Chapter I PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION Background of the Study Teacher is one of the greatest factors in the development of functional citizenry

in a growing complex society today and tomorrow. Their hands shape the destinies and fate of the future leaders and youths in the community. They disseminate new trends in the field of education and provide opportunities for appropriate acquisition of insights, knowledge, and skills, attitudes, habits and values aesthetics sense, thus enriching the childrens capacity which will later be an instrument of their total development. Reading is the first step in learning. Reading is often referred to as a complex process complex to learn and complex to teach. Reading enables people to ponder the mysteries of the world, explore accumulated knowledge and contemplate the unknown. Since reading is the first step in learning and it is the basic tool for all the subjects in school, failure in a school subject is usually due to inadequate reading skills. Reading is a subtle and complex process that involves sensation, perception, comprehension, application, and integration. Skills in reading are an asset, socially and professionally. People feel an urge to read to projects their inner feelings and sentiments or they may find interesting incidents worth recording and documenting. Slow reading and poor comprehension in the school is a problem. Sometimes pupils need to have someone who would show interest in their progress. They become timid and shy because they feel insecure or inferior towards the fast readers. But in the used of manipulative materials like pictures, cut-outs, big books, charts and drawings can possibly improve the reading comprehension skills of the pupils. Before we start to conduct the research, we first asked permission to the principal of the respective schools that we were assigned through a request letter that was signed by our professor Estrella Luis, BEEd Practice Teaching Supervisor. After the approval of the letter, we also asked permission to our cooperating teacher to conduct the study. We observed first the performance of the respondents based on their reading ability. After a week, we already identified the major problem that needs improvement. We have chosen Prof. Edna Nagtalon to be our committee adviser to guide and help us to conduct the study. She approved the title of our

action research which is IMPROVING THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF THE PUPILS THROUGH MANIPULATIVE MATERIALS. After which we talked to our cooperating teachers to set a date and time to conduct our study. Analysis of the problem After the researchers found the major problem about the reading comprehension skills of the pupils, we plan to use manipulative materials as our intervention to improve the reading comprehension of the learners. We analyzed that the major problem of the pupils were hard up to comprehend in their reading ability. Statement of the problem The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of manipulative materials in improving the reading comprehension skills of the pupils in different schools of Ilocos Norte, specifically the school of Shamrock Elementary School in Laoag,Sarrat Central School in Sarrat, Sto. Cristo Elementary School in Bacarra and Bagbag Elementary School in Solsona. Specifically, this study attempted to answer the following questions 1. What is the performance of the pupils in reading before and after the use of the manipulative materials? 2. How effective are manipulative materials in improving the reading comprehension skills of pupils?

Chapter II ACTION TAKEN Literature Review Reading comprehension skills increase the pleasure and effectiveness of reading. Strong reading comprehension skills help in all the other subjects and in the personal and professional lives. The high stake tests that control advancement through elementary, middle, and high school and that determine entrance to college are in large parts, a measure of reading comprehension skills. And while there are test preparation courses which will provide a few short-cuts to improve test-taking strategies, these standardized tests tend to be very effective in measuring a readers reading comprehension skills. In short, building reading comprehension skills requires a long term strategy in which all the reading skills areas (phonics, fluency, vocabulary) will contribute to success Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of writing. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read. During the last century comprehension lessons usually comprised students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or both. The whole group version of this practice also often included "Round-robin reading", wherein teachers called on individual students to read a portion of the text (and sometimes following a set order). In the last quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that the read-test methods assessed comprehension more than they taught it. The associated practice of "round robin" reading has also been questioned and eliminated by many educators. Instead of using the prior read-test method, research studies have concluded that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching novice readers a bank of "reading strategies," or tools to interpret and analyze text. There is not a definitive set of strategies, but common ones include summarizing what you have read, monitoring your reading to make sure it is still making sense, and analyzing the structure of the text (e.g., the use of headings in science text). Some programs teach students how to self

monitor whether they are understanding and provide students with tools for fixing comprehension problems. Instruction in comprehension strategy use often involves the gradual release of responsibility, wherein teachers initially explain and model strategies. Over time, they give students more and more responsibility for using the strategies until they can use them independently. This technique is generally associated with the idea of self-regulation and reflects social cognitive theory, originally conceptualized by Albert Bandura.

Reading strategies
Before the 1980s, little comprehension instruction occurred in the United States (National Reading Panel, 2000) Palinscar and Brown (1984) developed a technique called reciprocal teaching that taught students to predict, summarize, clarify, and ask questions for sections of a text. The technique had positive outcomes. Since then, the use of strategies like summarizing after each paragraph have come to be seen as effective strategies for building students' comprehension. The idea is that students will develop stronger reading comprehension skills on their own if the teacher gives them explicit mental tools for unpacking text (Pressley, 2006) There are a wide range of reading strategies suggested by reading programs and educators. The National Reading Panel identified positive effects only for a subset, particularly summarizing, asking questions, answering questions, comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, and cooperative learning. The Panel also emphasized that a combination of strategies, as used in Reciprocal Teaching, can be effective. Today, most reading comprehension programs teach students explicit reading strategies using teacher direct instruction with additional student practice. Comprehension through discussion involves lessons that are "instructional conversations" that create higher-level thinking opportunities for students. The purpose of the discussions is to promote critical and aesthetic thinking about text and encourage full classroom involvement. According to Vivian Thayer, class discussions help students to generate ideas and new questions. (Goldenberg, p. 317)

There are specific comprehension strategies that some teachers are now using in the classroom. A great resource for elementary teachers on these specific comprehension strategies is to go to the "Into the Book" website. There you will find songs, book lists, posters, and activities to teach these specific strategies. First, teach pupils about prior knowledge. On one of the posters from the Into the Book website, it explains that "Prior knowledge is using what you already know to help understand something new." To help students comprehend and learn from a specific reading material, they can access their prior knowledge on a subject to help them relate to the subject that they are learning at the moment. Making a connection is when a student can relate a passage to an experience, another book, or other facts about the world. Making connections will help students understand what the author's purpose is and what the story is about. You can use connections with any fiction or nonfiction text that you read. Questioning is another strategy that will greatly benefit a student. Dr. Neil Postman has said, "All our knowledge results from questions, which is another way of saying that questionasking is our most important intellectual tool" (Response to Intervention). There are several types of questions that a teacher should focus on: remembering; testing understanding; application or solving; invite synthesis or creating; and evaluation and judging. Teachers should model these types of questions through "think-alouds" before, during, and after reading a text. Visualization is when a student can create a picture or movie in their mind while reading text. Use terms like "mental image" and asking sensory questions will help students become better visualizes. Another way of looking at visualization is to think about bringing words to life. Into the Book's website explains that inferring means to "figure out what it really means from clues in the text." Inferring is difficult for students. For the younger students, one suggestion is to have your class become book detectives. Explain that detectives use what they already know along with using clues from the book to help "solve" the mystery. Summarizing is a comprehension strategy that also needs to be taught. Summarizing is telling what is important about the text. A summary might include the answers to who, what, where, when, why, and how. You can have students summarize any text that you are using the classroom.

Evaluation is about making judgments on what you read and then explaining why you made those judgments (Into the Book). Some activities to help with evaluating can be as easy as having a small group book talk or having students rate a book. Evaluating non-fiction texts can be done by using a criteria checklist (i.e. table of contents, index, titles, headings, etc.) to help students rate a text. Synthesizing is putting the pieces together to see them in a new way (Into the Book). Students will take what they already know about a subject along with their reflections from the book to create their own interpretation and ideas about a certain text. Putting all of these "tools" together will give your students a toolbox of strategies to help them with reading comprehension. Reading answering yes Comprehension to the question, Did you The get what Importance you read?

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a written passage of text. Its Reading comprehension is what allows the reader to interact with the text in a meaningful way. Its the bridge from passive reading to active reading -- from letters and words to characters and contexts. Reading comprehension is the crucial link to effective reading -- a strong factor in our educational and professional lives. For many, reading comprehension also unlocks the door to a lifetime of reading recreation and enjoyment. Reading Comprehension The Issue

Reading comprehension is a direct by-product of reading fluency. Without fluency, readers spend their time and effort decoding words, rather than understanding them. A widespread study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1995 confirmed the tight correlation between reading fluency and reading comprehension among fourth graders. The study concluded that reading fluency is a neglected reading skill in many American classrooms, affecting many students' reading comprehension. The low level of reading comprehension among American students reveals issues with underlying reading proficiency. A wide variety of studies suggest that as many as 85% of students testing low in core reading skills also have weak underlying cognitive skills such as

auditory and visual processing. Thus, for many students, successful reading comprehension means a return to the basic mental tools that create a firm cognitive foundation. Reading Comprehension The Answer

Reading comprehension is the result of effective reading. Effective reading is grounded in strong cognitive skills such as attention, auditory analysis, sound blending, sound segmenting, memory, processing speed, and visualization. Therefore, the key to improving weak reading comprehension is to confront and correct weak mental skills in these cognitive areas. At LearningRx, we understand the importance of reading comprehension. We also recognize that many students can achieve gains in reading comprehension only after returning to the cognitive basics. Based on nearly two decades of research and testing, weve developed a revolutionary sound-to-code reading system modeled after the process by which spoken language is first learned. The LearningRx reading system teaches reading and spelling concurrently through techniques that train students to quickly and accurately connect letter combinations with the corresponding speech sounds. The program works with anyone struggling with reading comprehension and proficiency, but its especially beneficial for students who have developed inefficient or inaccurate reading habits. In fact, student-readers using the LearningRx program are averaging over 4.5 years of reading skills improvement in less than six months of cognitive skills training. How Can Reading Comprehension be taught? If you are like most parents, you have forgotten that you had to develop reading comprehension skill. Much like learning to drive, reading comprehension becomes automatic and skilled readers forget that they had to develop their reading comprehension skill. The key to teaching reading comprehension is developing the habit of "interacting" with the text and monitoring one understands. By "learning to read", most parents mean that the child is decoding words. But understanding what you read, "reading comprehension," comes from developing a set of skills distinct from phonics "word decoding" skills. In fact, children should start building comprehension skills when they are still having others read to them.

Learning reading comprehension requires a strategy where lesson plans progressively develop and reinforce reading comprehension skill. Reading Comprehension Problems Reading comprehension is the heart and goal of reading, since the purpose of all reading is to gather meaning from the printed page. If a student says words in a passage without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that reading. By age six to seven children should be sensitive to such characteristics of stories as the main character, sequence of events, inferences, the motives and feelings of characters, and sentence order. As they get older, children should be more efficient at recognizing and recalling facts, recognizing and inferring main themes and relationships, drawing conclusions, making judgments and generalizations, predicting outcomes, applying what has been learned, and following directions. The comprehension goals of the intermediate grades address these abilities as well as those required for independent study: skimming, using reference materials, outlining, summarizing, altering reading rate and focus as the purpose of reading changes, use of headings, note taking, and so on. For many learning-disabled students, reading comprehension is a major problem. There are mainly three causes for poor reading comprehension: The person has a language problem: Language plays a vital role in reading. Its role in reading can be compared to the role of running in the game of soccer or ice-skating in the game of ice hockey. One cannot play soccer if one cannot run, and one cannot play ice hockey if one cannot skate. One cannot read a book in a language unless one knows that particular language. If a child's knowledge of English is poor, then his reading will also be poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension. The foundational skills of reading have not been automatized: When a person attempts to speak a language in which he has not become automatic yet, he will necessarily have to divide his attention between the content of his message and the language itself. He will therefore speak haltingly and with great difficulty. As Yap and Van der Leij explained in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, if the skill on the primary task is automatized, it will not be disrupted by concurrent processing on the secondary task because automatic processing does not take up attention resources. If, on the contrary, the skill is not automatized, it will be disrupted by concurrent processing of a second skill because two skills are then competing for limited

attentional resources. This also applies to the act of reading. The person, in whom the foundational skills of reading have not yet become automatic, will read haltingly and with great difficulty. The poor reader is forced to apply all his concentration to word recognition, and therefore has no concentration left to decode the written word, and as a result he will not be able to read with comprehension. The reader is unable to decode the written word: The decoding of the written word is a very important aspect of the reading act. Without being able to decode the written word, reading comprehension is impossible. This explains why some children can read without understanding what they are reading. To decode the written word the reader must be able to integrate what he is reading with his foreknowledge. Foreknowledge can be defined as the range of one's existing knowledge and past experiences. If one reads something that cannot directly be connected to or tied in with knowledge that one already possesses, one cannot decode or decipher the contents of the message. As Harris et al. state in Learning Disabilities: Nature, Theory, and Treatment, What a child gets from a book will often be determined by what the child brings to the book. A decoding skill that is closely related to that of integration is classification. When a person sees a chair, although he may never have seen a chair exactly like this one, he will nevertheless immediately recognize it as a chair, because he is familiar with the class of objects we call chair. This implies that, whenever a name is ascribed to an object, it is thereby put into a specific class of objects, i.e. it is classified. The Gestalt principle of closure means that the mind is able to derive meaning from objects or pictures that are not perceived in full. W- -re s-re th-t y-- w-ll b- -ble to und-rsta-d th-s s-ntenc-, although more than 25 percent of the letters have been omitted. The mind is quite able to bridge the gaps that were left in the sentence. The idea of closure is, however, more than just seeing parts of a word and amplifying them. It also entails the amplification of the author's message. No author can put all his thoughts into words. This stresses the importance of foreknowledge. If it were possible for an author to put everything related to the subject he is dealing with on paper, the possession of foreknowledge would not have been necessary. That, however, is impossible, as an author can at most present a very limited cross-section of reality and the reader must be able to expand on this before comprehension becomes possible. Poetry is a good example of the importance of foreknowledge. Any person, who is unfamiliar with the

Arthurian legend, will probably derive little meaning from a reading of Morte d'Arthur by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Lastly, imagination plays a role in decoding. It is doubtful whether a person really understands something unless he is able to think about it in terms of pictures. When we read, the words and thoughts comprising the message call up images in our mind's eye. If this does not occur, the message will not make any sense. If you read or hear a sentence in an unfamiliar language, it will not make any sense to you, simply because none of the words will call up any pictures in your mind's eye. This ability plays a very important role in the decoding of the written word. Furthermore, by using one's imagination while reading, one's emotions can be addressed during the reading act. How to Improve Reading Comprehension?

Find an appropriate location to read, which is comfortable and quiet. Distractions will preclude you from entirely understanding the reading matter. After setting yourself in such a place, you need to preview the reading matter. Your sole aim at this point of time should be to acquaint with the setup and pattern of the matter for preparing to begin reading. If you are reading a book, simply scan through the table of contents, the introduction, epilogue, sections, index, appendix, and glossary. Just go through an article for headers, subheads, pictures, and footers. Note down 2 - 3 questions and prognostications about what you are going to read based on the preview. Also note down any doubts or comments that hit your mind as you read. Place the notes near the related text. The notes may contain an argument with the writer, a focus on a particular powerful statement, explanation of the theme, summary, or your personal experience relating to the matter. As you read, find out unacquainted words and vocabulary and search for the meaning and explanation. As you read and understand, you may decide to change the predictions that you had made and mentioned earlier in the note. You also need to determine if you have got appropriate answers to the questions which were noted before. Try to get answers to as many questions and doubts as you can. If you are stuck in comprehending some matter, you may always ask another person with good reading skills. In this way, you need to compare questions, remarks, and predictions. After reading the complete matter or the matter which you intended to read and

understand, determine what you liked and disliked about it. Finally, note down the learnings and findings that you obtained. Books to Improve Reading Comprehension Books are evidently the best way to improve reading comprehension. With effective reading, you get to know many things from the matter included in the books. You need to develop a good vocabulary to improve reading comprehension, which can only be done by reading books. Nowadays, there are many books available in bookstores which are exclusively meant for meliorating the readers comprehension skills. Usually, such books are sorted out according to the age group of the person who wants to improve his comprehension skills. Games to Improve Reading Comprehension

There are numerous comprehension games and activities that help students better and reinforce particular skills in a fun and apprehensive manner. However, such games and activities need to be chosen according to the children's age and understanding capabilities. These games are a fun-filled way of improving comprehension skills in children. They may include a story reading, role playing, skits, spelling tests, and several other activities beneficial for the comprehension skills in children. Moreover, there are also some interactive and printable games which can be used for developing the reading, thinking, and writing skills in children. If children are familiarized with reading comprehension at a very young age, their skills tend to develop as their age grows. This eliminates the need of taking the steps to improve their reading comprehension skills later. I hope this article would have been helpful for those thinking how to improve reading comprehension. Reading Comprehension Activities Ideas suggested here fall into the Bloom's Taxonomy of questions and can be used with picture books, short stories, novels or individualized reading for students of all ages. Many ideas do not involve written answers which work best with students with learning difficulties. The activities listed promote comprehension. 1. Make a picture of the 2-3 characters in the story. Cut them out, on the back list the traits, students can them play a character guessing game. 2. Make a time-line of events either in pictorial or in written form.

3. Pretend you're a news reporter and provide an oral broadcast of the story. 4. Make a trivia game about the story. 5. Make a jeopardy game about the story. 6. Use puppets to help you re-tell the story. 7. Make a comic strip of the story. 8. Use a Venn to compare two characters in the story. 9. Write or state clues about your story to see if others can guess which story you read. 10. Write part 2 or a sequel to the story. 11. If you could be in this story, decide which person you would be and tell why. 12. Make a list of everything in the story that could be fact or fantasy. 13. Prepare a commercial to sell this book to somebody who hasn't yet read it. 14. Create a poster to spark interest in others to read the book. 15. Write 5 questions that somebody who has read the book should be able to answer. 16. Design a new cover for this book. 17. Make a list of what makes a good book. 18. If you had to buy something for each of the characters, what would they be and why? 19. Is there a problem in the story? How was it solved? How could it be solved in another way? 20. Write the author telling him your opinion about the book and why.

Strategy or Intervention The researchers use different manipulative materials. Before the intervention, we observed the pupils through phonics by the use of charts, big books, pictures to identify and to improve also the reading comprehension skill of Elementary pupils through manipulative materials. We used informal inventories such as charts, pictures and drawings. During the application of the intervention we observed that there was an improvement in their reading comprehension skills. Research Instrument The researchers made use of checklist and observation in focus on how to improve the reading comprehension skills through manipulating materials of the Elementary pupils in different schools of Ilocos Norte specifically, Bagbag Elementary School, Sarrat Central School, Sto.Cristo Elementary School and Shamrock Elementary School. Data Gathering Procedure In improving the reading comprehension skills of the pupils through manipulative materials. We made a lesson and applied in the class with different manipulative materials such as cut-outs, drawings, pictures, big books and charts. After the class, through checklist and observation, the result of the reading ability was checked, and analyzed. Data Analysis After we gathered the data and checked. We analyzed that, using manipulative materials is more effective to improve the reading comprehension skills of the pupils such as picture, cutouts and drawings, the pupils capture the interest of the learners.

Table 1. Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade III pupils before Intervention Pre-Observation Item No. YES NO Total 1 22 0 22 2 21 1 22 3 20 2 22 4 14 8 22 5 22 0 22 6 20 2 22 7 20 2 22 8 7 15 22 9 18 4 22 20 19 3 22 Total 183 37 220

Table 1 shows the result of pre-observation of their Reading Comprehension Skills of the Grade III A pupils of Santo Cristo Elementary School in Bacarra. Most of the pupils can easily cope up with the criteria in the checklist. There were 22 respondents involved in the study, 12 girls and 10 boys. It emphasized that most of the respondents can cope up with the criteria. The lowest criteria that the respondents are poor to use vocabulary in his/her own new word meaning. Table 2. Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade III Pupils After Intervention Post-Observation Item No. YES NO Total 1 22 0 22 2 22 0 22 3 22 0 22 4 19 3 22 5 19 3 22 6 22 0 22 7 22 0 22 8 12 10 22 9 22 0 22 20 22 0 22 Total 204 16 220

Table 2, shows the result of post-observation in Reading Comprehension Skills after intervention of the Grade II-A pupils of the Santo Cristo Elementary School in Bacarra. Most of the respondents were able to cope with the criteria in the checklist. The criterion that has the lowest number who possesses is the criteria number 4, 5 and 8. Criteria number 8 rates as the lowest among all the criteria. This result was done after the intervention.

Table 1. Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade I pupils Before Intervention Pre-Observation

Item No. YES NO Total

1 20 0 20

2 16 4 20

3 16 4 20

4 10 10 20

5 10 10 20

6 9 11 20

7 9 11 20

8 8 12 20

9 8 12 20

20 14 6 20

Total 120 80 22

Table 1 shows the result of pre-observation for the Grade I-Marcos in their reading skills in Sarrat Central School of Ilocos Norte. All of the respondents like to listens a story. The lowest criteria which they were poor to use vocabulary in his/her own new word meaning and able to understand different roles and views of characters in the story this result done before the intervention. Table 2. Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade I pupils After Intervention Post-Observation Item No. YES NO Total 1 20 0 20 2 20 0 20 3 18 2 20 4 15 5 20 5 10 10 20 6 19 1 20 7 19 1 20 8 17 3 20 9 18 2 20 20 20 0 20 Total 176 24 200

The table shows the post observation of the Grade I-Marcos after the intervention. All the Grade I-Marcos in Sarrat Central School of Ilocos Norte likes to listen a story , listen attentively to the teacher during storytelling, and able to read the phonetic notation symbols correctly. This table result was done after the intervention. Table 1. Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade III pupils Before Intervention Pre-Observation Item No. YES NO 1 20 0 2 14 6 3 12 8 4 15 5 5 17 3 6 11 9 7 6 14 8 3 17 9 16 14 20 15 5 Total 129 81

Total

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 200 Table 1 shows about the result of the reading comprehension skills of the respondents

before the intervention. There were 20 respondents, 10 girls and 10 boys who are involved in the study. It emphasized that all of the respondents likes to listen to story and the criteria has the smallest number who possesses is that able to use of vocabulary in his/her own to learn new word meaning which has only 3. Table 2, Reading Comprehension Skills of Grade III Pupils After Intervention Post-Observation Item No. YES NO Total 1 20 0 20 2 19 1 20 3 19 1 20 4 20 0 20 5 17 3 20 6 18 2 20 7 19 1 20 8 13 7 20 9 20 0 20 20 20 0 20 Total 185 15 200

Table 2, shows the result of the reading comprehension skills of the respondents after the intervention. Among the 20 respondents, the criteria that all of the pupils possesses are they like listening to story, they were able to distinguish the different parts of the book, they were able to understand different roles and views of characters in the story, and the pupils were able to read the phonetic notation symbols correctly. Able to use vocabulary in his/her own to learn new word meaning has only 13 pupils who made it and it rates as the lowest among all criteria. Acknowledgement The completion of this research would have been impossible without the help of kindhearted individuals. In grateful appreciation of their invaluable assistance which came in various forms, the writers extend their most profound gratitude to the following benefactors.

To Dr. Eduardo Borja, dean of the College of Teacher Education for his deep concern and understanding to the students of Mariano Marcos State University - College of Teacher Education. To Prof. Estrella Luis, the BEED Student Teaching Supervisor for her ever generous and immeasurable patience in the well rounded p[reparation of the practice teachers. Heartfelt thanks is also due to our dearest principals Mr. Nestor M. Rimalos,