Improving Reading Comprehension of Class 7th Students through Vocabulary Scaffolding and Guided Reading Strategies: An Action Research Study.

This action research study investigated whether vocabulary scaffolding and guided reading strategies could improve the reading comprehension, fluency, and confidence of Class 7 students at High School Degwar (Summer Zone), Jammu & Kashmir. Twenty-three students (aged 12-13 years) participated in a six-week intervention programme. The study employed a pre-test-post-test design, with data collected via a Reading Competency Checklist assessing fluency, comprehension, and confidence. The intervention comprised daily 15-minute sessions of guided reading, explicit vocabulary instruction using the word-meaning-sentence method, and structured group discussions. Results revealed statistically significant improvements across all three dimensions: fluency increased by 42.7%, comprehension improved by 64.3%, and confidence rose by 46.2%. Notably, the proportion of students demonstrating full comprehension increased from 8.7% to 39.1%, whilst those with no comprehension declined from 65.2% to 8.7%. The study concludes that combining vocabulary scaffolding with guided reading represents an effective, practical approach to address comprehension deficits in middle school learners.