English - Grade 11

First Quarter English - Reading

and Writing
Lesson 1

The Reading Process

✽ The Strategic Reading Technique (SRT)

○ It is a series of steps that you are recommended to take in order to fully
understand a given text based on its content, context, and possible relation
with your own set of experiences.

○ This will help you note important details and identify portions that are clear
and need further clarity

○ This will teach you how to skim and scan texts.

○ It will help you make connections using existing knowledge and create
knowledge and build upon already existing ones.
✽ The SRT will require you to do the following:
○ Preview - Skim and scan the document to get the initial idea about the
document. Focus on the key elements of the text to allow you to form a
preliminary understanding of what you are reading.

○ Click and Clunk - Start reading the document in full. Identify those portions
that immediately made sense and those that are difficult to understand.

○ Get the Gist - Summarize the portions you’ve understood (clicks and
clunks). Base your summary on the author’s words, but rely on your words
most of all.

○ Wrap-Up - Summarize the article on your own using as few words as

possible.

✽ Applying the Strategic Reading Technique

○ Specify portions of the text that allow you to successfully skin and scan the
text.

○ What portions did you not use? Why?

○ Look at the passages that clicked. What made them click? Do you see a
pattern? If so, what do you think?

○ Look at the passages that clunked. What made them difficult to

understand? Do you see a pattern? If so, what do you think?

○ How did you use the clinked passages to understand the clunked
passages? Was this effective? What else could you have done?

○ What did you do to get the gist? Was this easy or difficult? What could you
have done to make this easier?

○ Was the gist you created accurate? How do they compare with the gists
that the others created? What gaps can you identify? How can you bridge
those gaps?

○ What did you use to summarize the text? How did your summary compare
with the others?
✽ The Reading Circles
○ Discussion Leader - Facilitate the discussion by making sure that ALL the
other members get to speak and understand what is being discussed.
Make sure discussion focuses on the key topic.

○ Passage Picker - Select passages in the text that are important and should
be discussed more heavily than the rest of the text. Make sure to
explain/defend why this passage is noteworthy.

○ Word Wizard - Identify the unfamiliar words and look up their definitions.

○ Link Maker - Identify portions of the text that can be linked to other related
events (current news events, personal events, etc.).

○ Investigator - Do a quick research on the background of the text, enough to

give the group a better grasp of the text's context.

○ Summarizer - Take down notes during the discussion in order to

summarize the discussion. Summarizer should be prepared to give a report
to the rest of the class if need be.

Writing Styles

■ used in almost every longer piece of writing, whether

fiction or nonfiction
■ constructs and communicates a story, complete with
characters, conflict, and settings
■ expands upon the descriptive writing style and tells an
NARRATIVE entire story with a beginning, middle and end
■ follows a clear storyline and plot, such as a fictional
novel, screenplay or memoir
■ Writers who use a narrative writing style often use literary
 tools like foreshadowing and flashbacks in their writing.

■ Examples of Narrative Writing are Oral histories,

Novels/Novellas, Poetry (especially epic sagas or poems),
Short Stories and Anecdotes.

■ found in fiction, though it can make an appearance in

nonfiction as well (for example, memoirs, first-hand
accounts of events, or travel guides)
■ immerses the reader into a story by creating or painting
a vivid picture of characters, settings and events in their
mind
■ often uses literary tools like similes and metaphors in
DESCRIPTIVE
their writing
■ The purpose of the descriptive writing style is to make the
reader feel like they are experiencing the events for
themselves.
■ Examples of Descriptive Writing are Poetry, Journal/diary
writing, Descriptions of Nature, Fictional novels or plays,
biographies and autobiographies.

■ convinces the audience of a position or belief

■ contains the author’s opinions and biases, as well as
justifications and reasons given by the author as
evidence of the correctness of their position
■ Any “argumentative” essay you write in school
PERSUASIVE (academic papers) should be in the persuasive style of
writing.
■ Examples of Persuasive Writing are Cover letters, Op-Eds
and Editorial newspaper articles, Reviews of items,
Letters of complaint, Advertisements, and Letters of
recommendation.

■ explain a concept, imparting information from

themselves to a wider audience
EXPOSITORY ■ does not include the author’s opinions, but focuses on
accepted facts about a topic, including statistics or
 other evidence
■ The writer needs to separate their opinion from the facts
they are sharing.
■ Examples of Expository Writing are Textbooks, How-to
articles, Recipes, News stories (not editorials or Op-Eds),
Business, technical, or scientific writing.

■ simply relaying facts to your audience; provides facts

and figures or explains how a process is completed,
INFORMATIVE typically presented in a logical order or sequence
■ instructs the reader and is often used in recipes,
directions and other texts used to inform