READING INTERVENTION PROBLEM ON PANDEMIC
Sharlene M. Quiambao
One of the pressing problems a teacher encounters in the teaching journey is the inability of some students to read. As a teacher in the junior high school, it is just but common to have learners who graduated from the elementary and still have difficulty in reading – sometimes both Filipino and English.
Could not help but question the system, why would these struggling students be promoted to higher grades when the primary requirement for young learners is the ability to read basic English and Filipino? Why these students would be allowed to take the next level of complexity when they could not even recognize the elementary matters?
Apparently, the answers to these questions can all fall down to many things – teacher factor, student factor, family, school environment, the system itself or the current situation--Pandemic.
The main calling for us teachers in this concern is to save the child – we prepare him/her to face the growling world. A remedial reading program maybe a traditional approach in dealing with this situation but it has been long proven before to help these struggling learners to develop their reading skills. This endeavor is not as easy as it seems to be because there will be setbacks and things to consider like the budget of work, schedule, gadgets, internet access and other materials during this time of pandemic.. Also, we consider the environment of the learners, some has illness, speech difficulties, and others are mentally challenged. But with compassionate heart and genuine concern that we have for our children, these obstacles won’t impede our mission – to make every child a reading child.
The big question that we need to figure out right now is What about this time of Pandemic? How these struggling young learners will have remedial reading sessions? Time spent away from the classroom can lead to reading difficulties. For educators, the COVID-19 Pandemic is a quintessential adaptive and transformative challenge. A shift in mindset would be required—even the most optimistic teacher conceded at this point. There are plenty of strategies in minds —but here are the crucial emotional and psychological scaffolds that our learner agreed would be needed to teach in this new paradigm.
As the gatekeeper of the future generation, this problem will not come to an end until we stop blaming and pointing others’ faults and deficiencies. We as teachers should be equipped with new skills and strategies to somehow address the needs of our learners. The problem are here and the solution has to be here, too.
--oOo-
The author is Teacher III at Duquit High School