert readers
construct during reading. Researchers have concluded that reading is "constructively responsive-that is, good readers are
always changing their processing in response to the text they are reading" (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995, p. 2). Instructional
Aid 1.1 defines the seven cognitive strategies of highly effective readers.
Local Study:
The main purpose for reading is comprehension. Students who reach high school level are expected to have developed their
reading comprehension skills. High school students are asked to comprehend, analyze, synthesize and evaluate large amounts
of information.
Most of the teachers of English observe in their classes that whenever the lesson is on reading, some of the students could
hardly answer simple questions such as noting details which concern on the literal questions that can be found in the text and
are directly stated. Most of them could not even make inferences about things not directly stated in the text. Others have
difficulty recalling previous knowledge which they can make use to increase their reading comprehension.
Reading Comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text or message. This understanding comes from the
interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text or message (Rayner, Foorman,
Perfitti, Pesetsky & Seidenberg, 2001). Reading comprehension is a skill that can be strengthened and improved through more
reading practice. Pressley (2003), as cited by Pardo (2004), stated that increasing vocabulary, extensive reading and critical
reading are some of the practices that can be used to strengthen and refine the person’s ability to comprehend any text.
However, reading comprehension fails for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is the lack of knowledge base. This deals
on how much knowledge a reader has about the subject he or she is reading. When the reader is more familiar with the
happenings in the text because they likely are similar in many ways to his or her own life experiences then he or she can easily
generate the necessary inferences from the text.
Reading Comprehension according to Basaraba (2013) is a complex process that requires different building-block skills. One
model of reading comprehension proposes that understanding what we read is really the result of three levels of skills: literal
comprehension, inferential comprehension and evaluative comprehension.
Reading is the true backbone of most learning. Everything starts with the written word — whether it’s math, science or even
home economics. As students go up the educational ladder, more reading is usually required as subjects become more dense
and challenging. (Philippine Star, 2010).
Research Design
The correlational method was used in this study, because in this method, it is easy to identify the variables; likewise it is easy to
generate data. This study tried to define the reading comprehension abilities of the student.
The study focused at the present condition. The purpose was to know the comprehension ability of the student.
Description of Respondents
The respondents of the study were the selected Grade 9 students PM session Upper Village Christian Academy
Population
The subjects of this study were the 102 of Grade 9 students PM session, specifically under the sections of Ecclesiastes, Psalms,
and Proverbs of Upper Villages Christian Academy enrolled during the academic year 2018-2019.
Sample and Sampling Technique
The researchers used the Slovin Formula to determine the number of the respondents. Stratified random sampling was used in
this study. This method was done by first assigning numbers to the participants of the population assembling them in a sample
frame. The formula for the Slovin is n = N / (1 + Ne2).
The computation for finding the sample is as follows:
Where, N = 102(Total population of Grade 9 students in the sections: Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Proverbs of Upper Villages
Christian Academy)
 e = 5% (Margin of Error)
n = N / (1 + Ne2)
n = 102 / (1 + 102(0.05)2)
n = 102 / (1 + 102 (0.0025))
n = 102 / (1+ 0.255)
n = 102 / 1.255
n = 81.27
n = 81
Instrumentation
The classroom learning environment questionnaire was used as the main instrument of the study. The classroom learning
environment questionnaire is consisted of 10 items.
Data Gathering Procedures
In order to conduct the study, the researchers used the following procedures:
The researchers asked permission from the Principal of Upper Villages Christian Academy before the administration of the
questionnaires to the target population of the respondents.
The questionnaires were administered to the selected Grade 9 pm respondents through the assistance of their specific English
teacher.
After the respondents had answered the questionnaires, the researchers collected it.
The researchers then get the grades needed to correlate it to the respondents’ answers on the questionnaire.
Then, the data collected were tallied, analyzed and validated with the help of an English Teacher.
Research Locale
The study was conducted in Upper Villages of Christian Academy. The school started Its operation under the name of Upper
Villages Christian Academy in June 2004 having 69 pupils from N-K-P to grade 1 with 2 rooms and 3 teachers, may 27,2005
the DepEd permit to operate was granted. Enrollees increased every year and it’s continue to grow through the guidance of
our lord.
In S.Y 2008-2009, the school offered NKP and a complete elementary education. Goodness continues as the school acquired
an adjacent lot and construction of a 5 door building commenced. January 2009 the new building became the new home of
elementary pupils. In the succeeding years, the felt he continued trust of our community, there was an unexpected increase of
enrollees, the administration necessitated to acquire an additional lot of 1300 SQM. Just behind the elementary building. An
additional classroom was built, it is more conductive and suitable for learning and became the home our high school students
which started its operation in SY 2009-2010
The school’s recognition from DepEd was granted in March 2011. Within this year the school acquired again an additional lit
of 4 600 SQM at the back of the high school building and the construction of the covered court was started October 2012
and became operational by 2013. In this same year also, when we received the Recognition of NKP and Elem.
June 2014, when the Board of Directors decided to apply for the opening of the Senior High School and the application was
sent August 15, waiting for an approval. In this school year, the construction of K to 12 building has started and projected to
be finished before the school year ends. October 2014 when the school celebrated its 10th year founding Anniversary
Luckily permit to operate for the Senior High School was granted October 2015 and was approved to offer academics and
ICT. School Year 2015-2016 marks the highest enrollees in the history of UVCA.
January 9, 2017 when the school is applied for the certification of FAPE/PEAC and the school was approved last February 23,
2017 and passed the standard of DepEd, 50 slots was granted for the incoming Grade 7.
In School year 2017-2018, the school embracethe E-Learning system by utilizing electronic technologies to access educational
strategies that the system may provide. We have a partnership with Diwa Publishing
UVCA is a DepED recognized Christian School and always striving for academic excellence
Statistical Treatment of Data
this study employed statistical tools such as frequency and percentage distribution and likert scale. We used the frequency and
percentage distribution to describe the respondents in terms of age and gender.
P=(F/N)100%
p= percentage
f= frequency
n=no. of respondents
We also used the Likert Scale to determine the results on the effects of strict teaching.
*Ranking Method
R=R1+R2
2
R1=the rank of one variable as arranged in chronological order
R2= the ranks of the other variable
Percentage
This is used as a descriptive statistics to describe the relationship of a part to a whole.

Formula:
%=f/n x 100
Where:
% = Percentage
F = Frequency of response, and
N= total number of respondents
This chapter presents, analyzes, and interprets the data gathered from the survey questionnaire which focused on the Reading
Comprehension Strategies.
 What is the profile of the respondents in terms of the following:
1.1Age; and
1.2 Gender?
Table 1.1
Frequency and Percentage Distribution of the respondents in terms of age

Age Frequency Percentage

14 23 28%

15 50 62%

16 6 7%

17 2 3%

Total: 81 100%

This table shows that majority of the respondents are from ages 15 years old with 50 frequency (62%) and 14 years old with
23 frequency (28%); 6 of the respondents are from ages 16 years old (7%); while 2 or 3% are 17 years old.
14 years old 15 years old

16 years old 17 years old

 Table 1.2
Frequency and Percentage Distribution of the respondents in terms of gender.

Gender Frequency Percentage

Female 36 44.44%

Male 45 55.56%

Total 81 100%

This table shows that the profile of the respondents in terms of gender. It can be seen that the total number of the respondents
is 81, 45 or 55.56% are male while 36 or 44.44% are female.
Female
Male
 Statement of the Problem 2
Questions Mean Rank Verbal Interpretation

1. I try to guess the main ideas of the text on the basis of pictures, charts or figures. 2.32 2 Sometimes

2. I grasp the main idea of material while reading English. 2.28 3.5 Sometimes

3. I turn to dictionaries when coming across new words in the English reading. 2.28 3.5 Sometimes

4. I do not bother with the grammatical structure of sentences while reading in English. 2.06 8 Sometimes

5. I predict the main idea of the whole passage from its title or subtitles. 2.34 1 Sometimes

6. I guess the meaning of new words by analyzing their roots or prefixes or suffixes 2.25 5 Sometimes

7. I do not pay attention to the implied meaning of the reading material. 1.74 10 Sometimes

8. When reading English articles, I skip the word that are new to me. 1.80 9 Sometimes

9. I pause and analyze structure of sentences when reading in English. 2.21 7 Sometimes

10.I guess the meanings of the new words in the context when reading in English 2.24 6 Sometimes

As shown in the table Item no.5 ’’I predict the main idea of the whole passage form its title or subtitle” got the highest mean
scores of 2.34 interpreted as sometimes
While item no. 7 “I do not pay attention to the implied meaning of the reading material.“ got the lowest mean scores of 1.74
interpreted as Never.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents the summary, conclusion and recommendation for the study. The conclusions given were drawn from the
result of the research survey. Moreover, the recommendations were based from the findings and conclusion of the study.
Summary of Findings
The study aimed to determine the reading comprehension abilities of the students and to know what the best reading
comprehension strategy to use for students. One hundred two respondents comprised the study. Results obtained show that
majority of the respondents are from ages 15 years old with 50 frequency (62%) and 14 years old with 23 frequency (28%);
6 of the respondents are from ages 16 years old (7%); while 2 or 3% are 17 years old. The male respondent is slightly higher
than the female respondents. In order to read comprehensively the majority of the respondent’s reading strategies are:
Predicting the main idea of the whole passage from its title or subtitles. Trying to guess the main idea of the text based on the
picture, charts or figures. Grasp the main idea of material while reading English. And turn to dictionaries when coming across
new words in the English reading.
Conclusions
The researchers were able to arrive at these conclusions based on the finding of their study. The most effective reading
strategy of the respondent is by predicting the main idea of the whole passage from its title or subtitle while the least effective
strategy of the respondent is do not pay attention to the implied meaning of the reading material.
Recommendations
Based on the foregoing findings of the study, the researcher recommends the following measures to be done in order to further
the purposes of this study.
The teachers need to generate question
The teachers must apply more reading comprehension strategy/ methods to furtherly find out what is the best and most
effective way in reading comprehensively.