21stCentury Literature of

the Philippines and the World

Activity Sheet
Quarter 2 – MELC 1
Writing a Close Analysis and Critical
Interpretation of Literary Texts

REGION VI – WESTERN VISAYAS

 Quarter 2, Week 1

Learning Activity Sheet (LAS) No.1

Name of Learner: _____________________ Grade and Section:

__________________
Date: _______________________________

21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

ACTIVITY SHEET

Writing a Close Analysis and Critical Interpretation of Literary Texts

I. Learning Competency
Writing a close analysis and critical interpretation of literary texts, applying a
reading approach, and doing an adaptation of these require from the learner
the ability to identify: representative texts and authors from Asia, North America,
and Europe.

II. Background Information for Learners

Reading is a widely used approach to enhance reading comprehension. For

the students to be able to engage in the reading of complex texts, close reading is
important. Close reading is a method of analyzing literary works which gives focus on
the particular details of a passage or text in order to have a precise and deep
understanding of the text; its form, meaning and even the author’s style of writing.

Assessments about writing a close analysis and critical interpretation of

literary texts from representative texts and authors from Asia, North America and
Europe will be
the coverage in this Learning Activity Sheet.

Critical analysis is a careful examination and evaluation of a text, image, or

other work or performance while Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text
works; it is both a reading process and something you include in a literary analysis
paper, though in a refined form. Fiction writers and poets build texts out of many central
components, including subject, form, and specific word choices. Literary analysis
involves examining these components, which allows us to find in small parts of the text
clues to help us understand the whole. Close reading is a process of finding as much
information as you can in order to form as many questions as you can.

Here are the steps to do the close analysis and critical interpretation of
literary text.
Step 1: Read the passage. Take notes as you read.
Step 2: Analyze the passage
Step 3: Develop a descriptive thesis
Step 4: Construct an argument about the passage
Step 5: Develop an outline based on your thesis.
 Now that you have learned the steps on how to analyze the texts, you are
going to write a close analysis and interpretation of a literary text from the continents
of Asia, North America, and Europe. Look at the table below and see the
representative texts and authors from these continents.

21st Century Representative Texts and Authors

Continent Title of Texts Authors Nationality/Country

of Origin
A. Asia
Three Sisters Bi Feiyu Chinese
I Do Eileen Tabios Filipino
Serious Men Manu Joseph Indian
The Changeling Kenzaburō Ōe Japanese
The Thing About Tabish Khair Indian
Thugs
B.North America
It Is Important To Be Joshua Jennifer California, USA
Something Espinoza
Twin Study Stacey Richter Arizona, USA
The Bully Roger Dean California, USA
Kiser
Mango Poem Regie Cabico Filipino-
American/New
York City, USA
This is America Donald Glober African-American/
Georgia, USA
A Gentle Hell Autumn Christian California, USA
C. Europe
Machines Like Me Ian Russell Aldershot, England
McEwan

Changing My Mind Zadie Smith, London, England

(Sadie Smith)
Cloud Atlas David Stephen Worcestershire,
Mitchell England
The History Boys Allan Bennet Yorkshire, England
Harry Potter Series Joanne England
Kathleen
Rowling
III. Accompanying DepEd Textbook and Educational Sites

A. (The Writing Center- University of Wisconsin – Madison- A SHORT GUIDE TO

CLOSE READING FOR LITERARY ANALYSIS)
/“https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/closereading/
B. Richard Nordquist- CRITICAL ANALYSIS IN COMPOSITION-
HTTPS://WWW.THOUGHTCO.COM/WHAT-IS-CRITICAL-ANALYSIS-
COMPOSITION-1689810
C. MINNPOST - HTTPS://WWW.MINNPOST.COM/BOOKS/2011/02/FIVE-
ASIAN-AUTHORS-YOU-SHOULD-KNOW-MAN-ASIAN-LITERARY-PRIZE-
SHORTLIST/
D. (Poetry Foundation -https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53813/i-do)
E. https://21stcenturylitph.wordpress.com/2018/05/25/literature-from-north-
america/
F. https://poets.org/poet/joshua-jennifer-espinoza
G. https://www.biography.com/actor/donald-
glover#:~:text=Donald%20McKinley%20Glover%20was%20born,20%20miles
%20northeast%20of%20Atlant
H. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5409576.Autumn_Christian
I. https://www.britannica.com/
J. Victoria State Government Education and Training-
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline
/english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/teachingpracclose.aspx

IV. Activity Proper

Exercise 1
Instructions: Write a close analysis and critical interpretation of the poem after
reading the text written by the 21 st Century Filipino writer, Eileen R.Tabios. Consider
the given guide below to express your answers in paragraph form. Do it on your
answer sheet.
1. Title of the poem under analysis
2. Author of the poem
3. Purpose or topic statement (Thesis statement that indicates your
reaction to
the poem)
4. Summary or brief description of the poem that you are analyzing
critically.
5. Make your evaluation or/and interpretation of the poem. Consider the
guiding questions below to determine craft and structure of the text.
 • How is the information organized (e.g. time topic, cause/effect, compare/contrast, persuasion)

• What genre does the selection represent?

• Whose voice did the author choose as narrator?
• From what point of view/perspective is this written?
• What language is used—technical, dialect, variant spellings, archaic words, etc.?
• What are the style, mood, and tone?
• What word choice, imagery and figures of speech (e.g. simile, metaphor, alliteration, irony,
repetition,
personification, etc.) does the author use?

I Do

By Eileen R. Tabios

“I do not know English”—from “I Do Not” by Michael Palmer

“Marunong akong mag-ingles” (I do know English) —any 21st-century Filipino poet

I do know English.

I do know English for I have something to say about this latest peace stirring between a crack that’s
split a sidewalk traversing a dusty border melting at noon beneath an impassive sun.

I do know English and, therefore, when hungry, can ask for more than minimum wage, pointing
repeatedly at my mouth and yours.

Such a gesture can only mean what it means: I do not want to remain hungry and I am looking at your
mouth.

I do know English and still will not ask permission.

I shall call you “Master” with a lack of irony; lift my cotton blouse; cup my breasts to offer them to your
eyes, your lips, your tongue; keen at the moon hiding at 11 a.m. to surface left tendon on my neck. For
your teeth. And so on.

No need to decipher your response—and if you wish, go ahead: spank me.

I do know English. Therefore, I can explain this painting of a fractured grid as the persistent flux of our
“selves” as time unfolds.

There is a way to speak of our past or hopes for the future, the hot-air balloon woven from a rainbow’s
fragments now floating over St. Helena; your glasses I nearly broke when, afterwards, you flung me to
the floor as violence is extreme and we demand the extreme from each other; your three moans in a
San Francisco hallway after I fell to my knees; your silence in New York as I knocked on your door.
There is a way to articulate your silence—a limousine running over a child on the streets of Manila and
Shanghai. And Dubai.

There is a way to joke about full-haired actors running for President and the birth of a new American
portrait: “Tight as a Florida election.”

I do know English and so cannot comprehend why you write me no letters even as you unfailingly read
mine.

Those where I write of the existence of a parallel universe to create a haven when your silence persists
in this world I was forced to inherit.

This does not mean, I cannot differentiate between a reflection and a shadow, a threnody and a hiccup,
the untrimmed bougainvillea bush mimicking a fire and the lawn lit by a burning cross.
I can prove Love exists by measuring increased blood flow to the brain’s anterior cingulated cortex, the
middle insula, the putamen and the caudate nucleus.

Nor is “putamen” a pasta unless I confirm to you that my weak eyesight misread “puttanesca” as the
crimson moon began to rise, paling as it ascends for fate often exacts a price.

I can see an almond eye peer behind the fracture on a screen and know it is not you from the wafting
scent of crushed encomiums.

I can remind you of the rose petals I mailed to you after releasing them from the padded cell between
my thighs.

I slipped the petals inside a cream envelope embossed in gold with the seal of a midtown Manhattan
hotel whose façade resembles a seven-layered wedding cake. Which we shall share only through the
happiness of others. Which does not cancel Hope.

I can recite all of your poems as I memorized them through concept as well as sound.

I speak of a country disappearing and the impossibility of its replacement except within the tobacco-
scented clench of your embrace.

I can tell you I am weary of games, though they continue. Manila’s streets are suffused with protesters
clamoring for an adulterer’s impeachment. Their t-shirts are white to symbolize their demand for “purity.”
Space contains all forms, which means it lack geometry. My lucid tongue has tasted the dust from
monuments crumbling simply because seasons change.

Because I do know English, I have been variously called Miss Slanted Vagina, The Mail Order Bride,
The
One With The Shoe Fetish, The Squat Brunette Who Wears A Plaid Blazer Over A Polka-Dot Blouse,
The Maid.

When I hear someone declare war while observing a yacht race in San Diego, I understand how
“currency” becomes “debased.”

They have named it The Tension Between The Popular Vote And The Electoral College.

I do know English.

(Poetry Foundation -https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53813/i-do)

RUBRIC FOR WRITING COMPOSITION

Performance Areas Very Good
10-8
Content Article has specific
central idea that is
clearly stated in the
opening paragraph,
appropriate, concrete
details
Organization Article is logically
organized and well-
structured
Style Writing is smooth,
coherent and
consistent
Mechanics Written work has no
errors in word
selection and use
sentence structure,
spelling, punctuation,
and capitalization
Good Needs Improvement
7-5 4-1
Central idea is vague; Unable to find specific
non-supportive to the supporting details
topic; lacks focus
Writing somewhat Central point and flow
digresses from the of article is lost; lacks
central idea organization and
continuity
Sentences are varied Lacks creativity and
and inconsistent with focus. Unrelated word
central idea choice to central idea
understanding of
information in text
Written work is Written article has
relatively free of several errors in word
errors in word selection and use.
selection and use, indiscriminately
sentence structure, selected phrases or
spelling, punctuation sentences.
and capitalization
(some have errors)
Remember
Critical analysis is a careful examination and evaluation of a text, image, or other
work or performance. Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both
a reading process and something you include in a literary analysis paper, though in a
refined form.
To do the analysis, you consider the following steps: First, read the passage and
take notes as you read; then, analyze the passage; next, develop a descriptive thesis; after
that, construct an argument about the passage; and finally, develop an outline based on
your thesis.

V. Reflection

1. What significant insights have you learned from the exercise above?
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2. How will you apply these insights in your reading habit?

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VI. Answer Key

Activity 1(Answers may vary)