Promoting Reading Habits of Upper Primary Grade Learners

Having been in the teaching profession and teaching mathematics for almost two to three decades, It has been realized that one thing common in mathematics students is that of not being able to solve story or word problems including other subjects. Students in the examination hall wait for the questions to be read and explained to them triggers the curiosity of the researches. The level of curiosity has led to a review of literature which hinted on reading challenges. A peer group reading and teacher guided reading were some of the ways found to promote the reading habits in students which is influenced by a conducive reading atmosphere. Thus, a study project was taken up collecting 10 girls and 10 boys by designating an assumed role of expert and weaker reader, where they peered into two to help each other for the entire study. A total of 20 samples were drawn purposefully from class IV and V that total up to 40 samples, which was also known as the experimental group. The influential group of 36 control groups who came voluntarily for the reading was also invited. Inclusive of these groups, researchers have gathered 76 samples from the strength of 209 students in the whole school. To find their trend of reading, 10 samples of 5 boys and 5 girls (gender representative) were drawn following the semi-structured interview. A questionnaire was administered to only 40 participants and a detailed diary and observation were made. The investigation was confirmed after the post-line data collection. The study revealed peer group reading is essential for the promotion of reading habits and the most important part is selection of their partners (peer) influences reading.