Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women

Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

LESSON 2
TEXT AND CONTEXT CONNECTIONS

A. INTRODUCTION

To read is a simple skill of understanding a text beyond interpretation and decoding of letters, words,
phrases and sentences. Reading critically is another skill that one should possess in order to analyze not
only pieces of information but also situations in the daily. When a person knows how to read critically, it
also means that he or she is also able to think critically in dealing with real life situations independently.

B. LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson the student will be able to:
1. Explain critical reading as looking for ways of thinking
2. Identify claims explicitly or implicitly made in a written text
3. Identify the context in which a text was developed
4. Explain critical reading as reasoning
5. Formulate evaluative statements about a text read
6. Determine textual evidence to validate assertions and counterclaims made about a text read.

C. CONTENT

1.1 Critical Reading as Looking for Ways of Thinking

Whenever you read something and you evaluate claims, seek definitions, judge information, demand
proof, and question assumptions, you are thinking critically. This type of reading goes beyond passively
understanding a text because you process the author’s words and make judgments after carefully
considering the reading’s message.

But why should you read critically? Reading critically means you are thinking critically. This shows that you
do not simply accept the message on the page. You bring to your reading your own experience and
perspective, and use these to separate yourself from the text and judge for yourself what you consider
important, logical, or right.

This interaction between the text and the reader is necessary because reading results from a negotiation
of meaning between the text and the reader. By reading critically, you find out the author’s views on
something, ask questions, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument, and decide
whether to agree or disagree with it. Critical reading thus allows you to enter into a dialogue with the
author – and this deepens your understanding of the issue or topic discussed. Therefore, in order to arrive
at a sufficient interpretation of the text, you need to become a critical and active reader.

Critical reading is a technique for discovering information and ideas within a text. Critical thinking is a
technique for evaluating information and ideas, for deciding what to accept and believe.

Critical reading refers to a careful, active, reflective, analytic reading. In actual practice, critical reading
and critical thinking work together. Critical thinking allows us to monitor our understanding as we read.

Reading to see what a text says may suffice when the goal is to learn specific information or to understand
someone else's ideas. But we usually read with other purposes. Students need to solve problems and
make meaningful connections.

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

What is it? Analyzing a piece of writing in fine detail.

Why bother? It is the building block for larger analysis
How to develop skills? Practice, practice, practice, read, read, read!

Critical reading can be defined as the process of understanding, questioning, and evaluating a text,
which is carried out actively and consciously, in order to well assess the accuracy and validity of a
writer’s ideas.

It is a skill highly necessitated in both academic and everyday lives.

It could be developed through learning and practices

Critical reading is a process of analyzing, interpreting and, sometimes, evaluating.

It is a deeper and more complex engagement with a text.

Critical reading is a more ACTIVE way of reading

When we read critically, we use our critical thinking skills to QUESTION both the text and our own
reading of it.

Difference Between Reading and Critical Reading

Reading Critical Reading
Purpose To get a basic grasp of the text. To form judgments about HOW a text
works.
Activity Absorbing / Understanding Analyzing / Interpreting / Evaluating
Focus What a text SAYS What a text DOES and MEANS
Questions What is the text saying? How does the text work? How is it argued?
What information can I get out of it? What are the choices made? The patterns
that result?
What kinds of reasoning and evidence are
used?
What are the underlying assumptions?
What does the text mean?
Direction WITH the text (taking for granted it is AGAINST the text (questioning its
right) assumptions and argument, interpreting
meaning in context)
Response Restatement, Summary Description, Interpretation, Evaluation

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Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

STAGE THEORY IN Accompli

shed
Adva
CRITICAL Begin
The nced
Practi Think
Chall ning cing er
Unrefle enge Think Think
Proce ctive d er er
thinker Think (tryin (pract
(unawa er g to icing
re of (beco impro to
proble ming
ms in awar
ve) devel
thinkin e of op)
g) probl
ems
in
thinki
ng)

Attitudes Of A College-level Critical Thinker

Attitude Sample Statement
Truth-seeking “Let’s follow this idea and see where it leads.”
Open-minded “I have a point of view on this subject, and I’m anxious to hear yours as well.“
Analytical “Taking a stand on the issue commits me to take some action.”
Systematic “The speaker made some interesting points, and I’d like to hear some more evidence to
support each one.”
Self-confident “After reading the book for the first time, I was confused. I’ll be able to understand it after
studying the book some more.”
Inquisitive “When I first saw that painting, I wanted to know what was going on in the artist’s life when
she painted it.”
Mature “I’ll wait until I gather more facts before reaching a conclusion on this issue.”

Process for Reading Critically

 taking notes
 testing answers to your questions,

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Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

 brainstorming
 outlining
 reflecting on your own reading and thinking
 describing aspects of the text or argument
 raising objections to the ideas or evidence presented
 highlighting important points and examples

2.1.1 Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text

Defining Claims

Knowing how to identify explicit and implicit information will help you in one of the most important skills
needed in critical reading. Evaluating the claims made by an author. This involves going back to the text
to recognize the writer’s arguments and evidence so you can begin judging the writer’s work.

Whenever you read something, you find yourself looking for the writer’s point or position regarding the
chosen topic. That point is also known as the claim, or the central argument or thesis statement of the
text. This claim is what the writer tries to prove in the text by providing details, explanations, and other
types of evidence. As such, it is usually found in the introduction or in the first few paragraphs of the text.

The claim is the most important part of the text. The quality and complexity of the reading
depends on the claim, because the claim defines the paper’s direction and scope. The claim is a sentence
that summarizes the most important thing that the writer wants to say as a result of his or her thinking,
reading, or writing.

The following are the characteristics of good claims:

1. A claim should be argumentative and debatable. When a writer makes a claim, he or she is making a
case for a particular perspective on the topic. Readers expect to be able to raise objections to your claim,
and they can only raise objections if the claim is something that can be reasonably challenged. Claims that
are only factual or based on opinion, thus, are not debatable.

2. A claim should be specific and focused. If the claim is unfocused, the paper will be too broad in scope
and will lack direction and a clear connection to the support provided. It may also lead to
overgeneralizations and vague assertions.

3. A claim should be interesting and engaging. It should hook the reader, who may or may not agree with
you, to encourage them to consider your perspective and learn something new from you.

4. A claim should be logical. It should result from reasonable weighing of support provided.

Here are some questions to help you determine the writer’s claim while you are reading a text:

 What is the author’s main point?

 What is the author’s position regarding to?

2.1.1.1 Claim of Fact

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

Claims of Fact state a quantifiable assertion, or a measurable topic. They assert that something has
existed, exists, or will exist based on data. They rely on reliable sources or systematic procedures to be
validated; this is what makes them different from inferences.

Claims of fact usually answer a “what” question. When determining whether something is a claim of fact,
the following questions are useful:

 Is this issue related to a possible cause or effect?

 Is this statement true or false?
 Is this claim controversial or debatable?

2.1.1.2 Claim of Policy

Claims of policy posit that specific actions should be chosen as solutions to a particular problem. You can
easily identify a claim of policy because they begin with “should,” “ought to,” or “must.” Claims of policy
because they defend actionable plans, usually answer “how” questions. The following questions will be
useful in evaluating a claim of policy:

 Does the claim suggest a specific remedy to solve the problem?

 Is the policy clearly defined?
 Is the need for the policy established?
 Is the policy the best one available? For whom? According to whose standards?
 How does the policy solve the problem?

Being a critical reader also involves understanding that texts are always developed with a certain context.
A text is neither written nor read in a vacuum; its meaning and interpretation are affected by a given set
of circumstances. Thus, context is defined as the social, cultural, political, and other related circumstances
that surround the text and form the terms from which it can be better understood and evaluated.
Knowledge of the text’s context, you may ask questions like:

 When was the work written?

 What were the circumstances that produced it?
 What issues does it deal with?

2.1.1.3 Claim of Value

The claim of value asserts something that can be qualified. They consist of arguments about moral,
philosophical, or aesthetic topics. These types of topics try to prove that some values are more or less
desirable compared to others. They make judgments, based on certain standards, on whether something
is right or wrong, good or bad, or something similar.

Claims of value attempt to explain how problems, situations, or issues ought to be valued in order to
discover these explanations, you may ask the following questions:

 Which claims endorse what is good or right?

 What qualities should be considered good? Why is that so?

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

 Which of these values contend with others? Which ones are important, and why? Whose
standards are used?
 What are some concrete examples of such values?

2.2 Context of Text Development

Various studies have reported differences between offline and online reading, however, the findings are
not conclusive. These are those who claim that offline reading is faster than online reading because of the
farmer’s familiar layout. Some studies say that the slower rate is due to the presence of hypertexts. Still,
there are studies which report that offline reading is slower because readers are generally focused and
usually requires note-taking and highlighting. A number of researches have likewise noted the different
strategies employed when doing offline or online reading. Online reading has been used more for
information-getting purposes, so the common strategies used are skimming, scanning, and visualizing.

2.2.1 Hypertext

Meanwhile, hypertext is a relatively new way of reading a text online. Traditionally, reading was viewed a
linear process, where you read from the beginning until the end. However, the advent of the Internet and
technology has created new ways of reading and process a text, which includes hypertext.

Hypertext, therefore, is a non-linear way of showing information. Hypertext connects topics on a screen
to related information, graphics, videos, music – information is not simply related to text. This information
appears as links and is usually accessed by clicking. The reader can jump to more information about a
topic, which in turn may have more links. This opens up the reader a wider horizon of information or to a
new direction.

A reader can skim through sections of a text, freely jumping from one part to another depending on what
aspect of the text interests him or her. Thus, in reading with hypertext, you are given more flexibility and
personalization because you get to select the order in which you read the text and focus on information
that is relevant to your background and interests. You therefore create your own meaning out of the
material.

How to Attack Electronic Texts

Always remember that to maximize your online reading, you must be very clear about your purpose: Do
you read just to look for specific information? Do you read and then try to “recreate” the material to show
your understanding of the text? Do you read with no clear purpose in mind? Hopefully, you have answered
the first two questions with a “Yes” and the last one with a “No.”

Another important thing you have to remember is that an electronic text (unlike a printed text) is
nonlinear. An internet article, for example, usually has some visual elements (like pictures, video clips,
hyperlinks, graphs) between or within paragraphs and sections. When you click the video and then goes
back to reading the text, it makes your reading nonlinear. Therefore, you have to navigate the pages
properly and efficiently to make the most of your electronic reading. By all means interact with the
available tool bars and other menu, but never forget your purpose in reading. Don’t get lost!

You should also make sure that the electronic material you are about to read is trustworthy. Check the
host/creator of the website by looking at its URL (Universal Resource Locator) endings. Especially for
factual information, it is good to read materials from those having a .edu or a .gov ending. A website that

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

is regularly updated speaks well of its creator / administrator. Be cautious of articles written by persons
who use pseudonyms or just use “Anonymous.” It is good to check the background and credibility of a
writer before reading his or her articles.

2.2.2 Intertext

Another important technique in analyzing the context of a text’s development is defining its intertextual
link to another text. Intertextuality is the modeling of a text’s meaning by another text. It is defined as the
connections between language, images, characters, themes, or subjects depending on their similarities in
language, genre, or discourse. This is seen when an author borrows and transforms a prior text, or when
you read one text and you reference another. This view recognizes that the text is always influenced by
previous texts and in turn anticipates future texts. A text contains many layers of accumulated cultural,
historical, and social knowledge, which continually adds to and affects one another. Thus, intertextuality
becomes a dialogue among different texts and interpretations of the writer, the audience, and the current
and earlier cultural contexts.

2.3 Critical Reading as Reasoning

2.3.1 Formulating Evaluative Statements

Identifying assertions
Becoming a good critical reader means that you are able to evaluate claims of the writer
logically. Any writer would want the reader to consider and possibly agree with – the claims that he or
she puts forward. In expository writing, assertions become the primary channel for a reader to assent to
a claim.

Assertions are declarative sentences that claim something is true about something else. Simply put, it is
a sentence that either true or false.

Read the following:

The sampaguita’s roots are used for medicinal purposes, such as an anesthetic and a sedative
The sampaguita belongs to the genus Jasminum of the family Oleaceae.
The popularity of sampaguita flowers is most evident in places of worship.
Sampaguitas are the most beautiful and most fragrant of all flowers.

There are four more common types of assertion, which are classified according to the degree of
certainty they can be judged as true or false. How would you classify the previous statements?

2.3.1.1 Fact

The first type of assertion is a fact. This is a statement that can be proven objectively by direct experience,
testimonies or witnesses, verified observations, or the results of research. Because statements of fact can
be double-checked for accuracy, there is general agreement about the truth they posit.

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

The sampaguita’s roots are used for medicinal purposes, such as an anesthetic and a sedative.
The statement is a fact because it can be directly verified by experience or reliable research reports.

2.3.1.2 Convention

The second type is an assertion of convention. A convention is a way in which something is done, similar
to traditions and norms. Conventions depend on historical precedent, laws, rules, usage, and customs.
Thus, their truthfulness is verified by how commonly held definitions and beliefs are interpreted.

Something to note about conventions is that they may sound factual due to their being derived from
customs, but because they are socially accepted ways of doing things, they cannot be verified objectively
by measurements.

The sampaguita belongs to the genus Jasminum of the family Oleaceae.

This statement is a convention because it is based on a classification system made up by scientists and is
acceptable to the scientific community.

2.3.1.3 Opinion
The third type of assertion is an opinion. Opinions are based on facts, but are difficult to objectively verify
because of the uncertainty of producing satisfactory proofs of soundness. Opinions result from
ambiguities; the more ambiguous a statement, the more difficult it is to verify. Thus, they are open to
disputes.

The popularity of sampaguita flowers is most evident in places or worship.

The above statement is an opinion because it is based on an observation that needs to be proven by
studies and repeated observation; there are too many factors involved that makes explicit judgment
difficult.

2.3.1.4 Preference

The fourth type of assertion is a preference. Preferences are based on personal choice; therefore, they
are subjective and cannot be objectively proven or logically attacked.

Sampaguitas are the most beautiful and most fragrant of all flowers.

This statement is a preference because it says a lot about the type of flowers that the writer likes, instead
of objectively comparing the qualities of sampaguitas to that of other flowers.

2.3.2 Determining Textual Evidence

To better evaluate the author’s argument, you should be able to determine the evidence from the text.
This will allow you to validate the assertions of the author and your own counterclaims as a response to
reading. Evidence is defined as the details given by the author in order to support his or her claim. The

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

evidence provided by the writer substantiates the text. It reveals and builds on the position of the writer
and makes the reading more interesting. Evidence is crucial in swaying the reader to your side. A jury or
judge, for example, relies on evidence presented by a lawyer before it makes a decision regarding a case.

Evidence can include the following:

 facts and statistics (objectively validated information on your subject);

 opinion from experts (leading authorities on a topic, like researchers or academics); and
 personal anecdotes (generalizable, relevant, and objectively considered).

The following are some questions to help you determine evidence from the text:

 What questions can you ask about the claims?

 Which details in the text answer your questions?
 What are the most important details in the paragraph?
 What is each one’s relationship to the claim?
 What details do you find interesting? Why so?
 What are some claims that do not seem to have support? What kinds of support could they be
provided with?
 What are some details that you find questionable? Why do you think so?

 Are some details outdated, inaccurate, exaggerated, or taken out of context?

 Are sources reliable?

The following are the characteristics of good evidence:

 unified;
 relevant to the central point;
 specific and concrete;
 accurate; and
 representative or typical.

D. VALUES INTEGRATION
Not everything that we read and hear is true. Some of the pieces of information that we perceive
may seem or made believable that is why we need to scrutinize the text and see if the information that
we have gathered is true and promotes honesty. The skills of critical thinking will help us not only
understand the texts that we read but also it will help us in real life situations that involve decision making.

E. REFERENCES

Books:

Estacio, Ma. Joahna M. (2016). English for the Globalized Classroom Series: Developing Reading &
Writing Skills Senior High School. Quezon City: The Phoenix Publishing House Inc.

Tiongson, Marella Therese A. (2016). Reading and Writing Skills. Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Store

Websites:

Citing Textual Evidence. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2015 from

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

http://www.englishworksheetsland.com/grade6/readinginfo/1/1citing.pdf

Critical Thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2016 from

www.ux1.eiu.edu/~alsego/Critical%20Thinking.pp

Reading skills for academic study: Skimming for gist. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2016 from
http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/skim/bodylan.htm

Pecchia, Lorraine. (n.d.). Critical Thinking Reasoning, and Reading Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved November
18, 2015 from http://www.une.edu/sites/default/files/criticalthinkingseminar.pdf

Textuality, Intertextuality, Hypertextuality. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2016, from

http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/2.2/features/paralogic/textuality.html

Videos:

DigitalSplashMedia. (2010, January 14). “Do You Think?” [Video File]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-85-j7Nr9i4&feature=related

F. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
Individual Reading, Collaborative Reading, Lecture, Structured Discussion, Activities

G. ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Formative Examinations (Quiz, Major Exams, Assignments, and Projects)

Project: Reading Log Book (minimum of 3 entries per week)

Date
Title of Book or Article:
Source: (Book, Magazine, Newspaper, Journal, Internet)

I. Words to Unlock (number of words may vary)

1. word
a) meaning / definition
b) use word in own sentence

II. Content Summary (maximum of 10 sentences)

III. Purpose of Content (to inform, to entertain, to give instruction, to suggest, to persuade, etc.)

IV. What I Learned (maximum of 5 sentences)

Rubrics: Reading Logbook ( 3 entries per week in 6 weeks)

Completeness of Entries (per week)

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

Rating
3 Has complete entries per week
2 Lacks one or two entries
1 Lacks three or more entries

Content (per entry)

Rating
2 Each entry has complete information and gives original summary of what was read and reflected
1 Each entry has incomplete information and copied most of what was read; reflection is not
explained well

Activity 1: (non-graded)

Read the following text. Formulate 5 questions that you can make from the text read.

Body Language.

What does scientific literature tell us about the idea that body language reflects our real feelings? One
experiment carried out about 10 years ago by Ross Buck from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania
suggests that spontaneous facial expression is not a very good index of real emotional state. Buck and his
colleagues tested the accuracy with which people could identify the emotions felt by

another person. They presented one set of subjects with colour slides involving a variety of emotionally-
loaded visual stimuli - such as "scenic" slides (landscapes, etc), "maternal" slides (mothers and young
children), disgusting slides (severe facial injuries and burns) and unusual slides (art objects). Unknown to
these subjects, they were being televised and viewed by another matched set of subjects, who were asked
to decide, on the basis of the televised facial expressions, which of the four sets of slides had just been
viewed. This experiment involved both male and female pairs, but no pairs comprising both men and
women; that is men observed only men, and women observed women. Buck found that the female pairs
correctly identified almost 40 per cent of the slides used - this was above the level which would be
predicted by chance alone. (Chance level is 25 per cent here, as there were four classes of slide). But male
pairs correctly identified only 28 per cent of slides - not significantly above chance level. In other words,
this study suggests that facial expression is not a very good index of "real" feeling - and in the case of men
watching and interpreting other men, is almost useless.

Paul Ekman from the University of California has conducted a long series of experiments on nonverbal
leakage (or how nonverbal behaviour may reveal real inner states) which has yielded some more positive
and counter-intuitive results. Ekman has suggested that nonverbal behaviour may indeed provide a clue
to real feelings and has explored in some detail people actively involved in deception, where their verbal
language is not a true indication of how they really feel. Ekman here agrees with Sigmund Freud, who was
also convinced of the importance of nonverbal behaviour in spotting deception when he wrote: "He that
has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are
silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore."

Ekman predicted that the feet and legs would probably hold the best clue to deception because although
the face sends out very quick instantaneous messages, people attend to and receive most feedback from
the face and therefore try to control it most. In the case of the feet and legs the "transmission time" is
much longer but we have little feedback from this part of the body. In other words, we are often unaware
of what we are doing with our feet and legs. Ekman suggested that the face is equipped to lie the most
(because we are often aware of our facial expression) and to "leak" the most (because it sends out many
fast momentary messages) and is therefore going to be a very confusing source of information during
deception. The legs and feet would be the primary source of nonverbal leakage and hold the main clue to

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Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

deception. The form the leakage in the legs and feet would take would include "aggressive foot kicks,
flirtatious leg displays, abortive restless flight movements". Clues to deception could be seen in "tense leg
positions, frequent shifts of leg posture, and in restless or repetitive leg and foot movements."

Ekman conducted a series of experiments to test his speculations, some involving psychiatric patients who
were engaging in deception, usually to obtain release from hospital. He made films of interviews involving
the patients and showed these, without sound, to one of two groups of observers. One group viewed only
the face and head, the other group, the body from the neck down. Each observer was given a list of 300
adjectives describing attitudes, emotional state, and so on, and had to say which adjectives best described
the patients. The results indicated quite dramatically that individuals who utilised the face tended to be
misled by the patients, whereas those who concentrated on the lower body were much more likely to
detect the real state of the patients and not be misled by the attempted deception.

These studies thus suggest that some body language may indeed reflect our real feelings, even when we
are trying to disguise them. Most people can, however, manage to control facial expression quite well and
the face often seems to provide little information about real feeling. Paul Ekman has more recently
demonstrated that people can be trained to interpret facial expression more accurately but this, not
surprisingly, is a slow laborious process. Ekman's research, suggests that the feet and legs betray a great
deal about real feelings and attitudes but the research is nowhere near identifying the meanings of
particular foot movements. Ray Birdwhistell of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute has gone
some way towards identifying some of the basic nonverbal elements of the legs and feet, and as a first
approximation has identified 58 separate elements. But the meanings of these particular elements is far
from clear and neither are the rules for combining the elements into larger meaningful units. Perhaps in
years to come we will have a "language" of the feet provided that we can successfully surmount the

problems described earlier in identifying the basic forms of movement following Birdwhistell's pioneering
efforts, of how they may combine into larger units, and in teaching people how they might make sense of
apparently contradictory movements.

In the meantime, if you go to a party and find someone peering intently at your feet - beware.

After reading the passage, the class will form two groups. Each group will sit across the other group. A
representative from each group will ask a question which will be answered by the other group.

Activity 2: (5pts.)

Identify the type of claim used in each statement.

__________ 1. Women are as effective as men in combat.

__________ 2. Public schools are better than public schools.
__________ 3. We should stop sending so much on prisons and start spending more on education.
__________ 4. Science Fiction novels are more interesting to read than romance novels.
__________ 5. Children in low-income families should receive medical insurance from the government.

Answer Key:
1. Claim of Fact
2. Claim of Value
3. Claim of Policy
4. Claim of Value
5. Claim of Policy

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Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

Activity 3: (5 pts.)

Identify the following assertions as statements of convention, fact, opinion, or preference.

1. Social media is defined as the Internet and mobile-based tools and devices that facilitate the integration
of technology, telecommunications, and social interaction.
2. Facebook is a cooler social media platform than Twitter.
3. In 2012, there were 1.4 billion users of social media worldwide.
4. Teachers should use social media in their lessons to get more students interested.
5. Another name for social media is “Web 2.0” because both terms emphasize the social aspects of the
Internet as avenues for communication, collaboration, and creative expression.

Answer Key:
1. Fact
2. Preference
3. Convention
4. Opinion
5. Fact

Activity 4: (5 pts.)
1. Many teenagers’ present obsession with taking selfies shows they are the most narcissistic
generation.

2. Social networks are the most distracting websites on the Internet.

3. In the first quarter of 2014, nearly 300 million smartphone units were sold all over the world.
4. Parents ought to enforce stricter guidelines in social media to safeguard their children’s privacy.
5. Children are learning how to operate mobile devices at increasingly younger ages; many of them have
an idea of how to use a touchscreen tablet before they are two.

Answer Key:
1. Opinion
2. Fact
3. Convention
4. Preference
5. Convention

Identify the type of assertion used in each statement.

1. Most people nowadays would buy a car rather than commute.

2. Filipinos believe that a pregnant woman should wear black as protection against supernatural beings.
3. The Philippines is an archipelago.
4. Many fitness enthusiasts believe that regular exercise promotes good sleep.
5. Ilocanos are known to be helpful because they help support their siblings in education.

Answer Key:
1. Preference
2. Convention
3. Fact
4. Opinion

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 Mary Our Help Technical Institute for Women
Doc. Title: Lesson Plan in Reading and Writing Skills Doc. Code: MOH.INS.BEd.01/02/03/04
Department: Academic Affairs Rev. #: 00 Effectivity Date: June 1, 2015

5. Convention

Activity 5: (5pts.)
1. Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao are three main regions of the Philippines.
2. Filipinos would rather prepare during fiestas and birthdays than have it catered.
3. The elderly believe that their grandchildren can become responsible even if not told to do so.
4. Students believe that they can perform better if they study early in the morning.
5. Roman Catholics genuflect as a way of showing respect to God in the Church.

Answer Key:
1. Fact
2. Preference
3. Opinion
4. Opinion
5. Convention

Quiz 3: (10pts.)

Identify the type of assertion used in each statement.

1. It is better to travel by plane than ship.

2. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
3. To achieve a fit body, nutritionists advice to follow the food pyramid.
4. By the end of 2010, 96% of the U.S. population – or slightly more than 300 million people – owned cell
phones.
5. Bluetooth is a brand name for a wireless networking technology that used shortwave radiofrequency
to connect cell phones, portable computers, and other wireless devices.
6. It is believed that using a broken mirror brings misfortune.
7. When Americans turn 18, they are obliged to leave home and start an independent life.
8. The popularity of dream catchers is believed to save a sleeping person from nightmares.

9. Nowadays, KPop music has been regarded the best music for teenagers.
10. “Pistanthrophobia” is the fear of trusting people due to bad past experiences.

Answer Key:
1. Preference
2. Fact
3. Opinion
4. Convention
5. Fact
6. Opinion
7. Convention
8. Opinion
9. Preference
10. Fact

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