Teaching strategy mediated by the “Yo también leo” app aimed at strengthening literacy skills in second-grade General Basic Education students

Abstract

Introduction: The acquisition of literacy skills during the early years of basic education requires instructional strategies that combine the explicit teaching of linguistic skills with the pedagogical use of digital resources. The objective of this research was to implement an instructional strategy mediated by the application “Yo también leo” (“I Read Too”) to strengthen literacy skills among second-grade students at the Padre Julián Lorente Educational Unit in Loja, Ecuador. Materials and Methods: An applied study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach and a single-group, pre-experimental design, involving pre-test and post-test measurements with 18 students. The process included document, curriculum, and techno-pedagogical analysis, as well as the development of the strategy based on the ADDIE model. Results: The resulting strategy, titled “Leo jugando y escribo con sentido” (“Reading Through Play and Writing with Meaning”), is organized into four instructional stages and 24 sessions of 35 minutes each. It integrates digital activities, phonological awareness, decoding, reading comprehension, and written production, all facilitated by the teacher. Discussion: An analysis of paired measurements showed an increase in the overall mean score from 5.28 to 8.01—a gain of 2.73 points. A Student’s t-test confirmed statistical significance, t(17) = 8.80; p < 0.001, with a large effect size (d_z = 2.07). Conclusions: The strategy represents a well-founded, curriculum-aligned pedagogical approach, the effectiveness of which is supported by the documented empirical evidence.