BARRY: Building Achievement in Reading Through Repeated Summarization Techniques

Abstract

Persistent deficiencies in reading comprehension among Filipino secondary learners, particularly in identifying main ideas, organizing textual information, and constructing meaning, highlight the need for explicit, strategy-based literacy interventions. Despite evidence supporting summarization as a metacognitive reading strategy, its structured and repeated use in junior high school contexts remains underexamined. This study investigated the effectiveness of repeated summarization techniques in improving the reading comprehension of Grade 8 learners at Gama Integrated School. The study employed a one-group pretest–posttest experimental design with 30 learners. It implemented structured repeated summarization tasks and measured outcomes using a validated reading comprehension test, with data analyzed through descriptive statistics, a dependent t-test, and thematic analysis. Reading comprehension improved markedly, with mean scores increasing from 17.47 to 43.77, reflecting a gain of 26.30 points. The difference between pretest and posttest scores was statistically significant, indicating a strong positive effect of the intervention. Learners demonstrated improved ability to identify central ideas, organize information, and express understanding in their own words. These results show that repeated summarization effectively addresses key comprehension gaps by promoting active meaning construction and structured processing of texts. The findings support its integration into classroom instruction, although generalization should be approached cautiously due to the single-group design.