Session 12: Is it Fact or Bluff?

Distinguishing Facts from

Opinion

Learning Insights:

WHAT IS A FACT?

A fact generally refers to something that is true and can be verified as such. That is, a
fact is something that can be proven to be true. 

WHAT IS AN OPINION?

An opinion refers to a personal belief. It relates to how someone feels about something.
Others may agree or disagree with an opinion, but they cannot prove or disprove it. This
is what defines it as opinion.

For higher level reading comprehension, it is essential that students are able to accurately
distinguish between fact and opinion. To do this successfully students must begin with
solid definitions of the two concepts. Once this has been achieved, students must gain
practice applying these definitions through activities that engage with a wide range of
reading material.

Why Are Fact and Opinion So Important?

The ability to distinguish between fact and opinion helps students develop their critical
and analytical skills in both their reading and their listening. Fact and opinion are often
woven together in texts and speeches. It is therefore imperative that students are able to
unravel the threads of what is true from what is mere belief if they are to successfully
navigate the deluge of media they will encounter in their lifetimes.

Whether on the news, in advertising, or a history book, distinguishing between what is

fact and what is opinion is crucial to becoming an autonomous person with the critical
abilities necessary to avoid being manipulated easily.
 Session 11: Is it Fact or Bluff? Distinguishing Facts from
Opinion

Learning Insights:

Sequencing is an essential reading skill that students must develop if they are to fully
understand all reading material. Luckily, sequencing comes naturally to most children as
the concept of chronological order is reinforced from very early on through the practice
of the routines of daily life.

From the very first days of kindergarten, children are taught the importance of doing
things in order. Each daily task contains its own inherent sequence. From tying their
shoelaces to getting ready for school, children pick up an understanding of the
importance of performing tasks step-by-step.

The importance of a defined beginning, middle, and end is further emphasized from the
first fairy tale’s students encounter through to the later classics of English literature.
While it is clear our students have a sense of what sequence is right from the start,
understanding how a sequence comes together, and developing the necessary skills to
identify its component parts.

For our students, being able to identify the sequence of events in a piece of writing is
essential for them to gain a clear understanding of what they are reading. An important
reading comprehension strategy, sequencing allows students to make sense of how
events unfold in their reading. In turn, these reading skills will help students in their own
writing. It will help them to construct a cohesive and logical flow to their writing that
readers can follow easily.

There are a multitude of applications for good sequencing skills outside of the English
classroom too. They are needed to effectively perform the steps of a science experiment
in the correct order, for writing a set of instructions, for making sense of an historical
series of events, and they are an important aspect of problem solving in mathematical
computation.
 Session 10: What’s the Big Picture? Getting the Main
Idea/Theme of the Selection

Learning Insights:

Finding the main idea of a piece of writing can be a challenge, but it is an essential
reading comprehension skill for our students to develop. Students that become skilled in
this art will benefit from it far beyond the perimeters of the school gates. From the small
print of an insurance document to writing a book review, the ability to filter a text and
identify its central idea is as much a crucial life skill as an essential literacy-based
learning objective. Though it isn’t always easy, luckily there is much we can do to help
our students hone their abilities in this area.

WHAT IS ‘THE MAIN IDEA’?

Whether we are talking about the main idea of a paragraph, a poem, a chapter, or a
longer text, finding the main idea requires the reader to identify the topic of a piece of
writing and then uncover what the writer wants us to know about that topic. As is so
often the case, it is best to start small. When working with students on how to identify
the main idea, begin by having students locate the main idea in a sentence before
building up to locating it in a longer paragraph. As students gradually build their
confidence in identifying the main idea in paragraphs, they will soon be ready to move
onto longer texts in the form of chapters and eventually full-length books.

HOW IS A MAIN IDEA EXPRESSED?

It can appear to be a fairly clear-cut task to define the main idea, so why is it often so
problematic for students to identify it? Well, the truth is that it needn’t be so. Often the
central concept is expressed directly in the text and is as easy to identify as your own
face in the mirror. However, the main idea will not always be expressed so explicitly,
and students must learn to identify it whether it is expressed directly or merely implied,
if they are to fully comprehend what they are reading.
 Session 9: Are You Linked? Determining Cause-Effect
Relationship

Learning Insights:

“Everything in life has a cause and an effect. You study for a test you get a good grade.
You forget your umbrella when it rains, you get wet. You break a rule you have a
consequence.”
Identifying cause and effect relationships within a story helps students focus on two
important elements of comprehension: what happens in the story and why it happened.
Looking for cause and effect gives students an opportunity to look carefully at the
consequences of characters' actions and to think about how different actions might have
different effects. Be sure that students understand that a cause is an action or even the
makes something else (the effect) happen. If necessary, review simple cause and effect
relationships such as, "If I knock that glass over (cause), the water will spill (effect)."
It is important for students to know and understand what cause and effect situations are.
They should be able to identify an event that is responsible for the cause that resulted in
an effect.  Identifying these three things can help create analytical thinkers and minds
that can work through complex problems. It will also help students socially; they will
understand and be more willing to accept the consequences for their actions –whether
good or bad. People that are good at identifying cause and effect scenarios and enjoy
finding those connections make great investigators (police, insurance, mechanics) and
researchers (doctors, scientists, historians). Teachers can foster this strategy by giving
students ample opportunity to talk and write about WHY? Children are naturally curious
and always ask WHY – Why did you do that? Why do fish swim? Why is the sky blue?
Why do birds fly?
As teachers, we are the ones that now need to ask WHY? I think it is quite funny that my
favorite questions to ask are WHY questions and my students’ least favorite questions to
answer are WHY questions, even though they LOVE to ask their own WHY questions.
 Session 8: What Feeling LiesWithin? Inferring General
Mood and Tone of the Selection

Learning Insights:

Mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words
and descriptions.  As a literary device, mood is the emotional feeling or atmosphere that
a work of literature produces in a reader.
One good way to see mood (and, to a degree, tone) in action is through genre-crossing
movie trailers. In film editing classes throughout the States, a common assignment is to
take an existing film (say, a comedy) and create a film preview that presents the film as a
different genre (for example, a horror film). This is mainly accomplished through editing
and splicing scenes, adding new, anxiety-producing music and sound effects, and adding
a new voice-over introduction.
Some of the best examples of this are below:

Analyzing Mood
Get a Mood & Tone Analysis paper from the tray in the front of the room or in your
Google Classroom.  You will use the video links below to complete the chart.
Directions:
(1) Choose three of the Movies Indicated and watch the original trailer then the recut
trailer.
(2) Describing the mood and tone - three word minimum, use descriptive words
(NO good, bad, scary, funny)
to describe each trailer.  
(3) Analyzing the evidence - In complete sentences, explain what aspects of the trailer
(word choice and dialogue, music, characterization, scenes) that led you to the
descriptions you used for mood and tone. 
(4) Synthesis - Explain your thinking in complete sentences and give specific
examples from all six trailers.
 Session 7: Noting Significant Details and Textual Evidence
through Close Reading

Learning Insights:
Noting details is important to note the significant details. Because it’s able to you
to understand the story and it’s help you to learn and that’s why it is important to take
note the details. Whenever you are reading a text, you should be constantly noting the
important details. When discussing reading comprehension, think of details as the
individual features, facts or particulars in the text. These details are essential to develop
reading comprehension. For instance, in the popular fairy tale 'Cinderella,' imagine if
you missed the detail of the lost glass slipper. Would Prince Charming asking women to
try on a glass slipper in order to find his true love make any sense without that detail? Of
course not!
Not all reading selections are as simplistic as 'Cinderella,' so you may be
wondering how to find those important specific details in other works. There are many
strategies to use for any type of passage, like underlining key phrases. Typically, for any
length of passage, underlining around two to three important key phrases in each
paragraph will help you later on when trying to find other details. However, knowing
what type of selection you are reading can also help to find specific details.
 Session 6: Employing Vocabulary Instruction for Effective
Word Structure and Meaning Recognition

Learning Insights:

Inference is a "foundational skill" — a prerequisite for higher-order thinking and

21st century skills. Inference skills are used across the curriculum, including English
language arts, science, and social studies. Because inferring requires higher order
thinking skills, it can be difficult for many students. However, it can be taught through
explicit instruction in inferential strategies. Predicting is an important reading strategy. It
allows students to use information from the text, such as titles, headings, pictures, and
diagrams to anticipate what will happen in the story.
Making predictions is also a valuable strategy to improve reading comprehension.
Students can make predictions about a story, based on what they have already heard,
read, or seen. This in turn, will allow students to become actively involved in the reading
process. To determine if their predictions are correct, students should be required to
reread portions of the text to recall facts about the characters or events within the story.
Picture walks can serve as a tool to organize information within a story, which can also
increase a child’s comprehension. During a picture walk, students can activate their prior
knowledge and connect the visual images in the story to their own personal experiences.
Students can also use a graphic organizer to predict the outcome of a story. They
can do this by identifying clues within the text to predict how characters will behave and
how significant problems in the story will be solved. When using a graphic organizer,
students can stay fully engaged in the story as they capture their thoughts in a logical
way. It is important for teachers to encourage children to record clues that either support
or deny their predictions. Teachers can also allow students to revise their predictions to
reflect on the clues that are found within the text. 
Making predictions encourages readers to use critical thinking and problem-
solving skills.  Readers are given the opportunity to reflect and evaluate the text, thus
extracting deeper meaning and comprehension skills. Students will also be more
interested in the reading material when they connect their prior knowledge with the new
information that is being learned. 
 Session 5: Employing Vocabulary Instruction for Effective
Word Structure and Meaning Recognition

Learning Insights:
Vocabulary is the most important skill when learning /teaching a foreign
language. It is on vocabulary that all the other skills like reading, writing, speaking,
and listening are based and developed. This has shown why it is important to learn
new words. Vocabulary helps students express themselves more precisely and
sharpens communication skills it also requires students to cognitive academic
language proficiency. When students learn more of 90-95% of the vocabulary words
helps students to understand what other people are saying and what she/he is reading.
Without a sufficient understanding of words, it’s difficult for students to understand
others or express their ideas. Teaching vocabulary is important across the curriculum
from language arts and social studies to mathematics and science. By learning several
words at the students’ disposal of describing events or emotions, they can be that
explicit when sharing ideas their ideas and opinions.
Session 4: Direct Fluency Instruction for Developing
Independent Readers

Learning Insights:

Fluency means reading faster, smoother, more expressively, or more quietly

with goal of reading silently. Fluent reading approaches the speed of speech.
Beginning readers usually do not read fluently; reading is often a word-by-word
struggle.
How do we help children struggling with slow, painstaking sounding out and
blending? Support and encourage them. Effortful decoding is a necessary step to sight
recognition. "I know reading is tough right now, but this is how you learn new
words." Ask them to reread each sentence that requires unusual decoding effort.

In general, the fluency formula is: Read and reread decodable words in connected
text. Decode unknown words rather than guessing from context. Reread to master
texts. Use text with words children can decode using known correspondences. Use
whole texts to sustain interest.

There are two general approaches to improving fluency. The direct approach involves
modeling and practice with repeated reading under time pressure. The indirect
approach involves encouraging children to read voluntarily in their free time.
Session 3: Teaching Phonics and Word Recognition for
Successful Decoding Skills

Learning Insights:
This part of the session about phonics and word recognition for successful
decoding is highlighted to be used with children with reading disabilities. Information
is provided about the content of effective word-recognition instruction. Guidelines are
included based on this information as well as on 4 other aspects of reading instruction
(i.e., oral language development, print awareness, reading aloud, and independent
wide reading) that are central to any accessible and effective classroom program.
These guidelines will assist educators in selecting programs that enable all children to
be successful in learning to read.

The goals of reading instruction are many, but certainly include that children
will read with confidence, that they will understand what they read, and that they will
find reading a source of knowledge and pleasure. To achieve these goals with all
children, an effective classroom program of beginning reading instruction must
provide children with a wide variety of experiences that relate to several important
aspects of reading.

Some of these experiences focus on meaning. For example, children take part in oral
language activities that concentrate on concept and vocabulary development; children
hear good stories and informational texts read aloud; they read and discuss with other
children what they read, often under the guidance of their teachers.

Other experiences focus on word recognition of printed words as children engage in

print awareness, letter recognition, writing, and spelling activities. Children take part
in phonics lessons and word-recognition strategy instruction. They learn that the
sounds in spoken words relate to the patterns of letters in written words in predictable
and often generalizable ways. As they read books and other print materials, children
learn to combine their knowledge of print and sounds with their knowledge of
language to read with meaning and enjoyment. It is evident that no one aspect of a
beginning program should monopolize instructional time.
Session 2: Raising Learner’s Phonological Awareness as
Foundational Skills to Decoding

Learning Insights:

In this session we understand that developing strong competencies in

phonological awareness is important for all learners, as the awareness of the
sounds in words and syllables is critical to hearing and segmenting the words
students want to spell and blending the sounds in words that students read.
Focusing on phonological awareness is recommended to form a key component
of early childhood education for literacy, starting with syllable, rhyme, and
initial/final sound (alliteration) awareness.

In the early years of primary school, the focus of phonological awareness

includes syllable, rhyme, and alliteration awareness, but has a stronger focus on
phonemic awareness, especially sound blending, segmentation, and manipulation
— as these are the strongest predictors of early decoding success. Phonological
awareness is a key early competency of emergent and proficient reading,
including an explicit awareness of the structure of words, syllables, onset-rime,
and individual phonemes. Together with phonics, phonological awareness (in
particular phonemic awareness) is an essential competency for breaking the code
of written language as per the Four Resources Model for Reading and Viewing.
Session 1: The Nature of Reading

Learning Insights:

From this activity our group learned that reading has numerous benefits
and is the key to a child’s mental and emotional growth. One key benefit of
inculcating the habit of reading is the development of critical thinking skills.
Example of this is reading books increases learner’s knowledge, enhances their
inventiveness, builds their vocabulary and generally makes them a reader.

Far from being a 'passive' skill, reading is, in fact, an active process in
which readers relate information in the text to what they already know.
Knowledge of the language allows readers to identify the printed words and
sentences. Knowledge of the world allows them to comprehend these words and
sentences. Good readers read for meaning. They do not decode each letter or
each word. Instead, they take in chunks of the text and relate it to what they
know.

The learners are the most important factor in learning to read. Whatever
the outcome, it will be determined by what teachers themselves contribute to this
process. Children will learn to read faster and enjoy reading more if they will
adopt some of the 'good reader strategies' that are described in this session.
However, children learn to read in different ways so as a teacher we should
experiment and know with these techniques to see which ones work best for that
child.
 Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
CARAGA Administrative Region
Division of Tandag City
TANDAG CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

LITERACY INSTRUCTION

OUTPUT

GROUP GWAPA

S.Y. 2020 – 2021

Prepared by:

MARY LUCY C. ROSALES, MT-2

GWENDOLYN Q. EBORDE, T-1

MARICON D. SELADES, T-1

JENNIFER S. MONTENEGRO, T-1