ABCs of Reading: How to Teach Children to Read

Executive Summary

MANY students encounter difficulties in learning to read, posing a significant challenge for educators in the Philippines. The World Bank has declared a state of learning poverty, revealing that 9 out of 10 Grade 5 students in the Philippines are unable to comprehend simple, age-appropriate texts (World Bank, July 2022). The PISA 2022 results have further highlighted the Philippines' struggles, placing the country at the bottom for Reading.

To address this situation, Reading Specialists, in partnership with the RC Manila Foundation, Rotary Club of Los Baños-Makiling, and the Department of Education - Los Baños, organized a targeted training workshop: "ABCs of Reading: How to Teach Children to Read". This report highlights how this initiative provided valuable tools and knowledge to 64 public school teachers, who teach from Kindergarten to Grade Three, coming from 13 elementary schools.

Participants received instructional materials, such as letter boards and sound cards, to support their teaching. These resources were designed to complement the training, enabling teachers to effectively guide young students in developing essential reading skills.

High Participant Satisfaction and Increased Confidence

To ensure the training sessions met the needs of attendees, a post-training survey was administered to measure general satisfaction and understanding. As shown in Chart 1, the post-training survey results (n=58) indicate a high level of satisfaction with the training. 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the training content was relevant and engaging.

Given the workshop's interactive format, which included discussion, demonstration, and practical application, 100% of teachers expressed confidence in their ability to use diverse strategies for teaching reading to young learners. These strategies align with building the five pillars of reading, namely: Phonemic Awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words), Phonics (the relationship between letters and sounds), Reading Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.

Significant Gains in Teacher Knowledge

To measure participants' learning, the Reading Specialist team asked all participants to complete a self-report on their knowledge before and after the training. The data was analyzed, and the average rating of their knowledge gain is shown in Chart 2.

Based on the responses of 50 teachers (83% of attendees), knowledge gains were observed across all topics. The training was particularly effective in increasing knowledge of foundational reading models that support the Science of Reading, such as Scarborough's Reading Rope and Ehri's Stages of Reading Development.

The data also suggests that the topics on the Frayer Model for building vocabulary, the Simple View of Reading, and the Science of Reading were new to the teachers. Lower average gains in areas like Reading Fluency, Comprehension Strategies, and specific teaching strategies on Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Reading, and Spelling may indicate that some attendees already had prior knowledge in these areas but still gained new insights.

Teachers’ Positive Feedback on Training Impact

Participants also shared their feedback in writing, expressing positive views on the training. Here are some highlights:

“Thank you for this relevant session and for fun-filled activities. Thank you also for the freebies. God bless.”

“I hope that there will be a follow-up training for more strategies that will help us teachers to improve the reading skills of our diverse learners.”

“This training emphasized how we teachers need to be more confident to teach Reading to our students. It helps us with more and new ways of strategies.”

“Thank you for teaching us today! I can't think of any suggestions because you guys did it so well. Very informative & very interesting! Thank you for this opportunity! More power and God bless you all! <3”

The feedback indicates that the training not only imparted valuable knowledge and skills but also boosted teacher confidence in their ability to teach reading effectively.

Given the positive responses and identified areas for further development, future training opportunities with this group can focus more on vocabulary instruction and strategies that specifically cater to students with a wide range of abilities. This targeted approach will help to further enhance teachers' capacity to support all learners in developing strong reading skills.

Acknowledgement of Sponsors

The success of this training workshop was made possible by the generous support of the RC Manila Foundation, Rotary Club of Los Baños-Makiling, the Department of Education - Los Baños and Anvil Publishing Inc. Such commitment to improving reading instruction has significantly contributed to empowering teachers and supporting student success.