The Impact of Guided Reading on Pupils’ Literacy Skills in Primary Schools in Karambi Village Kisuura Parish Bwikara Subcounty in Kagadi District

Abstract

This action research aimed to assess the impact of guided reading on the literacy skills of primary school pupils in Karambi village, specifically across four schools: St. Paul, Muzizi, Kingdom, and Kamusegu progressive primary schools, spanning primary one to primary five. The study encompassed an exploration of objectives such as evaluating the significance of guided reading and understanding factors influencing pupils' literacy skills. The study builds on the earlier research carried out by Kathryn E. Hanlon (2016) on how guided reading affects comprehension in readers. During community meeting in Karambi village, members raised an issue of the inability of their school going children to read and write and low literacy rates was registered in those primary schools. This gap triggered the need for this research with the overall objective of determining the impact of guided reading strategy on pupils’ literacy skills. The methodology employed a descriptive and correlational research design, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and tools. With a study population of 150, a sample of 84 respondents was selected using the Krejcie and Morgan (2012) sampling method. Primary and secondary data were collected through methods including questionnaire administration, documentary review. 40 pupils from primary one to primary five were divided into experimental class and control class as the subjects for this research. Pupils’ reading skills and interest were tested by using questionnaire for collecting the data of the research. The data was then calculated and analysed in tables and pie charts using percentages and degrees respectively. The result data analysis showed that: (1) guided reading strategy produced better result on pupils’ reading skills in compared to usual classroom teaching; (2) guided reading strategy produced better result on reading comprehension for pupils with high reading interest in comparison to those with low interest in learning shown by (9%) in table 16. The pupils’ reading levels were assessed and placed into struggling, average, and accelerated reading groups. The three themes that emerged from the data were that educators are aware of the benefits of guided reading instruction but inconsistent application hinders pupils’ performance. These results suggest that guided reading strategy had a significant impact in aiding pupils’ literacy skills as compared to just teaching the normal way. However, more research should be conducted to establish the other strategies for improving pupils’ literacy skills