Improving Reading Comprehension of Grade 7 Students from UST Education High School Using Critical Reading Strategies on Learner-Chosen Texts

The study assessed the impact of applying critical reading strategies on teacher-assigned text versus learner-chosen text in improving the reading comprehension of Grade 7 students. Quasi-experimental design was utilized in the study with a quantitative approach being recognized to analyze the data wherein arithmetic mean was used to analyze the reading comprehension levels of the students from each identified group. Additionally, the researchers used paired t-test to determine if there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores. Moreover, independent samples t-test was used to determine the existence of significant differences between the test results of the participants taught using critical reading strategies on teacher-assigned text (control group) vis-a-vis learner-chosen text (experimental group). The results reveal that there is no significant difference between the overall mean of the control and experimental groups. Therefore, the findings implied the effectiveness of applying critical reading strategies on teacher assigned text vis-a-vis learner-chosen text is approximately identical. Hence, teacher-assigned texts and learner-chosen texts are both applicable methods to help improve the reading comprehension skills of students.