Preparation and validation of reading materials for grade five and six pupils

Abstract

Reading is a complex combination of mental processes which involves decoding, interpreting, organizing and evaluating what is written on the printed page. Teaching children to read at any level begins with an understanding of their individual needs, problems, and of the ways in which they differ. The teacher should realize that not all boys and girls will be ready to read at the same time nor progress at the same rate after they start reading, “…For children, reading is an adventure in which they experience the thrill of discovering people, places, events, and other sectors of the universe. It is therefore necessary to provide them with rich and varied reading experiences through a variety of reading materials which will arouse their interests and stimulate their imagination.” Literary appreciation will not be attained unless the thirst for varied and pleasant reading experiences shall have been quenched, and the desire for, interest in, and purpose for reading shall have been established. A reading expert, Paul McKee, says that as of 1948, most of the fifth and sixth grade pupils in American schools were not acquiring adequate control of the fundamentals of reading. This could have been said of Filipino children too. That is why the New Elementary School Curriculum (NESC) requires that multi-level reading materials for children be provided and that teachers should be re-trained to develop instructional and decision-making skills. Statement of the Problem This study aims to prepare and validate reading materials for pupils in Grades V and VI, on the basis of their reading interests, academic grade level, and reading grade level. These materials are meant to help them refine the basic reading skills which they acquired in the first four grades; comprehension, vocabulary building, and word analysis.