DepEd issues guidelines for Catch Up Fridays

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education has released the guidelines for the implementation of its “Catch Up Fridays” learning intervention program, which will be officially rolled out in public schools nationwide starting January 12.

DepEd Memorandum 001 s. 2024 states that the “Catch Up Fridays” program will dedicate half of every Friday to reading and the other half to values, peace and health education. 

DepEd said that its reading program will “give learners opportunities for reading intervention and reading enhancement through developmentally appropriate reading materials.”

The memorandum dated January 10 states that schools will roll out its National Reading Program through activities such as the “Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), Read-A-Thon, fora, and invitation of resource persons.”

Meanwhile, the other half of Fridays will be for values, health and peace education, which will revolve around different monthly themes as prescribed by the department. “While teachers shall be given the prerogative to narrow down or devise additional subthemes, alignment with the quarterly themes is essential,” the memorandum noted. 

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DepEd said that its reading program will be implemented through a “two-pronged” approach that involves reading intervention and reading enhancement activities.   

In the memorandum, DepEd provided a list of activities for reading intervention, like using flash cards, singing songs, playing games and other methods to "activate learners' prior knowledge." 

This will be followed by activities to be held during actual reading time, where teachers can hold activities that will help students "visualizes scenes, characters and situations" and "identify the main idea and supporting details," among others. 

“Note: The teacher uses appropriate and targeted activities that vary according to the learners’ reading ability and capacity. In addition, activities must vary to avoid monotony,” DepEd said.   

For activities promoting reading enhancement, DepEd also provided a list of activities, such as choral reading, book reports, reading journals, book clubs,