Improving the Reading Performance of Key Stage 3 Learners Through Home Reading Sessions (School Level) At The Domalandan Center Integrated School

Reading is the foundation of all learning. Its significance to children’s success in school and in life has made it even more imperative for teachers and parents to ensure that this foundational skill is attended to and developed per reading benchmarks. Undeniably, the new learning setup that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic and paved the way for the hybrid delivery of curriculum brought to the fore concerns on learning losses where literacy is concerned. It underscored the need for mechanisms that will ensure the continuity of education and address as well the difficulties encountered by the learners in the new normal. For the reading teachers, their utmost concern was the intervention needed for learners with reading difficulties. It was in this context that home reading sessions was organized as intervention in addressing the reading difficulties of the Grades 7- 10 learners who were assessed as struggling readers. This intervention involved the participation of the parents or the learning facilitators as reading partners. Consequently, this study that looked into the influence of the said intervention, home reading sessions, in improving the reading ability of the high school struggling readers reveal that it yielded significant results. As a result, the reading ability of the struggling readers improved after the conduct of home reading sessions. It is hereby recommended that teachers optimize the tapping of parents as partners in programs with the end in view of enhancing the literacy skills of the learners.