Readiness of DepEd Teachers to Teach Reading

Readiness to teach is crucial in learning. Learners appreciate and learn Reading when teachers are competent. The study was conducted to determine the readiness of the teacher-respondents to teach Reading along content, procedural, and motivational aspect. Specifically, it described the profile of respondents, determined their problems in teaching Reading, and identified the best teaching strategy. This was conducted in Tigaon District in Camarines Sur, Region V, Philippines. A quali-quanti research, it made use of survey questionnaire and interview schedule. Seventy nine (79) respondents of the 337 teachers from the 23 elementary schools in the district were made respondents and five were interviewed. Findings shows that most of the respondents were between the ages 41-45 age years old, and with the highest educational attainment of Bachelor of Elementary Education. Currently, majority are Teacher 1 with 6-10 years and 26-30 years in teaching. Most are teaching in Grade one. The main problem encountered by the respondents in teaching Reading was the poor reading comprehension of the pupils indicated by 64 of the 79 respondents. The learners tend to literally comprehend the text rather than interpret evaluate, or understand the creative meaning. Experiencing this common problem,71 of the 79 respondents perceive the Marungko Approach as the best method to teach Reading. The level of readiness of the respondents to teach Reading was found high in content (3.44) and motivational aspect (3.43) and moderate in procedural aspect (3.25). Their overall readiness was high, however, they have to work more on their competence along academic qualification and experiences. The study then recommends that DepEd formulates and implements a Reading Development Plan which will include sending teachers to graduate programs and teacher trainings on Reading and Information Technology (IT). Moreover, to address the top three problems of teachers in this study, a Reading Hub or Reading Center in each school may be established to provide daily reading activities for the learners. Keywords: Readiness of Teachers, Challenges of teachers in teaching Reading.