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English Grade 9
Quarter 3 Module 1
Reflecting on the Ideas of the Speaker

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I. Reflecting on the Ideas of the Speaker (EN9LC-IIIB-6.3)

This self-learning module was crafted with a simplified arrangement that complicated
concepts to be easier to understand in such a manner that you can work on it independently.

The lessons embedded here are offshoot from the competencies embedded in the prescribed
Most Essential Learning Competencies. Hence, you may use our existing textbook in grade 9, Intro
to Anglo-American Literature English 9. You may also refer to the cited references here or you look
for other learning resources for you to successfully get through each phase of this module.
After going through this module, you are expected to:
1. Review on the guidelines for reflecting;
2. Identify the two main techniques of reflecting; and
3. Reflect on the ideas of the speaker.

Introduction
However good you think your listening skills are, the only person who can tell you if you have
understood correctly or not is the speaker. Therefore, as an extension of good listening skills, you
need to develop the ability to reflect words and feelings and to clarify that you have understood them
correctly.
It is often important that you and the speaker agree that what you understand is a true representation
of what was meant to be said.
As well as understanding and reflecting the verbal messages of the speaker it is important to try to
understand the emotions - this page explains how to use reflection effectively to help you build
greater understanding of not only what is being said but the content, feeling and meaning of
messages.
II. Concept Notes
What is reflecting?

Reflecting is the process of paraphrasing and restating both the feelings and words of the
speaker. The purposes of reflecting are:

●To allow the speaker to 'hear' their own thoughts and to focus on what they say and feel;

●To show the speaker that you are trying to perceive the world as they see it and that you
are doing your best to understand their messages;

●To encourage them to continue talking

Reflecting does not involve asking questions, introducing a new topic, or leading the
conversation in another direction. Speakers are helped through reflecting as it not only allows them
to feel understood, but it also gives them the opportunity to focus their ideas. This in turn helps them
to direct their thoughts and further encourages them to continue speaking.

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Understanding the Process of Reflecting Through Its Two (2) Main Techniques:

1. Mirroring

Mirroring is a simple form of reflecting and involves repeating almost exactly what the speaker says.

Mirroring should be short and simple. It is usually enough to just repeat key words or the last few
words spoken. This shows you are trying to understand the speaker’s terms of reference and acts
as a prompt for him or her to continue. Be aware not to over mirror as this can become irritating and
therefore a distraction from the message.

2. Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing involves using other words to reflect what the speaker has said. Paraphrasing shows
not only that you are listening, but that you are attempting to understand what the speaker is saying.

It is often the case that people 'hear what they expect to hear' due to assumptions, stereotyping or
prejudices. When paraphrasing, it is of utmost importance that you do not introduce your own ideas
or question the speaker’s thoughts, feelings or actions. Your responses should be non-directive
and non-judgemental.

Reflecting needs to combine content and feeling to truly reflect the meaning of what the speaker
has said. For example:

Speaker:

“I just don't understand my boss. One minute he says one thing and the next minute he says the
opposite.”

Listener:

“You feel very confused by him?”

Reflecting meaning allows the listener to reflect the speaker's experiences and emotional response
to those experiences. It links the content and feeling components of what the speaker has said.

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 I. Learning Tasks
Learning Tasks I. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Instructions: Read and reflect on the ideas of the speaker found in the speech of Martin Luther
King Jr. during his fight for social justice using Mirroring Technique.
Listen to the link: I Have a Dream (1963), Martin Luther King, Jr.
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down
in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in
the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose
symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree
came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves,
who had been seared in the flames of withering
injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long
night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the
colored America is still not free. One hundred years
later, the life of the colored American is still sadly
crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains
of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the colored American lives on
a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the
colored American is still languishing in the corners of
American society and finds himself an exile in his own
land So we have come here today to dramatize a
shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our Nation’s Capital to cash
a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote
the magnificent words of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall
heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men
as well as white men, would be guaranteed the
inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this
promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are
concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
America has given its colored people a bad check, a
check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is
bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient
funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So
we have come to cash this check, a check that will give
us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of
justice.
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We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind
America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time
to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.
Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley
of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of
racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God’s
children.
I would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of
the moment and to underestimate the determination of
its colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the
colored people’s legitimate discontent will not pass until
there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning.
Those who hope that the colored Americans needed to
blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude
awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until
the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The
whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice
emerges.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy
with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the
motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person’s
basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are
stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by
signs stating “for white only.”
We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in
Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New
York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here
out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have
come from areas where your quest for freedom left you
battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by
the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering
is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to
South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our
modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can
and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you,
my friends, we have the difficulties of today and
tomorrow.
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and
live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of
Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at
the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom
and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color
of their skin but by their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its
vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping
with the words of interposition and nullification; that one
day right down in Alabama little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and
white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be
engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain
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shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains
and the crooked places will be made straight and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see
it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to
the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out
of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to
climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be
free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be
able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my
fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every
mountainside, let freedom ring!”
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become
true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New
Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains
of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of
Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of
California.
But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain
of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of
Mississippi and every mountainside.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every
tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every
city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of
God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, “Free at
last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at
last.”
Process Questions:

1. How do you contribute to an equitable, respectful and just society for everyone?
2. Do you have any idea how it feels to be an exile in your own land?
3. Can you imagine what could possibly happen if their efforts for change would generate physical
violence in the process?
4. How can you make justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream?
5. Have you been mistakenly judged before because of your physical appearance?
6. Can you say you are free? How does it feel to be free?

Learning Tasks II. In his Shoes

Instructions: Read the speech once again. Determine the tone, mood, technique and purpose of the
author.

Learning Task III. I have a Dream

Instructions: Fill out the graphic organizer below to enable you to journey through your own
dreams and aspirations in life.
Things to ponder… Through significant experiences…
1. What is your dream for you?
2. What is your dream for your school?
3.What is your dream for your community?

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 II. Reflection: Sharing What I Have Learned!
Instructions: Give your reflection upon taking this self-paced module by completing the
sentence prompt below.

Upon reading this self-paced module, the following are the things that I have learned:

1. _________________________________________.
2. _________________________________________.
3. _________________________________________.

III. References
https://www.slideshare.net/arethgimena/grade-9-english-module-43169431
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/reflecting.html#:~:text=Reflecting%20meaning%20allow
s%20the%20listener,is%20Empathy%3F%20and%20Understanding%20Others.&text=Be%
20natural.
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk026xqyt8BW3AQjk1Sv6nEk9BHGisg:160816
4361227&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=paraphrasing+graphic+organizer&safe=active&sa=X&
ved=2ahUKEwjGyvaL39PtAhUBEqYKHWKiBU0QjJkEegQIAhAB&biw=1365&bih=533
https://www.enotes.com/topics/have-dream-speech/teaching-guide/key-points-
speech#:~:text=Unkept%20Promises%3A%20Martin%20Luther%20King,Lincoln%20deliver
ed%20the%20Emancipation%20Proclamation.
http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-analysis-dream-martin-luther-king
https://genius.com/Martin-luther-king-jr-i-have-a-dream-annotated
https://genius.com/Martin-luther-king-jr-i-have-a-dream-speech-rhetorical-analysis-
annotated
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htmI
https://www.slideshare.net/arethgimena/grade-9-english-module-43169431
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/reflecting.html#:~:text=Reflecting%20meaning%20allow
s%20the%20listener
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htmhttps://www.google.com/s
earch?sxsrf=ALeKk026xqyt8BW3AQjk1Sv6nEk9BHGisg:1608164361227&source=univ&tb
m=isch&q=paraphrasing
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk026xqyt8BW3AQjk1Sv6nEk9BHGisg:160816
4361227&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=paraphrasing
https://www.enotes.com/topics/have-dream-speech/teaching-guide/key-points-speech
https://www.enotes.com/topics/have-dream-speech/teaching-guide/key-points-
speech#:~:text=Unkept%20Promises%3A%20Martin%20Luther%20King
https://www.laprogressive.com/bernie-promise-of-democracy/

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 4
Guidelines for Reflecting
Be natural.
Listen for the basic message - consider the
content, feeling and meaning expressed by
the speaker.
Restate what you have been told in simple
terms.
When restating, look for non-verbal as well
as verbal cues that confirm or deny the
accuracy of your paraphrasing. (Note that
some speakers may pretend you have got it
right because they feel unable to assert
themselves and disagree with you.)
Do not question the speaker unnecessarily.
Do not add to the speaker's meaning.
Do not take the speaker's topic in a new
direction.
Always be non-directive and non-
judgmental.
Edited by: Anicee H. Tauro
Compiled by: Liahona F. Lee
Key Points of the Speech
Unkept Promises: Martin Luther King, Jr.,
begins “I Have a Dream” with a discussion
of American history. He points out the
significance of the place and time of the
protest: the Lincoln Memorial, one century
after Lincoln delivered the Emancipation
Proclamation. King notes the enormous
progress set into motion by Lincoln’s
proclamation, but states that one hundred
years later, black Americans are still not
free of segregation, discrimination, and
poverty. The country’s founding
documents promise all Americans the right
to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness,” but for black Americans this
promise has proven to be a “bad check.”
By King’s account, civil rights activists
refuse to believe that equality and justice
are limited resources, and so have come to
cash that check regardless.
For Learning Tasks:
Answers may vary.
Answer Key IV.