<![CDATA[This study was motivated by the low critical reading skills of fifth-grade elementary school students, which directly impacts their lack of deep understanding regarding various reading texts. The study aims to describe in depth and analyze the effect of implementing the OK5R learning method (Overview, Key Ideas, Read, Record, Recite, Review, Reflect) on improving students' critical reading skills. A pre-experimental method with a One-Group Pretest-Posttest design was employed. The research subjects consisted of 22 fifth-grade students from SD Islam As-Shofa Pekanbaru during the 2025/2026 academic year. Data collection involved a short-essay test specifically designed to measure six key indicators of critical reading skills: identifying important information, analyzing text content, interpreting meaning, drawing conclusions, evaluating text content, and reflecting on the text content as a whole. Descriptive statistical analysis results showed an increase in the class average score from 37.73 in the pretest to 44.41 in the posttest. The Shapiro-Wilk normality test confirmed that the research data were normally distributed, with significance values of 0.377 for the pretest and 0.161 for the posttest. Furthermore, hypothesis testing using the Paired Sample t-Test yielded a significance value of 0.000 (< 0.05), demonstrating that the alternative hypothesis was accepted. Although the N-Gain test resulted in an average score of 0.1095—classified as low—it can be concluded overall that the OK5R method still exerted a positive and significant influence on the critical reading skills of fifth-grade students at SD Islam As-Shofa Pekanbaru.]]>
