Effectiveness of Kwentong Pambata in the Reading Performance of Grade 1 Pupils in Baras Elementary School

Abstract

This action research examined the effectiveness of the Kwentong Pambata Strategy in improving the reading performance of 34 Grade 1 pupils at Baras Elementary School during School Year 2024–2025. A one-group pretest–posttest approach was used. Reading status was assessed before and after the intervention using the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) Filipino passage test. Descriptive statistics summarized the number and percentage of pupils at each reading status, while the original analysis reported F = 5.330 and p = .001. At baseline, 13 pupils (38.2%) were non-readers and 3 (8.8%) were sentence readers. At endline, non-readers decreased to 3 (8.8%), while sentence readers increased to 20 (58.8%). This represented a 76.9% reduction in non-readers. The reported significance value indicated a statistically significant difference in reading status before and after the intervention. Parent feedback further suggested that the stories captured pupils’ attention and encouraged reading practice. The findings support the continued use of age-appropriate Filipino children’s stories as a structured reading intervention, together with regular progress monitoring and explicit comprehension activities.