Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION X
Division of Bukidnon
OLD NONGNONGAN III District
OLD NONGNONGAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
School ID: 303977

FULL BLOWN ACTION RESEARCH

(09074746720)

INTEGRATING PHONEMIC INSTRUCTION TO INCREASE READING SKILLS

AMONG GRADE 9 STUDENTS

Proponent:

MARJORE O. GULLA
Researcher

SY 2022-2023
 ABSTRACT

This paper describes a program for improving reading skills at the beginning
among grade nine students so that a rapid acquisition of skills will enhance students'
ability to succeed in their respective basal programs. The targeted population used a
grade nine students in a sub-urban school. The problems of poor selection attack
and phonemic awareness skills were documented through baseline testing during
the first weeks of school through home visits. Analysis of probable cause data
revealed that poor reading skills can be related to poverty, disadvantaged
households, or lack of readiness to read on the local. Additional causes for poor
reading skills are deficits in sound/text association, lack of phonemic awareness, a
failure of teachers to address students' varied learning styles, lack of exposure to
print, and developmental delays. A review of solution strategies by reading
researchers, combined with an analysis of the local settings, in the selection of
phonemic awareness instruction as an intervention. Instruction in listening, words or
text association, segmenting words, and blending sounds using methods which
target the varied learning styles of students were developed and implemented with
the help of parent involvement. Post intervention data indicated an increase in
phonemic awareness, improved decoding skills, and an increase in word or text in
the passage proficiency.

. Specifically, the question was presented in the study: How can Phonics
awareness Instruction improve the Reading Skills of my students. The study used
mix method to gather relevant data. Pre-sampling was used in selecting the
respondents. The data were treated using the frequency counts, percentage, and
feedback with the use of Phonemic materials prepared by the researcher and
another instrument used was Phil-IRI material year 2023, criteria still base on the
standard prepared by our department the time and word set per minute and
appropriate bracket of accuracy. Phonemic awareness as an effective tool to aid low
achieving students in their ability to decode words. Student and teacher perceptions
of the Phonemic instruction were also investigated to find out if this method is
something that students enjoyed and preferred.

The use Phonemic Instruction improve the reading skills among grade nine
students’ ability to read a word per minute. Significant difference of the scores of the
students is likewise observed before and after the intervention. As observed during
home visits, students showed enthusiasm towards reading fluency-oriented reading
instruction which is utilized among them. Generally, this intervention is applicable to
the specific level of students most particularly in grade nine students.
Therefore, teachers with difficulty among slow readers are encouraged to use
phonemic awareness instruction in the desire to achieve better reading performance.
The participants also need to be exposed to more materials or worksheets. The
phonemic instruction should be given enough time to gain more progress. The
proposed reading program is recommended to further enhance the reading
performance of the students.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Action Research Project is dedicated to my family especially to my mother,

who has been very supportive during the process, and always cheers me up and
loved me.

Above all, I think God for always guiding me, for giving me strength,
knowledge and wisdom in writing this research work.
 CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

Reading is one of the most important skills in our society. Mastery of this skill

Leads to enhanced academic learning, long term success in school, and improved

Quality of life (Lyon,2003). The importance of learning to read is reflected in the No

Child Left behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, which established as a national goal that all
children will read on grade level by the end grade. To meet this unprecedented,
ambitious goal,teachers are required to use instruction and curricula based. This
“evidence-based”approach is summarized in several documents (Adams, 1990;
National Reading Panel, 2000; Partnership for Reading, 2001). Its primary focus is
teaching students to make connections between the sounds in our spoken language
and the written letters we use to represent these sounds.

Reading ability is composed of two factors, decoding and

comprehension .decoding is the process that leads toward recognition (Adams,
1990).Learning to break that code of written text is partly dependent on being aware
that words are composed of sequences of meaningless and somewhat distinct
sounds(i.e., phonemes).This is often referred to as phonemic awareness. Phonemic
awareness is necessary to decode an alphabetic language because print decoding
depends on mapping or matching phonemes to graphemes (i.e., letters in English)
(Adams,1990).
Teaching young children to read is of upmost importance. According to
Wonder- McDowell (2010), “Teaching young students to read has been described as
one of the most important responsibilities of primary grade teachers and yet a
significant number of students struggle to develop proficient skills in reading. As an
intern student for three months. I was looking for ways to improve my student
reading skills. After trying several different phonics curriculums, I wanted to test the
hypothesis that a systematic approach to phonics instruction would be beneficial to
students' reading skills. I decided to investigate systematic phonics instruction for my
grade two students l to determine if this approach to phonics instruction did indeed
increase the students' reading ability.
 Around 55% of my grade two class are frustrated reader and 45% are fast
reader as of October 2021. They tended to withdraw themselves by refusing it. They
were having serious problems in reading processes towards speed.
Learning to read is a complex task for beginners. They must coordinate many
cognitive processes to read accurately and fluently, including recognizing words,
constructing the meanings of sentences and text, and retaining the information read
in memory. An essential part of the process for beginners involves learning the
alphabetic system, that is, letter-sound Correspondence and spelling patterns, and
learning how to apply this knowledge in their reading. Systematic phonics instruction
is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound
correspondences and their use to read and spell words (Harris & Hodges, 1995).
Phonics instruction is designed for beginners in the primary grades and for children
having difficulty learning to read. This same behavior helps a child build vocabulary
and phonemic awareness. Skinner believed, “all language can be considered
behavior that is conditioned and learned (Lana, 2002, p. 54). Skinner’s behavior
theory attempts to explain how students acquire language and learn to
communicate.

In addition, Saxon Phonics and Spelling publishers asserted this pedagogy

was highly effective because it allowed students to gain then retain critical phonics
and reading skills. The core of the Saxon Phonics and Spelling was based on three
premises (a) instruction is incremental and distributed across the grade level; (b)
practice is continual and distributed across the level; and (c) assessment is
cumulative and distributed across the level. The Saxon series was a success-
oriented program because it enabled most children to develop a solid foundation in
phonics that led them to become successful readers and spellers. The premise for
success of the Saxon program was that it built on students' prior knowledge and the
new learning was presented incrementally in the lessons. Each increment was
reviewed throughout the year, and provided every child theexposure needed to
achieve success.

The purpose of this study is to present the results of a teacher action research study
thatexamined how phonemic awareness increase the reading skills among grade
nine students.
 INNOVATION, INTERVENTION, AND STRATEGY

This section presents the intervention and strategy to improve students’

reading skills.Phonemic Awareness as Intervention.The intervention sessions were
done during home visits for the duration of 50 minutes in twice a week. It started on
January 6, 2023 and end to January 9, 2023. It attempted to attain the content
standard, performance standard, and learning competencies specifically in oral
reading fluency, by reading aloud grade nine levels at a rate of approximately 60
words per minute and read grade three level text appropriate text with an accuracy
rate of 95-100%

ACTION RESEARCH QUESTION

Generally, this action research study aimed to develop a reading program for
Grade nine students based on their reading profile. It offers intervention to improve
reading skills through phonemic awareness instruction among grade two students.
Specifically, this study sought to answer the question:

1. How can Phonemic Instruction increase the reading skills among grade
nine students?
 ACTION RESEARCH METHODS

Research Design

Descriptive research design was employed in this study to gather relevant

data in order to improve the reading skills among grade nine students. It used
descriptive research design to describe the students’ reading skills before and after
the intervention. Field notes were used to synthesize the students’ classroom
behaviour during the implementation of the intervention.

Participants

The participants of the study were the Grade nine students who had difficulty
in oral reading and belonged to “struggling” as to their reading level. There were 28
students as the total enrolment of Grade nine for school year 2022 -2023 but both of
them served as the respondent of the study whose reading level falls under
struggling and independent level based on the pre reading results.
 Table 1. Participants of the study
INDICATOR F PERCENT

Male 10 52.6
Female 9 47.3

TOTAL 19 100.0

Instrument

Downloaded oral and silent reading materials in Phil-IRI year 2021 was
adapted by the proponent for the conduct of the study. Since it is adapted, there is
no need to conduct a try-out to test the reliability and validity of the instrument.

Sampling Design

Grade nine students were used as the respondent of the study. This means
that all struggling and independent reader in grade nine students who did not reach
and even reach the appropriate reading level was the subject to intervention in order
to improve reading skill

Data Analysis

Data was treated through descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution

and percentage which shows the different level of the participants in oral reading.
The mean gave a summary of the reading level of the participants. In computing the
reading level using the Phil-IRI materials, the formula was applied:

RS = no. of words in the passage

reading time (min)
 Reading speed was computed by dividing the total number of the words which
are specifically100 words. This was done to measure the speed of reading by the
individual participants.

Table 2. Criteria for reading speed of the pupils based on EGRA

GRADE 1 INDEPENDENT STRUGGLING SLOW

/NON
READER
I 70 – Above 31-69 30 below
II 100 61-99 60
III 120 91-119 90
IV 140 111-139 110
V 170 141-169 140
VI 190 161-189 160

The criteria for reading were used as the basis for the reading speed of Grade
nine student It is shown that a studentl who could read 140- above words per minute
(WPM) is considered as independent, 111-139 as struggling and 110 below as slow
or non-reader. Finally, results of the checklist on students’ behaviour was
synthesized.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND REFLECTIOn

 This section presents the pertinent results of the gathered data before and
after the intervention taken in order the reading speed of the Grade nine students in
Old Nongnongan National High school Table 3 shows the frequency distribution of
the student’ reading speed before and after the intervention.Table 3. Distribution of
students’ reading speed before and after the intervention based on Phonics
Awareness Instruction
READING SPEED BEFORE AFTER
SPEED LEVEL
WPM F % f %
60 below 0 10 0.0 0 8 0.0 Slow
61-99 10 1. 52.6 3 15.79 Struggling
100 above 9 1. 47.3 16 184.21 Independent

It can be noticed from the results that before the intervention, 10 (52.6%)
pupils fall under the struggling reader and 9 (47.3%) of them reached the
independent and none of them as slow level. However, after the intervention really
amazing it was declined into 3 (15.79%) falls under struggling, 16 (84.21%) of them
are independent reader and none of them none reader. If we try to look at the
difference before and after the intervention the results suggest, through the use of
Phonics awareness instruction, the speed level of the pupils in reading can be
addressed. By doing this among struggling readers, a chance of making them as
independent readers can be attained.

Table 4. student’ behaviour during classroom observation with Intervention

Behaviors Not Observed Yes
Male % Female % Male % Female %
Inattentiveness 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Uncooperative 0 0 0 0
behavior
Anxiousness 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0
Withdrawal 0 0 0 0
Other inappropriate 0 0 0 0 1 4% 0 0
 behaviors
(nonaggressive)

Based on observations there was no indication of inattentiveness among the

student during the intervention process. But there was a sign of anxiousness and
withdrawal along the process. Somehow there were evidence of over anxiousness
behaviour and other in appropriate but 16 (84%) of them showed their interest
during the intervention process.

In a review of this research, Stanovich (1986) concluded that phonemic

awareness is a more potent predictor of reading achievement than non-verbal
intelligence, vocabulary, and listening comprehension, and that it often correlates
more highly with reading acquisition than tests of general intelligence or reading
readiness.

IV- FINDINGS

It is imperative that based on the results after the intervention had been done
the reading deficiency among grade nine student was enhanced the struggling and
independent reader as it revealed in the data show that it was increased and their
word per minute also increased more learner achieved at independent level. Also,
student have desired to read and their behaviour revealed no intimation for
inattentiveness and withdrawal behaviours during the process.

V- CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the use of Phonics instruction improves the reading skills
among grade nine student. The distribution of pupils reading is also observed
before and after the intervention there was a big difference occurred and apparently
it was improved. As observed, student show enthusiasm during the process that
utilized among them.

V1 – RECOMMENDATION
 Teachers, with difficulty among struggling student in reading level are
encouraged to use Phonics awareness instruction in the desire to achieve better
reading performance. The participants also need to be exposed to more instructional
materials. The intervention should be given enough time to administer to gain more
progress. The proposed reading program with the use of this intervention is
recommended to further improve the reading skills of the student.
 REFERENCES

Ball, E. & Blachman, B.(1991).Does phoneme awareness training in kindergarten

make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling? Reading
Research Quarter, 26(1), 49-66.Benson, Michael D.(1993). Behavior and attitude
testing of Chicago junior high students. Phi Delta Kappan (pp. 492-494).

Bereiter, C., Hirshberg, J., Anderson, V., Brown, A.,Scardamalia, M., Campione, J.,
Roit, M.(1995). Collections for young authors: Phonemic awareness and phonics
guide. Chicago &Peru, IL; Open Court Publishing Co.

Blachman, B.A.(1991). Early intervention for children's reading problems: Clinical

applications of the research in phonological awareness. Topics in Language
Disorders. 12 (1),51-65.

Blachman, B.A. (1989). Phonological awareness and word recognition: Assessment

and intervention. In A.G. Kamhi & H.W.Catts (Eds.)., Issues in literacy: A research
perspective. Thirty Fourth Yearbook of National Reading Conference. Rochester,NY:
National Reading Conference.

Blachman, B.A.(1984). Language analysis skills and early reading acquisition. In G.

Wallach & K. Butler (Eds.). Language learning disabilities in school age children.
(pp. 271-287).Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
 COST ESTIMATE

ESTIMATED ESTIMATED
ITEM UNIT QUANTITY DESCRIPTION
UNIT COST TOTAL COST
Supplies and Materials
ream 3 A4 bond paper 200 600.00
bottle 4 black & colored 400 1,600.00
Epson ink
piece 1 long folder 10 10.00
piece 1 paper fastener 5 5.00
TOTAL 2,225.00