82
Reading comprehension in seventh-
grade students through Afro-
Colombian literature
Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
1
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
2
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
3
To reference this article / Cómo citar este artículo / Para citar
este artigo: Cuello-Cuello, L. E., Martínez-Arredondo, L. E. y González-
Roys, G. (2023). Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students
through Afro-Colombian literature. Revista UNIMAR, 41(1), 82–103.
https://doi.org/10.31948/Rev.unimar/unimar41-1-art5
Reception date: March 14, 2022
Review date: May 6, 2022
Approval date: July 20, 2022
Abstract
Reading comprehension means understanding what is read; involves the ability
to extract explicit and implicit information from the text. It is an ability to order
ideas and build relationships within what is written. The study was based on this
epistemic conception, whose objective was to promote reading comprehension
mediated by Mary Grueso’s Afro-Colombian literature, as a didactic strategy with
seventh-grade students. Methodologically, the study was framed in the post-
positivist paradigm, under the pedagogical action research method. A written
test and an observation log were used as instruments. The results indicated that,
with the strategy, the students understood the texts read, and made inferences,
and arguments on a topic, having consistency in the discourse. In the same way,
they managed to increase their communication skills and their reading uency,
in addition to expanding their vocabulary through the use of the dictionary, when
nding unknown terms.
Keywords: reading comprehension; symbolism; Afro-Colombian literature;
cultural identity.
1
Master in Pedagogy. Professor at Bello Horizonte Educational Institution, Valledupar-Cesar, Colombia.
2
Doctor in Sciences of Education. Professor. Email: leonardomartinez@unicesar.edu.co
3
Doctoral student in Education IUAC, Mexico. Research Coordinator of the Master’s program in Pedagogy, Universidad Mariana,
Valledupar, Colombia. Email: ggonzalezr@umariana.edu.co
An article resulting from the research entitled ‘Reading comprehension through Afro-Colombian literature by Mary Grueso in seventh-
grade students of the Bello Horizonte Educational Institution in Valledupar, Cesar’, developed from March 19, 2019, to November 30,
2021, in the Valledupar municipality, Cesar, Colombia.
83
Comprensión lectora en los estudiantes
de séptimo grado mediante la literatura
afrocolombiana
Resumen
La comprensión lectora es entender lo que se lee, involucra la capacidad
para extraer la información explícita e implícita del texto; es una habilidad
para ordenar las ideas y constituir relaciones dentro de lo escrito. Sobre esta
concepción epistémica se fundamentó este estudio, cuyo objetivo fue fomentar
la comprensión lectora mediada por la literatura afrocolombiana de Mary Grueso,
como estrategia didáctica para la comprensión lectora de los estudiantes de
séptimo grado. Metodológicamente se enmarca en el paradigma pospositivista,
bajo el método investigación acción pedagógica. Se utilizó como instrumento
una prueba escrita y una bitácora de observación. Los resultados indicaron que,
con la estrategia, los estudiantes comprendieron los textos leídos, realizaron
inferencias, argumentaciones sobre un tema, teniendo consistencia en el
discurso; de igual forma, se logró aumentar las competencias comunicativas y
la uidez lectora en los estudiantes, además, ampliaron su vocabulario a través
del uso del diccionario, al encontrar términos desconocidos.
Palabras clave: comprensión lectora; simbolismo; literatura afrocolombiana;
identidad cultural.
Compreensão de leitura em alunos da sétima
série através da literatura afro-colombiana
Resumo
A compreensão da leitura signica entender o que é lido; envolve a capacidade
de extrair informações explícitas e implícitas do texto. É uma capacidade de
ordenar ideias e construir relações dentro do que está escrito. O estudo partiu
dessa concepção epistêmica, cujo objetivo foi promover a compreensão leitora
mediada pela literatura afro-colombiana de Mary Grueso, como estratégia didática
com alunos da sétima série. Metodologicamente, o estudo foi enquadrado no
paradigma pospositivista, sob o método da pesquisa-ação pedagógica. Uma
prova escrita e um diário de observação foram usados como instrumentos. Os
resultados indicaram que, com a estratégia, os alunos compreenderam os textos
lidos, zeram inferências e argumentações sobre um tema, tendo coerência
no discurso. Da mesma forma, conseguiram aumentar suas habilidades de
comunicação e sua uência de leitura, além de ampliar seu vocabulário por meio
do uso do dicionário, ao encontrar termos desconhecidos.
Palavras-chave: compreensão da leitura; simbolismo; literatura afro-
colombiana; identidade cultural.
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
84
Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
1. Introduction
Modern times and the fast pace of life of groups
and today’s society confront children and young
people with dierent problems and challenges,
like in no other time. One of them is the
technological revolution, which allows access to
information without any restrictions, therefore,
processing it or passing it through a lter is
increasingly complex (Villa, 2018):
The current transformations are assisted by
the medium that submerges them in a sea
of symbols that creates a need for them,
sometimes consumerist, of disinterest in
academic life, and why not, a constant
mediocrity about study, school, and in
particular against reading, seen with disdain
and contempt and not as an inexhaustible
source of knowledge and social transformation.
(p. 10)
Now, according to Moreno and Herrera (2017):
In the Colombian education system, there
are various problems; one of them is the
low academic performance of students; one
of the strongest causes is the diculties
they present in terms of reading since it is
something that worries because [it reveals]
that reading habits in Colombia are scarce at
almost all levels of education: initial, basic,
primary, and secondary, vocational media,
even in college. (p. 14)
Hence the importance of wondering about this
situation, as the act goes beyond the strictly
academic since reading is a fundamental
instrument for the personal and social growth of
individuals, which allows them to imagine, think,
and reect critically about their environment, as
Villa (2018) maintains.
Regarding the above, Mera (2012) states:
The reading comprehension of primary
and secondary students in Colombia is
very poor. [He also pointed out] that the
high illiteracy rates in [the country] were
worrying a few decades ago, now the low
reading comprehension rates of primary and
secondary students are the ones that set
o the alarms. A study by the Colombian
Institute for the Evaluation of Higher
Education, ICFES, based on an application
made for grades 5 and 9 in three areas,
including language, in the Saber 2009 tests,
shows the deciencies of Colombian students
in the reading-writing process. (…).
The
results are poor throughout the country, (...).
Of 7,451 fth-grade students, belonging to
182 schools, only 39% reached a satisfactory
or advanced level in language tests. And, of
the 6,734 ninth-grade students, belonging
to 157 institutions, only 44% reach the
minimum level of reading comprehension.
That is, the students recognize main ideas
and establish some relationships, but very few
are capable of understanding complex texts,
analyzing, inferring, relating implicit and
explicit information in dierent written texts,
and even less, assuming a critical position
and arguing about it. In other words, they
read, but they don’t understand and thus, it
is very dicult to appropriate the knowledge
and be generators of [their learning]. The
consequences are even more serious, points
out Isabel Fernándes (2012), deputy director
of analysis and dissemination of the Icfes: “A
person who does not have good skills to read
and to understand what they read, will have
many diculties both to enter education
superior to be successful in that scenario”, she
explains. These students, added the ocial,
are going to have problems performing
tasks that require innovation, technological
development, and meeting the demands of a
globalized and highly competitive society at
an international level. Worse still, Fernándes
points out, that this reading incapacity aects
the exercise of citizenship, because “to the
extent that you can read, you can understand
the arguments of the other and can solve
conicts conversationally and not by force or
violence, as it happens”. (para. 1-2)
On the other hand, De la Cruz (2012) expresses:
When comparing the results of the Saber
Tests of the students of the capitals of the
departments of the coast, it is found that
Barranquilla is the city that has the best
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
85
Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
performance in language. In Barranquilla,
48% of fth-grade students reach or exceed
the minimum required language skills.
They are followed by Valledupar, with 40%,
Sincelejo with 39%, Cartagena with 38%,
Santa Marta with 37%, Montería with 33%,
and Riohacha with 29%. A similar pattern is
seen in ninth grade. The results of the capitals
of the Caribbean coast are below those of
Bogotá and Bucaramanga. (para. 4)
Especially in the department of Cesar, the results
of the ICFES tests are worrying, since 30% and
26% are low, respectively.
About the concerns of Mera (2012), it can be
deduced that the percentages of the test results
are opposite to what was indicated by Del Valle
(2012), when he indicated that, in recent times,
it has been veried that “reading [...] stimulates
coexistence and integrated social behaviors,
helps to increase vocabulary, encourages
abstract reasoning, enhances creative thinking,
stimulates critical awareness... furthermore, it
is an inexhaustible source of pleasure” (p. 14).
From this perspective, the promotion of reading
is and should be a priority for any educational
system. These two realities should lead teachers
to reect. In this regard, García (2014) assures:
The mediating role that the teacher
exercises in the school is essential to
strengthening reading comprehension in
students. Traditionally, it has been believed
that the problems associated with reading
comprehension particularly concern the
student, since it is pointed out that he or she
does not have reading habits or awareness
of the importance of this communicative
activity. However, very rarely the role and
responsibility of the teacher are questioned
in these diculties evidenced in the students.
(p. 253)
From this point of view, teachers should address
reading comprehension as:
A gradual process, built from the very moment
the reader faces the text and even before,
from the moment he decides to read it and
begins to create expectations and formulate
hypotheses about its content. The process
thus conceived, assumes an active reader,
who is involved with the text in a specic
context to process, and interpret it, to be able
to elaborate a coherent mental representation
of its content, and, in addition, to assume
control and regulation of his own process,
during its execution. (López & Arciniegas,
2004, as cited in García, 2014, p. 254)
About reading comprehension, it is worth
mentioning Cassany (2004), when he states
that, to read, three levels must be taken into
account: literal, inferential, and critical, since,
according to interest, it is easier to extract
explicit and implicit information of a text;
therefore, the Afro-Colombian reading can lead
to self-recognition and the strengthening of
cultural identity.
From this, it can be inferred that, by not
strengthening reading comprehension, the
student may present confusion about the tasks
assigned to him/her, given insucient prior
knowledge to establish relationships between
the contents of the knowledge areas, which could
lead to scarce control of active understanding
and, at the same time, not being able to
guarantee the exercise of raising awareness of
cultural identity.
The foregoing is presented as a great challenge
for the teachers of the course 7-4 of the Bello
Horizonte Educational Institution of Valledupar,
Cesar, the context that the present work
deals with which is evident in the students,
diculties in the comprehension of texts: low
reading uency, syllabication, little ability to
solve implicit and explicit questions of a text,
which prevents them from carrying out a critical
analysis according to the level of study, a fact
that directly aects their school performance
since good reading comprehension is essential
for all areas of study at the baccalaureate level.
It is observed that seventh-grade students do
not know the meaning of most of the vocabulary,
synonyms, antonyms, paronyms, and
homonyms, which indicates a great weakness
that results in an impoverishment of the
comprehension process. Without motivation for
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
reading, it is very dicult for a subject to achieve
a cognitive impact. The low motivation observed
in them limits their ability to concentrate and,
therefore, the desire to learn and to know more.
This lack of interest in reading will end up
aecting the results of the students in the
knowledge tests or, in their life projects. In the
classroom, it is common to observe their lack of
interest in reading, perhaps due to a lack of love
or motivation from an early age or because they
have not grown up in a community or family
environment where there is a reading culture.
As a consequence of what has been said, the
following research questions arise: How does Mary
Grueso’s Afro-Colombian literature contribute to
the reading comprehension of seventh-grade
students, fourth course of the Bello Horizonte
Educational Institution in Valledupar, Cesar?
What are the diculties in specic reading
comprehension situations? What will be the
didactic strategies based on this kind of literature
to achieve reading comprehension? How is Mary
Grueso’s Afro-Colombian literature used as a
didactic strategy for reading comprehension?
What are the achievements of the application of
this class of literature in students?
To answer these questions, the general objective
was: Promote reading comprehension through
the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary Grueso as
a didactic strategy for reading comprehension
of seventh-grade students. And, as specic
objectives: 1) Identify diculties in specic
situations of reading comprehension; 2) Design
a didactic strategy for reading comprehension;
3) Implement the didactic strategy based on
the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary Grueso
for reading comprehension; and, nally, 4)
Evaluate the achievements of the application of
the didactic strategy.
In the teaching work, one is exposed to multiple
situations that lead to investigating or inquiring
about particular facts of the classroom, which
allows us to identify, design, and implement new
strategies to improve classroom practice and
enrich the pedagogical and didactic processes
with the students.
Therefore, with the mission of promoting reading
comprehension from its levels, the literal level
is assumed, rst, since it is where “the subject
must have the ability to identify and understand
the information that the text explicitly delivers”
(Actos en la escuela, n.d., para. 15); second,
the inferential comprehension level because it is
when the subject adds his/her “experience and
intuition to the literal information of the text.
It is the level where the reader values what is
exposed in the text, manages to interpret what
the author, without making it explicit, wants to
communicate in writing” (para. 17); third, the
level of critical comprehension, “which implies
that the subject can make a judgment about
the text he is facing. This reading level is based
on the interaction of the subject and his prior
knowledge with the text in question” (para.
18). To continue with these steps, the rich
and diverse Afro-Colombian literature of Mary
Grueso will be taken as a basis, as a way to
strengthen reading comprehension, but also, as
a way to promote and publicize its importance in
Colombian culture.
On the other hand, the research is pertinent
in that it meets the guidelines of the Quality
Directorate for preschool, basic and secondary
education of the Ministry of National Education
(MEN, 2014), where the prole of the teacher is
congured as “a professional of the education
with the capacity to understand, attend to and
resolve the complexity of school situations as
part of their pedagogical work” (p. 13). These
indications give teachers a great responsibility
that forces them to create relevant strategies to
solve student problems.
Consequently, this project seeks to establish
as one of its basic principles “Find meaning
in what is read”, promoting free, informal,
spontaneous reading that awakens the
sensitivity of students to transmit and make
them discover their emotions and impressions.
as readers. A second principle is to promote
reading as a source of knowledge since
reading is food for intelligence, a stimulus
for the exercise of fantasy, an activity that
makes a person grow in all their potential
dimensions that not only help know the world
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
but allows for better communication and to
think critically and creatively. (Valencia &
Osorio, 2011, p. 18)
This project will directly benet the seventh-
grade students of the Bello Horizonte Educational
Institution (Cesar), oriented from the importance
of reading comprehension as an essential
mechanism for the acquisition of knowledge,
understanding that the comprehension of a text
is the product of a process regulated by the
reader, in which an interaction occurs between
the information stored in their memory, provided
by the text.
According to what has been indicated, the
research is also justied from the theoretical
point of view, since it is carried out to contribute
to the existing knowledge about reading
comprehension and Afro-Colombian literature,
whose results may be systematized in a proposal
to be incorporated as knowledge to educational
sciences. At the same time, in the practical
eld, the work stands out signicantly because
there is a need to develop concrete strategies
to improve reading comprehension levels at the
performance level of seventh-grade students.
From the methodological perspective of the
inquiry, to achieve the proposed objectives,
typical research techniques of pedagogical
action research were used.
To understand the behavior of the phenomenon
under study, a review of previous research
was carried out. In the international context,
the work of Ojeda (2016) was found, who set
out to determine the inuence of the story as
a didactic strategy in the process of reading
comprehension in students; for this, he relied
on the eld and bibliographic research with
qualitative and quantitative approach. The
author used the survey and the interview as
data collection instruments.
From this research, it was possible to show
that the didactic process to strengthen the
comprehension of written texts is not continuous
and is one of the factors that inuence students
to have diculty reading comprehension. In
addition, it allowed the author to compare
dierent investigations carried out on the subject,
from which he found sucient arguments to
consider the story as a tool that helps to solve
the problem of reading comprehension.
For this reason, this background is pertinent
because its theme and its methodology are
closely related to the present study since the
story is proposed as a strategy to improve
reading comprehension, in addition to the fact
of having used the qualitative methodological
approach.
In the national context, the article presented
by Rentería (2018), entitled: The teaching of
reading comprehension through Afro-Chocoano
stories in fth-grade students of elementary
school, was located. Its main objective was:
To improve practical reading comprehension
using Afro-Chocoano stories as a strategy in
the fth grade of primary school. This article
presents the results of qualitative research
that started from the participatory action
approach. The results revealed student
problems in terms of reading comprehension
and the importance of using didactic strategies
(workshops) to strengthen it. (p. 94)
The article contributed to the present
investigation, the importance of understanding
the intention and purposes of the explicit and
implicit of a text, as well as the relevance of
adapting the communicative contexts concerning
everyday situations since the content of Afro-
Colombian literature resembles the daily life of
the students, which favors their understanding.
Finally, at the local level, there is the study
by Baquero (2018), entitled: Didactic design
to potentiate reading comprehension through
dramatic play in grade 4-1 of the Rafael
Valle Meza Educational Institution, mixed
headquarters 3, Valledupar Cesar; its objective
was directed towards the transformation of
teaching practices through the didactic strategy
based on dramatic play:
The research is directed under an action
research design to transform teaching
practices around the understanding of
teaching practice from its actors, its reection,
and transformation, to identify problems in
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
the classroom and intervene in them using didactic strategies that eciently meet the needs
found. (p. 12)
After completing the investigation, the author concluded:
Every academic process must be focused on improving educational practice, guided by constant
reection, which does not remain only theorized but transcends teachers and the institution.
It is important to link didactic strategies in the classroom according to the needs, context, and
learning styles of students, leaving aside linear practices that exclude [them] from their learning
process. (p. 13)
The relevance and pertinence of this research revolve around the action research route, similar
to the methodological route of the current work, together with a strategy to strengthen reading
comprehension in basic education students. On the other hand, it manifests the need to address
the teaching practice contextualized to daily life, so that students nd meaning in learning.
For the conguration of the theoretical framework that supports this research, theories related to
reading comprehension, didactic strategy, and Afro-Colombian literature were reviewed, described,
and analyzed. Below is a scheme that systematizes the sequence of theoretical topics (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Relevant topics of the article
104); hence its importance, because reading is
found everywhere where human beings carry
out their activities and, in all areas of life, from
the interpretation of a simple advertisement to
a literary work.
In the educational eld, for Gutiérrez-Braojos
and Salmerón (2012), reading comprehension is
formed through the participation of students in
daily reading practices, to be able to understand
Reading comprehension was given thanks to
the contributions of Santiesteban and Velázquez
(2012), Vaello (2009), Mosquera (2006), and
Pinzas (2012), who consider that this constitutes
one of the main ways for the assimilation of the
experience accumulated by the humanity. In the
words of Santiesteban and Velázquez (2012),
“their teaching contributes to the intellectual
and aective development of the student” (p.
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
and interpret appropriately. That is to say, they
consider it a continuous teaching process that
increasingly demands, with greater urgency,
the design of eective didactic strategies that
start from a model analogous to the complexity
of reading as an activity, both in its typological
diversication and in its peculiar structure.
In the same way, Cassany (2004) understands
reading comprehension as something global
that, in turn, is made up of other more specic
elements that are called micro-skills, which,
according to him, are: perception, memory,
anticipation, quick and attentive reading,
inference, main ideas, structure, and form.
In addition, he comments that they must be
worked on separately, to acquire good reading
comprehension:
1. Perception [as an element of reading
comprehension]. The objective is to train
the ocular behavior of the reader to increase
their reading eciency. It intends to develop
perceptual-motor skills to the point of
asserting themselves and gaining speed and
reading facility. This micro-skill is intended for
readers to achieve an expansion of the visual
eld, a reduction in the number of xations,
and the development of visual discrimination.
2. Memory [as an element of reading
comprehension]: this micro-skill can be
divided into short-term memory and long-
term memory. The rst one provides very
little information that retaining it, provides
the meaning of some sentences. However,
the second one collects all that information
held in short-term memory to extract the
general and most important content of a text
read.
3. Anticipation [as an element of reading
comprehension]: aims to work on the ability
of readers when anticipating the content of a
given text. If they are not able to anticipate
that content, reading will become more
dicult. This micro-ability plays a large
role in the motivation of the readers and
the predisposition they may have to read a
certain text.
4. Speed reading and attentive reading [as
elements of reading comprehension]: they
constitute fundamental and complementary
micro-skills, to read eectively and quickly.
Rarely is reading exclusively word for word;
rst, an overview is given, looking for any
information that may seem relevant or
interesting, before beginning a more detailed
reading. Readers must be able to jump
from one point to another in the text to nd
information, avoiding linear reading.
5. Inference [as an element of reading
comprehension]: allows us to understand a
certain aspect of a text, based on the meaning
of the rest. This important micro-skill oers
to discover information that is not explicitly
found in the text; readers need to acquire
autonomy and avoid turning to another
person to clarify the meaning of what they
read.
6. Main ideas [as an element of reading
comprehension]: micro-skill that allows the
expert reader to extract certain information
from a specic text: most important ideas,
order of these ideas, extraction of examples,
points of view of the author of the text, etc.
It can be global ideas of the entire text or
specic ideas of certain parts of it.
7. Structure and form [as an element of reading
comprehension]: through it, you can work
on the formal aspects of a text (structure,
presentation, style, linguistic forms, rhetorical
resources, etc.). It is essential to work on this
micro-skill since the structure and form of a
text oer a second level of information that
aects the content. It can be addressed from
the most global aspects such as coherence,
cohesion, and adequacy, to more specic
aspects such as syntax and lexicon.
8. Reading between the lines: provides
information that is not explicitly found in the
text, but is partially present or hidden, or that
the author takes for granted or assumed. This
is one of the most important since it goes far
beyond understanding the basic content or
form of the text.
9. Self-assessment [of reading comprehension]:
oers the reader the conscious or unconscious
ability to control their comprehension
process, even before starting the reading,
until nishing it. (Cassany, 2001, as cited in
Avilés, 2020, pp. 41-43)
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
As soon as the anticipation micro-skill begins to
work, it is possible to check if the assumptions
about the content of the text are correct and if
the content has been understood.
In this sense, considering what was proposed by
Cassany (as cited in Avilés, 2020), after having
acquired all the micro-skills described, it is
assumed that the reader ceases to be a beginner
and becomes an expert, a moment that allows
him/her to understand any type of text.
Continuing with the characteristics of reading
comprehension, Pinzas (as cited in Gamboa,
2017) states:
Reading comprehension is determined by the
ability of each reader to understand the topic
at hand, by the position that they manifest
towards the content, as well as the value of
what is read and according to the use they
make of what is understood. In this way, the
ease and precision with which it is understood
will depend on three factors: the scheme
or prior knowledge of the reader, which is
relevant to the content of the text; the text
with clear, coherent content and with a familiar
and orderly structure and, inextricably related
strategies or cognitive skills, which allow the
reader to intensify the comprehension and
memory of what they read. (p. 19)
From the diversity of didactic strategies to develop
reading comprehension in students, the present
study used the Afro-Colombian narratives of the
Colombian writer Mary Grueso. For its approach,
it is pertinent to mention what was referred to
by Vaello (2009), who points out that, due to the
exible, adaptable, and contextualized nature of
the didactic strategies, there is the possibility of
using a didactic strategy in the three moments
and/or phases of the class, either at startup,
development, or end.
So then, to disaggregate the content, it began
with the narration. According to Adam and
Lorda (1999), it “is a form of expression that
tells facts or stories that happened to subjects,
real or literary characters, animals or any
other anthropomorphous being; it presents
a concurrence of events in a determined time
and space” (p. 100). In the narratives, there
are two basic elements: 1) action, aimed at a
transformation, and 2) interest, which is produced
thanks to the presence of elements that generate
intrigue. The narrations are characterized by
presenting in an indispensable way several
events integrated by one, whose execution is
necessary to produce the following event; these
events are performed chronologically.
As said by Acosta (2006), the narratives are
made up of the following elements:
A frame (the space and time in which the
action is situated). A narrator (the voice that
tells what happened). The narrative sequence
(the narrated story). The discourse (the order
in which what is narrated is oered; the
story will not always be oered to the reader
chronologically). The participants (characters
or subjects). (pp. 26-28)
Continuing with the breakdown, it is appropriate
to carry out the study of Afro-Colombians. Vargas
(2003) argues that the afro-genetic paradigm:
It is based on the fact that the history of
Afro-Colombians begins from that of their
African ancestors; it feeds on memory, moral
parameters, life -and death-, family, and
community relationships, which are based on
memories and internalizations of the social
schemes of the African peoples from where
the ancestors come. […] The subject of this
gaze is the Afro-Colombian, while the object
to be studied is, identity. (p. 35)
Mosquera (2006, as cited in Velandia, 2010)
denes Afro-Colombian essence as:
The set of contributions and material and
spiritual contributions, developed by the
African peoples and the Afro-Colombian
population in the process of building the
nation. These contributions involve the
conjunction of realities, values, feelings, and
visions of the world, which are integrated into
the daily life of the Afro-Colombian.
If Afro-Colombian essence is understood
as a concept that combines African heritage
and the role of Afro-descendants as
Colombian citizens, an interesting question
arises. Identity, as will be seen later, is
not a static entity; on the contrary, it is in
constant transformation and feeds on various
inuences. (p. 37)
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Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
Among the contributions to Afro-Colombian
literature, there are the children’s works of the
writer Mary Grueso, who
was born in Guapi (Cauca); she has a
degree in Spanish and Literature from the
University of Quindío; she specialized in
Literature Teaching at the same university;
she is recognized as a writer, poet, and oral
storyteller. Among her works, the following
stand out: El otro yo que sí soy yo (1997), The
sea and you (2003), Tómame antes que la
noche llegue (2013), Afro-Colombian poetry.
When the ancestors call (2015). In the eld
of children’s literature, the following stand
out: From the trunk to school; an anthology
of children’s literature (2003), Negra soy
(2008), La muñeca negra (2012), and The
girl in the mirror (2012). (Afrofemininas,
2019, para. 17)
2. Methodology
Current research is inscribed in the post-
positivist paradigm. In this regard, Rojas
(2015) states:
This paradigm has a decidedly humanist
foundation to understand the social reality
of the idealist position that highlights an
evolutionary and negotiated conception of
the social order. The qualitative paradigm
perceives social life as the shared creativity
of individuals. The fact that it is shared
determines a reality perceived as objective,
alive, and knowable for all the participants in
the social interaction. (para. 25)
In this order of ideas, Fernández and Rivera
(2009, as cited in Dios-Arrieta & Llamas-
Rodríguez, 2020) explain:
’In the qualitative paradigm, there must
be a specic correspondence between the
researcher and the object of study’. The
interaction of both parties involved must
be dynamic and exible. In this sense, it is
accepted as reciprocity from the orality and
performance, where dialogue is the ideal
route for the demonstration of experiences
and other information that pay tribute to the
concretion of what is investigated. (p. 183)
In this regard, Badilla (2006) comments:
“qualitative research in the eld of education is
a topic of current interest, which has allowed its
expansion, but at the same time the deepening
of the theories and methodologies that support
it” (p. 42). It follows, then, that qualitative
research recognizes more issues of educational-
pedagogical interest because it is immersed in
everyday professional educational practices. This
investigative exchange allows us to reconstruct,
articulate, and reect on some issues that
establish the qualitative research approach and
that are related to the usual scenarios where
educational work is carried out.
In the context of qualitative research,
investigative work represents observing the
classroom as a work context where reection
and analysis must be addressed integrally and
look at the tasks as objectively as possible,
to consider the elements that arise in the
investigative moments in the daily life of the
pedagogical fact. This prompted the researcher
to carry out a systematic observation of the
permanent reection on the problem under
study. For these reasons, the selection of
this research approach was motivated by the
opportunity to investigate a didactic strategy to
strengthen reading comprehension in seventh-
grade students.
For Hernandez et al. (2014):
The qualitative approach can be dened as
a set of interpretative practices that make
the world visible, transform it, and convert
it into a series of representations in the
form of observations, including a variety of
conceptions, visions, and techniques; collects
data expressed through written, verbal, and
non-verbal language, as well as visual, which
describe and analyze, and turns them into
themes; this led the inquiry subjectively and
recognized its personal tendencies. (pp. 8-9)
Due to this, the researcher’s direct concern was
focused on the experiences felt and experienced
by the participants.
By the traced route, the research topic, and the
paradigm, the method was located in pedagogical
action research, to generate knowledge and
solutions in realities whose contexts are complex.
In this regard, Dugarte (2006) expresses that its
orientation places the person and the event in
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Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
their social fabric, to understand and modify it,
taking into account all the elements that are part
of it and identifying the relationships between a
specic situation and the social fabric so that
solutions to problem-events are produced under
the complex thinking approach.
For the exact case of this research, it was taken
into account what was expressed by Vargas
(2009) in terms of assuming...
The practice, as an object of study in itself,
object of analysis, reection, and intervention,
with ethical and professional responsibility.
It is important to develop processes of this
nature because they favor the rigorous
analysis of what has been produced and
involve a bibliographic search to extract from
a theory, the applicable aspects to the problem
situation in a contextual reality. Choosing the
scenario that serves as a source of information
and observation is key to the application of
models, strategies, and instruments, as they
are used in the guiding practice and in the
area of interest, to improve the quality of
care that, as professionals, they provide to
populations in their dierent environments.
(p. 164)
As indicated by this author, the teacher, in the
process of didacticizing the pedagogical practice,
took care of delving into the theoretical roots
of the themes, to organize them rationally;
made a critique, to improve them intentionally,
according to its purposes, thinking about the
Bello Horizonte institution, which was the
institution that intervened, where selected the
observed problem with complex reality and
planned its transformation through specic
tools, techniques, methods, and necessary
instruments that helped to change the reality
addressed.
Thus, Restrepo (2006) states:
In the pedagogical eld, on the other hand,
know-how is investigated and built, to achieve
appropriation of disciplinary knowledge by
students (didacticize), as well as know-
how for them to internalize attitudes and
values (know-form, know-show ways, know-
convince). (p. 94)
The foregoing motivated the researcher to make
a self-reection on her pedagogical practice,
recognizing her weaknesses and strengths,
transforming and modifying her pedagogical
work, adapting to the reality that is prevailing,
and achieving that seventh-grade students
strengthen reading comprehension through
Afro-Colombian literature.
Figure 2
Graphic representation of the methodological design
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Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
For the research, 54 seventh-grade students
of the educational institution under study were
selected as the unit of analysis, intervening in
educational activities and implementing strategies
that stimulate reading comprehension through
Afro-Colombian literature and thus transforming
the reality that worried the researcher. The work
unit was made up of 20 of them, as they had the
required technological resources to implement
the reading comprehension workshops through
the Google Meet platform since at that time,
social connement had been decreed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The instruments applied were the following: a
written test that, according to the Ministry of
Education (2008), has the purpose of diagnosing
the level of reading comprehension of seventh-
grade students. Rojas (2008) denes this test
as a “measuring instrument whose purpose is
for the student to demonstrate the acquisition of
cognitive learning or the progressive development
of a skill or ability. Due to its characteristics, it
requires a written response from the student”
(p. 14). The test started with the reading of the
story Tramontana, belonging to the collection
Doce cuentos peregrinos by Gabriel García
Márquez. To verify their comprehension, seven
questions were raised that allowed knowing the
shortcomings of the students in terms of reading
comprehension.
Likewise, a general observation log was used in
which all the experiences lived in the application
of the didactic strategy through Afro-Colombian
literature were recorded, to promote reading
comprehension in students. This tool is part of
the observation technique that, according to
Martínez (2007), “is the written record of what
is observed [...] to produce quality descriptions”
(p. 74). It is worth mentioning that the log was
lled out once a week in each of the planned
workshops, so as not to interrupt class schedules
during the teaching and learning process.
It is pertinent to note that the investigation
had the informed consent of the parents and
guardians, who gave the respective permission
to take and publish photographs and videos
of the work unit students. In addition, the
instruments used to collect the information met
the quality and credibility criteria, which were
subjected to expert judgment, whose purpose
was to demonstrate relevance, guaranteeing the
validation of the topic.
3. Results
This section collects the results derived from the
implementation of a didactic strategy based on
the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary Grueso
for the reading comprehension of seventh-grade
students.
Phase I. Deconstruction of the practice.
The objective was to identify diculties in
specic situations of reading comprehension. A
diagnostic test, with seven selection questions
and one explanation about an image, was
applied where Tramontana, a story by Gabriel
García Márquez was presented. The work unit
was made up of 20 students who had the
technological and connectivity resources to
participate in the workshops.
The results of the diagnosis through the written
test indicated that the students have micro-
skills, dierentiated as follows: 100% have
perception; 60%, have memory; 40%, have
anticipation; 40% a quick and careful reading;
25% make inferences; 25% extract the main
ideas; however, no one has acquired the micro-
skill of structure and form. This indicated the
shortcomings to anticipate the reading of a text;
they do not have fast and attentive reading; it is
dicult for them to relate the narrated events and
extrapolate them to their lives or other aspects;
they still show weakness to extract the main and
secondary ideas of a text and, with this, their
reading comprehension is eeting. These results
were obtained through descriptive statistics and
the analysis of each of the responses issued by
the students.
To conclude with this phase, the didactic strategy
based on the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary
Grueso was planned, for having been one of the
most outstanding Afro-Colombian writers of the
21
st
century. In her literary creation, in which
she goes through the characteristic songs of
the Colombian Pacic, sonorous and expressive
poetry, and reective narrative, she nds
everything that identies her as a woman.
Phase II. Reconstruction of the practice. The
specic objective was: To implement a didactic
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Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
strategy based on the Afro-Colombian literature
of Mary Grueso for reading comprehension.
The stories and poems of Mary Grueso were
developed, namely: La muñeca negra, El gran
susto de Petronila, La cucarachita Mandinga, La
niña en el espejo, Del baúl a la escuela, Si Dios
hubiese nacido aquí, Naufragio de tambores,
Niño Dios bendito y, Hombre, hacé caridad.
This activity gave rise to nine workshops,
containing ve stories and four poems, lasting
60 minutes each, for nine weeks, planned in
such a way that students could achieve reading
comprehension and improve their academic
performance. They were evaluated with the
assigned activities through descriptive statistics
and the analysis of the responses issued.
The workshops began with the story La muñeca
negra, from which the students had to infer the
theme. The results indicate that 90% of them
reached the ocular behavior and 10% did not;
regarding the perceptual-motor ability, 85%
reached it and 15% did not; in the enlargement
of the visual eld, 95 achieved it, but 5% did
not. With the development of this micro-skill,
the students achieved an expansion of the visual
eld, a reduction in the number of xations, and
the development of visual discrimination.
In the second workshop, the story El gran susto
de Petronila was addressed. The day began with
the strategy of a tongue twister, to strengthen
the memory of the students. Results indicated
that 90% of them managed to consolidate short-
term memory and 10% could not; regarding
long-term memory, 80% achieved it, but 20%
did not, which shows that more exercise is
required.
To develop the third workshop, the story La
cucarachita Mandinga was used. The activity
also began with a tongue twister, whose results,
through the Anticipation micro skill, denote that
free motivation and predisposition of the students
are required: 90% of them are motivated and
predisposed and 10% are not. The students
could anticipate the story, make reading faster
and more uent, use the dictionary to learn
new terms, strengthen communication and
argumentative skills, speed up their memory,
as well as start making inferences; they were
able to express their opinion without fear and
strengthened the values of respect and solidarity.
The fourth workshop allowed us to study the
story La niña en el espejo, using as a strategy, the
onomatopoeia song: Dance, dance my chandé
forwards and backward. The results of the
activity indicate that in the micro-skill Quick and
attentive reading, whose complementary skills
are eciency and speed, 80% of the students
succeeded in eciency, while 20% did not; in
speed, 90% succeeded and the remaining 10%
did not.
With this activity, the students were able to
discover the hidden message of the story,
anticipate, speed up reading, pay more attention,
reinforce communicative and argumentative
skills, express themselves more freely, expand
their vocabulary, be able to discover the implicit
values in the story, in addition to, consolidating
the memory and the visual eld with the message
that the writer intends to give.
The fth activity corresponded to the last story
entitled Del baúl a la escuela, with the directed
discussion strategy. For this, the title of the
story was initially shown with its respective
image, so that the students could anticipate and
infer the theme. The results indicate that, in the
Inference micro skill, through the indicators,
80% discovered the non-explicit information in
the text and 20% did not. Regarding autonomy,
95% acquired it and 5% did not. Among the
achievements achieved are: the strengthening
of fast and attentive reading, the expansion of
the visual eld, the speeding up of memory, and
the ability to make anticipations, inferences,
and synthesis. The autonomy of learning was
also achieved, because, without induction, they
searched for unknown terms, which allowed
them to increase their lexicon, reinforce social
values, and recognize their mistakes in the
past tense, in addition to strengthening their
communicative and argumentative ability.
In the sixth workshop, we proceeded to study
the poetry titled Si Dios hubiese nacido aquí. The
directed reading strategy was used, for students
to learn the correct intonation of this genre;
then, they analyzed the poetry, searched for
the unknown terms, made pertinent inferences,
investigated the theme, and inferred what the
writer wanted to reveal with that poetry.
The results indicate that in the ‘Main Ideas’
micro skill, in the ‘Determine the information of
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a specic text’ component, 70% of the students
reached it, and 30% did not; regarding the
‘Extract and order the most important ideas’
component, 60% did it correctly and 40% did
not; about the component ‘Issue the author’s
point of view’, 50% succeeded and the other
50% did not.
The most outstanding achievements were: the
expansion of the visual eld, the reduction in
the number of xations, the development of
visual discrimination, the reinforcement of short
memory, the ability to: make anticipations and
inferences and to extract the main ideas for
achieving a quick and attentive reading. In the
same way, students understood the text from
the meaning, discovered the information that
is not found explicitly, acquired autonomy to
clarify the meaning of what they read, extracted
the most important ideas, discovered the global
ideas of the entire text, added new terms to their
vocabulary, increased their communication and
argumentative skills, and strengthened their
cultural identity.
In the seventh workshop, the poetry Naufragio
de tambores was studied; Guided reading was
used as a strategy to achieve perfect intonation.
The results in the ‘Main ideas’ micro-skill show
that 50% of the students managed to achieve
this skill and the remaining 50% did not; 50%
could identify the presentation, style, linguistic
forms, and rhetorical resources; the other 50%
did not. With this poem, they strengthened
their autonomy, which led them to search for
unknown terms; they expanded their cognitive
structure because they included other linguistic
forms. In addition, they developed coherence,
cohesion, and adequacy, syntax and lexicon;
therefore, they increased their communicative
and argumentative skills, achieved better
intonation in reading poetry with strength and
good vocalization, sharpened their memory and
perception, understood the text quickly, made
inferences and anticipations and were able to
read between the lines, to nd what they needed,
acquiring a better reading comprehension.
With the eighth workshop, the poetry Niño Dios
bendito was addressed, using guided reading as
a strategy. The results show that, in the ‘Read
between the lines’ micro skill, in the ‘Identify
what the author understands’ component, 50%
of the students reached it and the remaining
50% did not, since this micro skill goes well
beyond the comprehension of the basic content
or form of the text.
The achievements accomplished: vocabulary
expansion, correct intonation, visual sharpening,
strengthening of short memory and compilation
of all that information retained in short-term
memory to extract the general and most
important content of a text read, consolidation
of verbal uency, communication skills, ability
to make arguments, pose positions and
develop the structure of a text. In the same
way, the students made syntax, improved their
vocabulary, extracted specic ideas from the
text, were able to anticipate the content of a
text, and strengthened their motivation and
willingness to read. In addition, they managed
to jump from one point to another in the text to
search for information, avoiding linear reading;
they acquired autonomy and developed reading
habits.
The ninth activity, the poetry Hombre, hacé
caridad, was addressed through the strategy
‘Vertical and horizontal underlining’, with which
students learned to extract the main ideas of the
verse, expand their visual eld, reinforce short
memory, make anticipations and inferences,
draw the main ideas to achieve a quick and
careful reading, apply the writing structure
of texts, identify the ideas described in each
stanza to determine the main ideas of the poem,
understand what has been read and nd the
hidden message of the writer, checking whether
the content assumptions were true. They also
strengthened their communication skills, handled
arguments with greater precision, strengthened
listening and their cultural identity, learned to
handle metaphors, and correctly intoned poetry.
The ‘Self-assessment’ micro skill involved all the
studied micro skills; the achievements were:
80% in perception; 95% for memory; 85% in
anticipation, 80% for fast and careful reading;
80% for inferences; 70% for main ideas; 60%
for structure and shape; 50% to read between
the lines and do the self-assessment. These
results express that reading comprehension is
a global process, which requires acquiring all
the micro-skills. In this sense, it can be armed
that, when all the indicated micro-skills are
achieved, one goes from being a beginner reader
to an expert reader and it is at that moment
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Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
when one can understand any type of text. This
makes it possible to argue that students do
not yet possess the necessary skills to become
procient or expert readers; however, they have
reached a higher level than they had; it can
be asserted that the majority got seven micro-
skills; that is, they lacked two micro-skills to
become procient readers.
Phase III, the Evaluation of the reconstructed
practice, had the objective of evaluating
the achievements of the application of a
didactic strategy based on the Afro-Colombian
literature of Mary Grueso, to achieve reading
comprehension. Among the results, it stands
out that the students acquired the necessary
skills to understand a text, developed autonomy
and critical sense through a reective and
continuous process, achieved the skills of
capturing the meaning of words, sentences,
and paragraphs, identied actions that are
narrated in the text, recognized the characters
that participated in the actions, specied space
and time, maintained a sequence of actions, and
described the characters.
In addition, they were able to recall explicit
information and developed the skills of oral
reproduction of situations, recall passages of the
text and specic details, xed the fundamental
aspects of the text, and grasped the main idea.
Also, they managed to order the elements and
explained the relationships that exist between
them, developed the skills of capturing and
establishing relationships between characters,
actions, places, and time, dierentiated facts
and opinions of the characters, summarized the
dierent stories and poems studied, discovered
the cause and eect of events, compared
characters and physical locations, and identied
major and minor characters.
In this activity, students discovered the implicit
messages of the text, complemented the details
that appear in it, made conjectures about other
events that occurred, made deductions of
dierent possible titles for the text, rearranged
the information in it, made predictions about
the most probable outcomes of the actions,
and argued their opinion according to the topic
studied. In the end, they elaborated a synthesis
of the story or poem studied.
Students managed to formulate judgments
based on experience and values, captured
the implicit message of the text, issued value
judgments about it in terms of quality and
aesthetics, transferred the ideas incorporated
into the characters and other similar situations,
developed the skills of associating the ideas
of the text with personal ideas, rearmed the
changes in the reader’s behavior, exposed new
approaches based on the ideas suggested in
it, applied the ideas exposed to similar or new
situations and, solved problems.
4. Discussion
Next, the interpretation and discussion of the
results obtained through the investigative
process that answer the research questions, are
presented. In this sense, for Hernández et al.
(2014), the results constitute “the product of
data analysis” (p. 343).
Considering the results of the systematization
and analysis of the data and, having as its guiding
principle the research question: What are the
diculties in the specic situations of reading
comprehension of the students of 7-4 class of
the Bello Horizonte Educational Institution of
Valledupar, Cesar? the answer arose from the
diagnostic test applied to the students, which
allowed us to see their shortcomings in the
comprehension of texts since they incorrectly
answered the raised items; so, the researcher
analyzed several ideas to try to solve the
situation.
The diagnostic test was framed within the
Deconstruction Phase of the practice of the
pedagogical action research method. The
investigative process was approached with a
diagnosis made to seventh-grade students,
to determine which micro-skills have slowed
down their reading comprehension. The
results indicate that students have diculty in
literal interpretation related to paraphrasing,
superstructure, lexicon, global idea, lexicon by
context and cohesion of the text, in encyclopedic
indicators, in perspective before what is read,
in the intention and, in the questions that the
text raises. These results allowed guiding the
researcher to respond to the rst objective
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related to identifying diculties in specic
situations of reading comprehension.
These ndings led to know more about
reading comprehension, its conceptualization,
denitions, characteristics, and development
micro-skills, together with the review of previous
research on the subject, which shed light on
didactic strategies that could be applied, as well
as the use of literary genres such as the short
story and poetry, as enhancing elements of
learning to achieve reading comprehension. This
literature review was part of the deconstruction
phase of the pedagogical practice of the IAP
method, which allowed the elaboration of a
referential theoretical framework, to achieve the
second specic objective, regarding designing a
didactic strategy based on the Afro-Colombian
literature of Mary Grueso.
In the aforementioned review, the research of
Ojeda (2016) was highlighted, who managed to
show that the didactic process to strengthen the
comprehension of written texts at school is not
continuous and is one of the factors that most
inuence the diculty of students to achieve
reading comprehension. By comparing dierent
investigations carried out on the subject, the
researcher was able to nd sucient arguments
to consider the story as a useful tool for this
purpose. Ojeda’s research, which also used the
qualitative approach, was pertinent because
its theme and methodology are related to the
present study since the story is proposed as a
strategy to improve reading comprehension.
Rentería (2018) presented qualitative research
that started from the participatory action
approach. The results revealed the student’s
problems in terms of reading comprehension
and the importance of using didactic strategies
(workshops) to strengthen it. The article
contributed to the present study, the relevance
of understanding the intention and purposes
of the explicit and implicit of a text, as well as
the relevance of adapting the communicative
contexts to everyday situations and, in this
sense, the content of Afro-Colombian literature
resembles the daily life of the students, which
favors their understanding.
In the local context of this research, the work
of Baquero (2018), whose objective was to
transform teaching practices through the didactic
strategy based on dramatic play, was a valuable
contribution for the researchers, especially
because it is a work close to the geographical,
social, and cultural context. The research, which
was developed in a classroom project as a
contribution to the Spanish Language subject,
sought to favor the inferential level of reading
comprehension.
From the background review, it is worth
highlighting the use of action research as a tool
to transform learning from the improvement
of teaching practice, to identify problems in
the classroom and intervene, using didactic
strategies that eciently meet those needs.
Results indicate that every academic process
should be focused on improving educational
practice, guided by constant reection, which
transcends teachers and the institution,
being signicant to design and develop in the
classroom, didactic strategies according to the
needs, the context, and the learning styles of
the students, leaving aside the linear practices
that exclude them from their learning process.
The results of the search for investigative
references led to support the observations and
assumptions of the researchers, showing them
the weaknesses in other contexts related to
reading comprehension, the use of the short
story and poetry as a literary genre that, due
to its peculiar characteristics, can be a highly
valuable tool for the development of the topic,
the action research route as a methodological
path, as well as the use of motivating and
contextualized strategies to strengthen reading
comprehension.
In the same way, the results of the review of
specialized authors in the elds of reading
comprehension, the short story and poetry as a
literary genre, and the use of didactic strategies
to enhance learning constituted other valuable
props to understand both the problematic
situation addressed as to continue from each
area, the search for answers to the research
question.
The revision of the postulates of the teaching
of reading and its comprehension occupies a
preponderant place within the study plans,
as it is the basis of the rest of the subjects.
Therefore, reading processes deserve special
attention within school activities and also in
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society. In this way, reading comprehension
constitutes one of the main ways for the
assimilation of the experience accumulated by
humanity. Cassany et al. (2001) understand
reading comprehension as something global that
is made up of more specic elements named
micro-skills; they are perception, memory,
anticipation, fast and attentive reading,
inference, main ideas, structure, and form, and
must be worked on separately to acquire good
reading comprehension.
Similarly, the results of the theoretical review
led the researcher to rely on the work of authors
such as Santiesteban and Velásquez (2012),
Gutiérrez-Braojos and Salmerón (2012), Cassany
et al. (2001), and Pinzas (2012), who consider
that for achieving reading comprehension in
students, they must be able to discriminate
information, establish cause-eect or whole-
part relationships, organize information and
make inferences, among other skills. This was
an undoubted support to understanding Afro-
Colombian narratives as didactic strategies
adapted to the needs of the learning context
and how to apply them to develop skills, among
which reading comprehension stands out.
Finally, authors such as Adam and Lorda (1999),
Acosta (2006), Vargas (2009), and Mosquera
(20006), allowed knowing the potential of Afro-
Colombian narratives as a form of expression
that tells facts or stories that happened to
subjects, real or literary characters, animals or
any other anthropomorphic being, who present a
concurrence of events in a certain time and space.
There are two basic elements in them: action,
aimed at transformation, and interest, which is
produced thanks to the existence of elements
that generate intrigue. These narrations are
distinguished by presenting in an indispensable
way several events integrated by one, whose
execution is necessary to produce the following
event, which is executed chronologically.
Once the general theme of the research
was understood, through the review of
theoretical references and, continuing with the
Phase ‘Reconstruction of the practice of the
pedagogical action research method’ selected
for its transformative characteristics of teaching
actions through work in space of study and the
implementation of strategies contextualized
to the reality of the educational actors, the
researcher set out to design a didactic strategy
based on the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary
Grueso, for reading comprehension; to do this,
she created and applied a set of nine widely
reviewed reading workshops, whose results are
presented below.
The workshops managed to motivate the
seventh-grade students impacting the learning
of reading, making it possible to generate spaces
for socialization and application of knowledge
through the understanding of the texts worked
on in the stories: La muñeca negra, El gran susto
de Petronila, La cucarachita Mandinga, La niña
en el espejo, and the poetries Si Dios hubiese
nacido aquí, Naufragio de tambores, Niño Dios
bendito, Hombre, hacé caridad, Del Baúl a la
Escuela, readings that aroused their interest
since it is a pleasant, fun, and instructive literary
genre that has implicit messages, lessons that
students were able to infer, understand, and
apply in their daily life contexts.
In the development of each reading workshop,
through the activities designed with the
criterion in crescendo in complexity, according
to the micro-skills of reading comprehension,
the strengthening of this reading process was
evidenced, not only in terms of the cognitive
skills evidenced by the indicators, but by
the procedural and attitudinal competencies
that reect the learning acquired from prior
knowledge, which agrees with what was
expressed by Gutiérrez-Braojos and Salmerón
(2012), who consider that a continuous teaching
process requires progressively greater urgency,
the design of eective didactic strategies that
start from an analogous modeling, to the
complexity of reading as an activity, both in
its typological diversication and in its peculiar
structure; they conclude that, to develop a good
reading comprehension, teachers must design
learning strategies to raise the reading level
of students, which conrms the importance of
planning strategies that support and strengthen
reading processes.
Reading comprehension was revealed
throughout the work carried out, highlighting
the students’ interest in understanding and
communicating the main idea in each of the
stories, evidencing the scope of each micro-
skill according to the complexity of the reading
competence, which demonstrated advances in
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
the process, managing to capture their interest
in the story and poetry as a literary genre;
thus, they were able to understand the story
(semantic component), distinguish its parts
and relationships (syntactic component), and
understand the purpose in the context of their
daily life (pragmatic component), as expressed
by Cassany et al. (2001); this demonstrates the
applicability of this genre as a didactic strategy
for the development of reading comprehension
in general and, of the level of critical reading in
particular, which covers the other two levels.
Under this scenario, they were able to know the
story, distinguish its parts, and understand the
purpose in the context of their daily life; this
demonstrates its applicability as a didactic strategy
for the development of reading comprehension
at the literal level, then inferentially and, nally,
at the critical analytical level. The foregoing nds
an echo in the explanations of Santiesteban
and Velázquez (2011) when they express that
reading comprehension contributes not only to
intellectual development but also to the eective
order of the student since reading surrounds
and is immersed in the activities of the human
being, in all spheres of life.
Similarly, the results are linked to what Gutiérrez-
Braojos and Salmerón (2012) expressed by
highlighting the need for student participation
in daily reading practices that enable them
to understand and properly interpret a text.
That is, it is considered a continuous teaching
process that merits the design of eective and
motivating teaching strategies that arouse
interest and attention. In this sense, another
motivating element within the fable strategy that
aroused great interest in the students was the
characters, mainly the animals described, a fact
that generated expectations when reading the
titles and when delving into the reading of each
story. These elements of interest promote the
approach to reading and permit the development
of reading comprehension.
Through the development of the reading
comprehension workshops, it was observed that
the Afro-Colombian literature of Mary Grueso
constitutes a didactic strategy that allows
the teacher to promote in their students the
development of higher order levels: reective,
critical, emotional, communicative, participatory,
creative, and imaginative. These results validate
what was stated by Mosquera (2006), who
considers that Afro-Colombian literature has
a set of material and spiritual contributions,
developed by the African peoples and the Afro-
Colombian population in the process of building
the nation, contributions that involve the
conjunction of realities, values, feelings, and
visions of the world that are integrated into the
daily life of the Afro-Colombian.
When designing the reading comprehension
workshops through Mary Grueso’s Afro-
Colombian children’s literature, the
researcher went through a reective process
of understanding the theme, analysis, and
organization of resources, management of
activities and time, as well as the scope based on
previously established objectives, which allowed
stimulating the students’ taste for reading,
improving micro-skills to achieve reading
comprehension when reading and interpreting
stories and poems, promoting training in values
within the framework of school work such as
respect and a collaborative spirit, fostering
dialogue and listening, along with strengthening
the creative and critical spirit of students.
In the context of the application of the workshops,
a daily evaluation process of the activities carried
out was done. The phase is contemplated in the
IAP method, as an evaluation of the pedagogical
practice through which the achievement of the
proposed objective was evidenced. In this way,
it was possible to observe the impact generated
by the use of stories and poetry as a mediating
strategy for learning reading comprehension.
The students discovered an application resource
when relating the teaching of stories or poetry
with daily situations in their life contexts; their
learning began with the understanding of the
literary genre, with its elements and objective.
Likewise, the progressive design in the
complexity of the strategy led to reinforced,
constant, and exible learning, in a fun, pleasant,
and contextualized environment, which allowed
students to demonstrate the learning they were
achieving by sharing what they learned every
day. In the beginning, they knew the story and
poetry, and they understood and identied their
main concepts and elements. From there, in the
next level, they were able to make inferences
about the situations and relate them to their
previous knowledge to nally be able to question
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
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Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
the behavior of the characters and the implicit
message. This process occurred in a natural,
fun, progressive, and exible way, without
ever straying from the objective proposed for
the achievement of reading comprehension
competence.
Regarding the last of the objectives, aimed at
evaluating the achievements of the application
of the didactic strategy, the results recorded
in the logs go hand in hand with what was
explained by Vaello (2009), who points towards
the design and use of didactic strategies of
exible, adaptable and contextualized nature,
which can be used in the three moments and/
or phases of the class: beginning, development
or closing. In this particular case, the reading
workshops, based on the story and poetry, were
designed to cover these three moments: the
initial phase with the reading of the story; the
development phase with the demonstration of
reading comprehension through the socialization
of ideas and, the closing phase with reection
and extrapolation to contexts of daily life, which
demonstrates its applicability, supported by the
aforementioned achievements.
5. Conclusions
At this point, the researcher proceeds to share
the ndings obtained in the development of the
study, about the specic objectives proposed.
For the rst objective, through the diagnostic
test, the diculty in understanding the text read
was appreciated, which limited the acquisition
of communicative skills to obtain signicant
learning and, therefore, improve academic
performance.
Regarding the second specic objective, it
was necessary to go to the experts to guide
the process, visualizing the importance of
Afro-Colombian literature to achieve reading
comprehension; for this reason, the stories
and poems of Mary Grueso were used, who has
been concerned with student learning, so that
they understand the texts from their roots and
achieve signicant learning from the reality of
their environment.
Regarding the implementation of the strategy, a
proposal was made based on workshops, where
the students, through the stories and poetry
of Mary Grueso, managed to gradually acquire
micro-skills: perception, memory, anticipation,
fast and attentive reading, inference, main
ideas, structure, and form, reading between the
lines and self-assessment, skills that enabled
them to achieve reading comprehension.
Finally, when evaluating the achievements of the
application of the strategy, the results indicate
that it was successful. The students valued
various aspects, among them: the importance of
understanding the texts read and the ability to
make inferences and arguments about a topic. In
addition, by having consistency in the discourse,
it was possible to increase communicative skills
and reading uency, and the relevance of using
the dictionary to understand unknown terms,
which is essential to acquire autonomous
learning and comprehend a text.
6. Recommendations
Considering the actors and authors of
the educational process, the following
recommendations are formulated:
To the rectors:
• Motivate teachers to carry out curricular
activities with readings based on Afro-Colombian
writers to develop reading comprehension and
strengthen cultural identity.
• Promote the coordinators of the ‘Todos
a Aprender’ program to strengthen the
pedagogical practice, taking into account
elements to dene pertinent strategies that
allow students to assess and provide feedback
through pedagogical activities based on the
results.
• Stimulate the curiosity of the teachers for
them to reect on the weak and strong points
of their pedagogical activity, for students to
achieve reading comprehension through Afro-
Colombian literature as a strategy to acquire
signicant learning.
To the teachers:
• Understand the learning characteristics of the
group of students and ensure that the activity
is marked according to age, competence,
Reading comprehension in seventh-grade students through Afro-Colombian literature
101
Lohorquis Esther Cuello Cuello
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys
level of involvement in the activities, and the
functioning of the group.
• Evaluate the learning process of students
to conrm that they have achieved reading
competence with good academic performance.
• Implement a system of classes or more
pedagogical and methodological curricular
activities, where the interest of the children,
their motivation, and the desire to read
daily are seen, to grow in their educational
dimension.
• Motivate children in the reading process
through strategies where innovative, didactic,
and creative pedagogies are evidenced,
which strengthen the reading comprehension
process.
• Link parents through a reading plan and school
for parents, where collaboration, interaction,
and integration are enhanced, to promote
reading comprehension from an early age.
• Make visits to the school library with students,
to initiate the reading habit.
To students:
• Practice reading daily to create the habit and
achieve reading comprehension.
• Go to the library and request books to achieve
reading comprehension.
• Insert into their technological equipment
(computer, tablet, phone) the audiobook
application to learn stories and thus deepen
the understanding of texts.
7. Conict de interest
The authors of this article declare not to have
any conict of interest regarding the work
presented.
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Contribution:
Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo: a
review of bibliographic references, conclusions,
recommendations, and application of the
citation rules.
Gustavo Adolfo González Roys: a review of
the methodological aspects, conclusions, and
application of the citation rules.
The authors participated in the preparation,
reading, and approval of the manuscript.
