The implementation of a validated contextualized reading material to enhance decoding skills of Grade 1 learners

This study implemented the validated contextualized reading material to enhance the decoding skills of Grade 1 learners at Don Gaudencio Santos Elementary School, Butuan City Division, for the school year 2023-2024. Using a descriptive- evaluation research design to gather data, the study engaged 32 Grade 1 learners in a remediation program. This study was anchored on Daniel Hull's Contextualized Learning Theory (1995). The baseline assessment of the learners' decoding skills was done through the Functional Literacy Assessment Tool (FLAT) during the pretest, and the same tool was used in the posttest after the intervention with the contextualized reading materials. Results showed that before implementing the validated contextualized reading material, 50% of learners were at the word level, 31% were at the letter level, and 19% were at the nothing level. After the implementation, word-level learners increased to 85%, letter-level learners decreased to 16%, and there were 0% at the Nothing level. This difference suggested that all learners enhanced their decoding skills following exposure to the validated contextualized reading material. Furthermore, the paired t-test result (t=2.141; p=.040) confirmed a significant difference in the performance of the learners before and after the intervention.