The ‘Make Me a Reader’ Global Grant project, in the Muntinlupa Schools Division (about 60 km south of Manila) addresses a significant need in the local community to improve teacher’s knowledge of helping students to read using the “Read Aloud’ methodology.

Article by PDG David Alexander, D9810 District Rotary Foundation Chair.

The ‘Make Me a Reader’ Global Grant GG2011998 is a project conducted by Rotary Manningham D9810 Australia (International Partner) and Rotary Makati Rockwell D3830 (Host Club) supported by the Reading Association of the Philippines, District 9455 (Western Australia), Rotary Warrandyte-Donvale, Rotary Maroondah D9810 and Rotary Culver City D5280, USA, and Kentville D7815 (Canada).

An OECD study (2018) of Reading Comprehension of 11,000 Grade 1 students rated the Philippines as number 79 in reading comprehension, and concluded that 80% of Grade 1 students could not read at Grade level.

For those that drop out of primary school, it has long term impacts on household and economic benefits to the Philippines. Statistics show:

• An estimated 60% of students complete primary school
• And a further 50% go on to complete secondary school.

Many of those that live their life on the streets don’t have a job, commit crimes including drug dealing and do nothing to contribute to the economic prosperity of the Philippines.

Muntinlupa Division comprises 20 schools and 234 Grade 1 Teachers who teach more than 8,400 students. Critical to the success of this project, is ‘buy in’ from the Department of Education. Muntinlupa Division already has a program called ‘Make Me a Reader’ and this program readily adopted the “Read Aloud’ methodology.

Further training support was obtained engaging two people from The Reading Association of the Philippines, and a former Department of Education Supervisor. Each brought different perspectives and local knowledge as experts in their field, – having worked in both the private and public sectors of the Education Department.

The Project Director Ms Chona Lagoutte worked with the Assistants to develop an on-line course during the Covid-19 epidemic, to deliver the fundamentals of reading – Read Aloud, Shared Reading, Guided Reading, Writing, and Word Study / Phonics.

The team facilitated Grade 1 Teacher Group planning to implement the training arising from each on-line workshop. In the classroom, Grade 1 Teachers are encouraged to create a ‘Reading Library’ in each grade, using dress ups; to act out stories with the children.

The Training Team were also able to deliver two ‘in-person’ 1 day – Workshops to further consolidate the Read Aloud Methodology, the most recent in December 2022 with each teacher receiving a Certificate of Recognition from the Schools Division Superintendent.

The shortage in obtaining suitable books in the Philippines for Grade 1 students to learn to read, lead to a number of innovations by the Project Director including the development of ‘Filipino Levelled Readers’, four sets of 40 graded readers (160 in total), to compliment the Read Aloud Methodology.

Throughout the impact of Covid, Grade 1 children were taught by Zoom in their homes using phones and tablets. This meant that the Training Team could see the benefits of teacher training in the home - first hand. Family members were also beneficiaries joining in on the ‘in-home’ read aloud sessions. Online training assisted the Training Team to refine the methodology.

After each online seminar, the training team followed up with selective online sampling of teacher’s understanding of the methodology (1 to 1). Significantly, the Training Team saved up to 4 hours of daily travelling each way to the Workshop through on-line training.

This 2022 statistical data shows encouraging improvements in reading ability.

The effectiveness of the Muntinlupa Schools Division project will be assessed by the Training Team in May 2023, to ensure that the teachers are continuing to apply the methodology 18 months after it was first introduced.

Statistical data available from the Philippines National Reading Test will be available later in 2023 to confirm the improvement in reading skills of children taught by teachers who have benefited through the Teacher Literacy Enhancement Program.