Action Research: What Can I Do to Improve the Reading Habits of Students?

Reading is critical to success both in school and life. It is a fundamental skill for children and adults alike. Like speech itself, it is the key to knowledge and opens up worlds. This action research aims to cultivate a reading habit of students. Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR) programme is the tool used to materialise this objective. The research samples are 21 students taken from Class IV of Gangrithang Primary School under Bumthang district. My experience in teaching and working at the Primary level for the last eighteen and half years as a teacher, made me to realized that student engagement particularly in reading books were not satisfactory as expected. This experience and realization has motivated me to take up an action research project to enhance reading habit of students. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview schedule were used as the instruments of data collection. Findings reveal that out of 21 sampling 17 students confirmed USSR and teacher modeling are the most effective measure that can promote reading habits among students.