Concepcion National High School

Hilongos, Leyte

An Action Research on

Effects of Integrating Survey, Questions, Read, Record, Recite, Review (SQ4R) Strategy in
Reading Circles in Developing English Reading Comprehension Skill

2018

RESEARCHERS:

RAMIL S. ALCANTARA

RUTH G. LOZADA

ROLANDO DUMALAG JR.

 Effects of Integrating Survey, Questions, Read, Record, Recite, Review (SQ4R) Strategy in
Reading Circles in Developing English Reading Comprehension Skill

I . Context and Rationale:

Comprehension, according to Google is “the action or capability of understanding something.”

According to Alturki (2017), “each person needs to understand what he or she reads because reading is

an essential skill contributing to one’s success in life.”

Based from the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory Pre-test conducted during the 1st quarter

of the beginning of the school year 2018-2019 to the 466 total populations of Grade 7-10 students, on

June 13-14, 2018 after Phil-IRI Group Screening Test (GST), one hundred four (104) students were

identified to be reading below their grade levels. By administering Silent Reading Comprehension Test

(which is optional), it was found that about 91 % of these students were found to have difficulties in

understanding text. This information is very alarming since the highest number of students that

contributed to this large number came from the Grade 7 with a total of 42 students. Although the 2018

Philippine Informal Reading Inventory Manual already provided suggested reading interventions, the

researchers wanted to formulate a new reading intervention by integrating SQ4R while taking into

account the importance of a fun-filled reading activity such as the Reading Circle. “A reading circle is

a place where children can read for enjoyment by themselves, with another child, or with an adult”

(Frontier College, 2009). On the other hand, SQ4R stands for “survey, question, read, recite, relate, and

review (Brazosport College, 2018).” In Richardson and Morgan’s 1997 study (as cited in Handoko,

2017), “SQ4R provides a systematic way of comprehending and studying text.”

Furthermore, anchored on the previous version of Phil. IRI, based from the last school year’s

Philippine Informal Reading Inventory-Silent Reading Post-test on student’s comprehension level, out

of the 50 students identified frustrated readers, 25 of them remain in that level after the post-test reading

assessment conducted on March 13-16, 2018 as per record. Although the change may be concluded as

fair enough, because 50 % of the total frustrated readers were improved to either instructional or
independent level, the fact that half of them are still struggling on how to comprehend makes this

situation a serious problem that deserves a solution. This elicits the researchers to formulate a solution

that can be used to solve future and present problems dealing on students that are having difficulties in

comprehending.

II. Action Research Questions

1. Does the integration of SQ4R in Reading Circles develop English reading comprehension

skills of students who have difficulties in reading comprehension?

2. What effect does the integration of SQ4R in Reading Circles have in developing English

Reading Comprehension Skills of students according to their experiences?

III. Proposed Innovation, Intervention, and Strategy

Have you experienced reading a story, a book or an article, and it took you a lot of time to

understand it? We, the researchers would like to recommend to you SQ4R, a reading strategy/method

which was already found useful since 1960’s (MSJC). But for this undertaking, the researchers intend

to integrate its usefulness to the conduct of weekly reading circle.

Although applying this method when reading may take some time at first, but once a student

gets used to its process, it will only take a few minutes. The steps in applying SQ4R are as follow:

S stands for Survey

In this step, a student must not read the story yet, but rather he/she must first take a couple of

minutes to skim chapter objectives (if applicable), titles and subtitles, illustrations, labels, key words

and the summary (if there is any). This will help a reader to gain grasp of the topic of the story.

Q stands for Question

Before reading the first chapter, remember the topic you have discovered during the first step

and begin formulating a question or two. Example, you have read that the title is “AIR CURRENT,”

now, you can turn that into a question such as, “WHAT IS AIR CURRENT?” This will help a reader

organize his/her reading by looking for some answers to a question he/she formulated. As the reading
goes on, a student may find it necessary to rephrase the question, but that is of course just part of the

whole process.

1st R stands for Read

A student at this

The researchers will integrate Survey, Questions, Read, Record, Recite, Review (SQ4R)

Strategy into the conduct of weekly Reading Circles. An experiment will be done 4 times for both

control and experimental group. For the experimental group, all members must first apply SQ4R before

proceeding to organizing the reading circle. Usually, reading circles are organized for children ages 4

to 8 years of age or for preschoolers and also for students up to grade 6 (Frontier College, 2009). But

for this undertaking, the researchers will organize reading circles for seventh graders with ages ranging

from 12-13 regardless of their gender.

IV. Action Research Methods

This research study follows action research structures, since it will be based on classroom

research carried out by the teacher-researcher to explore formulated intervention to improve a particular

problem found in the local context. Generally, it will use both quantitative and qualitative research

methods. The research question addressed in this research is: What effect does the integration of SQ4R

in Reading Circles have in developing English Reading Comprehension Skill students who have

difficulties in reading comprehension? A posttest only design and Colaizzi’s descriptive-

phenomenological method will be used in this research study to discover the effect of the integration of

SQ4R in Reading Circles have in developing English Reading Comprehension Skill of students who

have difficulties in reading comprehension. The participants will be randomly assigned to either the

experimental group or the control group. A post-test will be utilized to compare the results between

post-test scores of the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group will receive
the intervention using the integration of SQ4R in the conduct of the reading circle. The control group

will not receive the intervention using the integration of SQ4R in the conduct of the reading circle. At

a later date, the control group would receive the same intervention after the posttest is given. After this,

semi-structured, face-to-face interviews will be conducted using a pre-prepared interview guide. This

procedure gathers data to be analyzed using Colaizzi’s method.

a. Participants and/or other Sources of Data and Information

Eight students from seventh grade who are having difficulties in reading

comprehension will be chosen. These students will be selected based on convenience in

terms of schedule and availability. Since these student-participants are underage, it will be

necessary to ask all of them as well as their parents to sign a consent letter indicating their

acceptance to participate before the conduct of the study. The participants will be randomly

assigned to either the experimental group or the control group.

b. Data Gathering Methods

The researchers will conduct Phil. IRI-based Silent Reading Comprehension Posttest

for both the experimental group and the control group which is composed of 4 students for

each group. Scores will be determined using the formula below which is based from the

Philippine Informal Reading Inventory Manual 2018:

No. of correct answers/ No. of questions x 100 = % of Comprehension

After the posttest, the control group will receive the same intervention. Then, semi-

structured, face-to-face interviews will be conducted using a prepared interview guide.

Participants will be encouraged to talk freely and narrate their experiences using their own

words. At the end of each interview, the researcher will remind the participants about their

need for a second contact with them either personally, via Facebook chat or mobile phone

calls to discuss the study findings and to make sure that the study findings reflect their own

experiences. All information from these procedures will then be subjected for data analysis.

c. Data Analysis Plan

 Post-test scores will be utilized to compare the result between post-test scores of the

experimental group and the control group and then Colaizzi’s descriptive

phenomenological data analysis will be used to extract, organize, analyze students’

perceptions regarding the intervention applied. Transcripts, significant statements,

meanings, categories and themes will be decided based on the consensus among three

researchers. The findings of the study will be integrated into an exhaustive description of

the phenomenon that is the subject of the study. The fundamental structure of the

phenomenon will be created. Finally, the researchers will seek research-participants’

validation of the findings by presenting the fundamental structure of their experiences.

References
Alturki, N. (2017). The Effectiveness of Using Group Story-Mapping Strategy to Improve Reading
Comprehension. ERIC Institute of Education Sciences, 3.

Brazosport College. (2018). The College of Choice. Retrieved from https://brazosport.edu/:

https://brazosport.edu/programs/academics/Learning-Frameworks/SQ4R/index

Frontier College. (2009). How to set up and run reading circles. Literacy. Learning for Life., 6.

Handoko, M. D. (2017, February 21). The Concept of SQ4R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review,
and Reflect). Retrieved from http://iqrometro.co.id/: http://iqrometro.co.id/the-concept-of-
sq4r-survey-question-read-recite-review-and-reflect.html

MSJC. (n.d.). SQ4R METHOD. SQ4R METHOD, 1.