Children's Activities During Reading: Focuses on Three Selected Primary Schools in Ode-Irele

Abstract

The study examined activities that learners carried out in the course of learning to read in three purposively selected primary schools in Ode-Irele community, Ondo State and used Constructivism as its learning theory. Primary school teachers and pupils formed the population and purposively, all the teachers in the selected schools, which amounted to sixty-eight in number and primary six pupils, twenty-six, twenty-nine and thirty-two respectively, in each of the three primary 6 classes of the schools selected formed the samples of the study. Three research instruments were employed, namely, a four-point fourteen item Likert scale questionnaire, observation and video recordings. The structured questionnaire was validated by two experts in tests and measurement and the credibility of the study was ensured by data triangulation, anonymity, confirmability and rich and thick description. To analyse qualitative data, thematic analysis was used while quantitative data were analysed with the use of descriptive statistics, that is, mean X 2.5 and above as agreed. The study found out that activities such as drawing, the use of the dictionary, dramatization and questioning enhance reading while talking to one another, lack of use of drills and reading aloud hinder reading comprehension. The study recommended among others that oral drills, the use of instructional materials teaching of distinctions between two similar sounds should be incorporated while talking to one another during reading should be discouraged.