Reading

and
Writing
( Interconnectedness)
 Critical vs.
Non-critical Thinking
What does the puzzle tell us?
Meaning making

READING AND
WRITING

CRITICAL
THINKING
 Non-critical Thinking

• It happens when you simply accept the things

you are told without examining them.
• It also happens when you construct thoughts
based on emotions.
• It leads people to jump to conclusions without
proof or evidence.
 Critical Thinking

• It involves a series of complex thought

processes which allows you to make
reasoned judgments, assess the way you
think, and solve problems effectively.
 Qualities of a Critical Thinker
• A critical thinker is inquisitive.
• He/She recognizes facts from opinions.
• He/She avoids biases and fallacies.
• He/She does not necessarily mean looking for faults.
• He/She must be open-minded to different ideas.
• He/She does not pretend to know more than what he/she actually
knows.
• He/She investigates and digs deeper.
• He/She does not accept information until it is verified.
• He/She does not let her irrational emotions affect his/her thinking.
 Importance of Critical Thinking
• In reading, critical thinking makes you recognize different texts and
react to them intelligently.
• It helps you analyze written works, comprehend the message they
convey, and apply the message in real life.
• It allows you to maximize the learning experience that reading
provides.
• It leads to a better understanding and enjoyment of the text.
• In terms of writing, by knowing how to analyze and evaluate, you
can write with clear purpose and position.
• You can distinguish good and bad sources and know which
information to use.
BASIC READING SKILLS
 1. Rapid Reading-aims to locate specific information or
main ideas in a very short span of time. Examples of this
includes skimming and scanning, which are both pre-
reading skills.
a. Skimming- is getting the main idea of the paragraph. It is a type of
quick reading which aims to get the main idea and to get an
overview of the material. It is usually done when reading
newspapers, magazines, books, and letters.
i. Use your finger as a guide when reading across the line.
ii. Focus more on the first and last sentence of each paragraph; they
usually contain the main idea of the text.
 Of all love stories, the love story of Antony and
Cleopatra has been for nineteen centuries the most
remarkable. It has tasked the resources of the plastic and the
graphic arts. It has been made the theme of poets and prose
narrators. It has appeared and reappeared in a thousand
forms, and it appeals as much to the imagination today as it
did when Antony deserted his almost victorious troops and
hastened in a swift galley from Actium in pursuit of
Cleopatra.

-Lyndonn Orr, Famous Affinities of History: Volume I (The Romance of Devotion)

b. Locating the main idea- it involves the identification of the
central message of a reading selection. The main idea is usually
found in either or both the first and last sentences of the
paragraph, but it may also appear in the middle or may simply be
implied and not explicitly stated in the text.

Levels of Ideas in a Directly support the

Paragraph main idea
MAIN IDEA

Major Details
Directly support the
Minor Details major detail
Below are some techniques in locating the main idea.

i. Identify the topic or the subject of a text.

ii. Take note of transitional devices such as thus, therefore,
to conclude, and to sum up, as they signal the main idea.
iii.Validate your identified main idea by analyzing if all
supporting details directly or indirectly support it.
 Tagaytay is an enthralling city of south because of its
stunning landscape, hospitable people, and delicious foods. The
city has a magnificent landscape that never fails to capture the
awe of the visitors. One major tourist spot that exudes the
beauty of Tagaytay is Taal Volcano, the smallest volcano in the
world. The lake which surrounds it is another attraction that
cannot be missed. The city is also characterized by warmth of
its people, the Caviteños. They bring with them their smiles as
they welcome both local and foreign visitors. Aside from these,
Tagaytay is also known for its sumptuous native foods. Tourists
who drop by the city make it a point to try Tagaytay’s famous
bulalo and other delicacies.
 Are you tired of being an employee? Do you want to have a
more flexible time instead of an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job? Do you want
to practice your business acumen? If your answer to these
questions is yes, then it is time for you to start your small business.
The first thing that you have to do is to search and define your
target market. After that, you have to come up with a business plan.
It does not need to be an elaborate and formal plan: you just have
to include the essential information such as your vision and
mission, marketing strategies, financial capital, and forecasted
income and expenses. Acquire necessary financial, technical, and
human resource capital and assemble your team. Once you have all
these, register your business and set up your accounting system,
and then, execute your marketing plan.
c. Scanning
Check the following information and look for the grade of
Brutus. Do it as quickly as you can.
Name Grade
Julius Caesar 90.5
Anthony 96
Pontius 100
Sophocles 76
Brutus 88
Archimedes 96
Aristotle 86

Scanning is a quick reading strategy which aims to get specific

information from a given text.
 Scanning is useful in locating the specific name of a
board passer, looking for an old email in your inbox, or
checking specific information in graph. Develop this skill
further by applying the following tips:

i. Be clear with the information that you need. Check if you

are looking for a date, figure, person, or event, then focus
on that specific information.
ii. Avoid reading every word; focus on what you need.
iii. Relax your eyes as you move them across the lines
rapidly.
2. Previewing-is a skill wherein a reader looks over a
material and focuses on the information he/she finds
relevant. Previewing also allows readers to set
purpose and link the content of the material to their
background knowledge. It involves clarifying the
purpose, reading the title and headings, and checking
the illustration and other visuals. Browsing, or
inspecting unhurriedly the table of contents,
introduction, or summary is also a previewing
technique.
3. Literal Reading-involves the understanding of
ideas and facts that are directly stated in the printed
material. It is done in post-reading stage.
a. Summarizing- is able to get the essence of the text and still retain
the same information.
• condensing a lengthy text into a shorter passage
• usually, 15-30 percent of the original material
• thesis statement or topic sentence must be included in the
summary
• major details may be mentioned
• citation of original source is necessary
The following are some strategies in summarizing.

i. Annotate, i.e., add notes to the original text to highlights

important ideas, but avoid putting your own comments.
ii. If you are summarizing a text with multiple paragraphs, get the
main idea of each paragraph and write them in your own words.
Combine them into a coherent article using transitional devices.
iii. Ensure accuracy by comparing your summary to the original text.
 In 1980, Michael Canale and Merill Swain published their
seminal work titled “Theoretical Based of Communicative
Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing” where
they proposed a framework for communicative competence. Their
paper discusses three components of communicative competence:
grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence.
Grammatical Competence refers to the knowledge about the rules
and mechanics of a language. Sociolinguistic knowledge includes
the individual’s understanding of social relations and how it is used
to communicate appropriately. Strategic competence covers the
way in which the speaker improvises and overcomes
communication problem.
b. Paraphrasing- is the restating of ideas from the
original text.
• the length of a paraphrased text is almost similar to
the length of the original text because it focuses on
the details and not on the main idea.
• it preserves the tone of the original text
• it borrows ideas without quoting directly
The following are some strategies for effective
paraphrasing.
i. Do not change the original thought of the text;
change the way it is stated.
ii. Do not confuse it with a summary. Focus on
details, not on the main idea alone
iii. Ensure accuracy by comparing the original and
the paraphrased texts.
 According to Conway and Clark in their article “The Journey
Inward and Outward: A Re-Examination of Fuller’s Concerns-
Based Model of Teacher Development,” teachers undergo three
stages in their professional life (2003). In the first stage, teachers
desire to project an ideal image and be liked by their students. In
the next stage, they are more concerned with classroom control and
management. Both of these stages cover a large part of teacher’s
professional life. By the third stage, teachers develop the needed
confidence to sacrifice classroom popularity and focus more on
improving student’s learning outcomes. Teachers at this stage are
able to formulate their own teaching philosophies and strategies.
This article indicates that teachers may have different teaching
principles, beliefs, and strategies based on the stage they are in.
4. Inferential Reading- refers to the process of
deducing facts and ideas not directly expressed in the
text. It is applied during the while-reading stage.

- “reading between the lines”

- it includes making generalizations, inferences, and
conclusions
- drawing an idea from facts or details in the text.
- prior knowledge, experiences, and personal beliefs
are also used as bases in making an inference.
Read the paragraph. Based on the details, say why the
girl was acting the way she did.

The girl returned home from her friend’s party.

She carefully opened the door of their house to avoid
making any sound. It was dark inside, but she did not
turn on any of the lights. She wearily checked if
anyone was up. Satisfied that everyone was asleep, she
slowly tiptoed to her room and silently opened her
door so as not to wake her parents.
5. Critical Reading- refers to the close and
thorough evaluation of the claims in the text in
terms of relevance, validity, and logic. This
skill includes distinguishing facts from
opinions and detecting logical fallacies. It
happens in the while-reading stage.
TYPES OF READING
(according to purpose)
Ryan reads a long text to improve his
reading comprehension skills.

DEVELOPMENTAL READING
It is a systematic instructional which
aims to develop the students’ reading
skills.
 Karen reads her favorite book, The
Lucky One, to relax after a long day.

PLEASURE READING
It is a more passive type of reading that
primarily aims to provide enjoyment
and entertainment.
 Felipe reads a college application
form to understand how to fill it out.

FUNCTIONAL READING
It is designed to help students to learn
basic functional reading ability.
Francis reads a pronunciation chart
with his teacher to help him correct
his pronunciation of dipthongs.

REMEDIAL READING
It aims to correct the effects of poor
teaching and poor learning.
 PATTERN OF
DEVELOPMENT
(text patterns)
 PATTERN DEVELOPMENT is the arrangement
of ideas in the text.
 DEFINITION
• It develops ideas through answering the question
“What does it mean?”
• It uses illustrations, examples, and descriptions to
explain the information.
• It may also use one or more different patterns.
• In reading definition text, take note of the term to
be defined and the detailed explanation of the term.
• You may also use spider map to better understand a
definition text.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR DEFINITION

is defined as means to define

as defined refers to to illustrate

Sample Definition Text:
Social engineering is defined as any
method which tricks people to share
personal information through the use of
technology. The ‘social’ component in this
scheme means that there is reliance on
various psychological tricks and on the
gullibility of users rather than technical
hacking. Social engineering also refers to
various malicious acts online, such as
 EXEMPLIFICATION
• It presents the general statement and then provides
specific and concrete examples to expound on main
idea.
• In reading an exemplification text, pay attention to
the main idea and the specific examples.
• You can use spider map to better understand an
exemplification text.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR EXEMPLIFICATION

after all for instance namely to be specific

as an example in other words put another way to clarify

consider the
in particular specifically that is
following

for example in short stated differently to illustrate

Sample Exemplification Text:
While the internet offers so many
benefits to man, it also has its downsides.
One of these is phishing, which refers to
the act of obtaining personal information,
such as passwords and credit card details,
through online means. In other words,
phishing is a form of cybercrime. As an
example, let us consider the case of Mr. X.
He received an email stating that his Gmail
account has been compromised and that
 DESCRIPTION (Sensory and Spatial)
• It provides details on idea y using either a sensory or spatial
pattern.
• Through sensory pattern, ideas are arranged based on one or all
of the five senses.
• In spatial pattern, ideas are arranged by location or physical
space.
• The most important elements of this pattern are the types of
description used (i.e., evocative or informational; spatial or
sensory), the clustering of details and the progression of
description.
• A concept map can be used to understand descriptive texts.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR SPATIAL PATERN OR VISUAL
DESCRIPTION
above around between in front of onto

across away from beyond inside outside

adjacent back of by Into over

against behind down near throughout

alongside below farther off opposite

along beneath here on to the right

amidst beside In on top of under

Sample Descriptive Text:
A laptop is one of the greatest inventions of the
modern era. It is a lightweight device that can save a vast
amount of information. The screen, touchpad, speakers,
keyboard, battery, and AC adapter are the basic parts of
a laptop. The most noticeable part of a laptop is its
screen, which is responsible for displaying information.
Another major component is the keyboard. On it are the
keys needed to enter data in the computer. Near the
keyboard, you will find a smooth, rectangular surface
which acts like a desktop computer mouse– this is the
touchpad. At the bottom part of this rectangular surface,
you see buttons that operate like a mouse button. Below
the keyboard and touchpad, built into the laptop itself are
 CHRONOLOGY/PROCEDURE
• It organizes ideas or events according to time.
• It can be in the form of a narration or process.
• A narration arranges the events in the order in which they
occurred in time, while a process organizes details based on
stage or steps.
• The most essential parts of this pattern are the main idea,
major dates and events such as the final outcome, major
steps/stages, and of course, the order of presentation.
• You can use timelime, chain of events, or cycle to better
comprehend a text that follows a chronological or procedural
pattern.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR CHRONOLOGY

In the
About Before Prior to Tomorrow
meantime
After During Later Second Until

Afterwards Eventually Meanwhile Soon When

As soon as Finally Next Then yesterday

At this point/
First Next week Till
that point

At immediately Presently Today

Sample Chronological Text:
Ondoy began to develop from an active low
pressure area to a tropical cyclone on
September 4, 2009. The following day, PAGASA
raised storm signals all over the Philippine
archipelago. At that point, signal no. 2 was
raised in Catanduanes and other parts of Luzon.
By Saturday morning, reports of flooding
started to pour in. Meanwhile, President Arroyo
declared a state of calamity in Metro Manila.
Immediately after President Arroyo’s
declaration, various government agencies
Sample Procedural Text:

During flooding, one thing that may

probably save your life is an improvised
flotation device. You can make one
using your pants. First, knot off the leg
holes of your pants. Then, hold the
open waist and swing the pants around
to fill the legs with air. Promptly knot off
the waist to trap the air and hold the
pants underwater so that the air would
 Comparison-contrast
• It organizes ideas based on how events, places, people,
things, and concepts are similar to or different to one
another.
• There are two ways on how ideas can be arranges:
separately, which involves describing one item first
followed by the second item; or side-by-side, which
means discussing both items based on each point of
comparison.
• Try to use Venn Diagram or a compare/contrast matrix
to better understand this pattern of development.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR COMPARING

Also Equally In the same way Similarly

As In a similar fashion Like To compare
Both In comparison likewise
SIGNAL WORDS FOR CONTRASTING
Although Despite Instead Otherwise
And yet Even so However Still
As opposed to Even though Nevertheless The fact remains
But In contrast Nonetheless Unlike
Conversely In spite of On the contrary Whereas
Counter to In the meantime On the other hand Yet
Sample Comparison-contrast Text:
Are you not sure yet which phone to buy? To help you
decide, this review will inspect the basic similarities and
differences of the flagship phones of two giant
companies: Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S5.
Both brag to be the best smart phones in the market to
date. While these state-of-the-art phones have similarities
in the form of their sleek design, multi-touch touch
screen, and multimedia features, they have their
distinctive features as well. First, Galaxy S5 has a larger
screen at 5.1 inches as compared to iPhone 6’s 4.7
inches. As for the operating system, iPhone 6 uses
iOS(8.x) while S5 uses Android (5.0, 4.4.2). In terms of the
camera, S5 has a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera
 Classification and Division
• It organizes ideas into categories or divisions based on
criteria and standards.
• It can be used when classifying people, objects, events,
things, places and other items.
• Take note of the superordinate (name of the larger
group) ideas, subordinate (subcategories of the larger
group) ideas, and relationship between them.
• You can use network tree to better understand this
pattern.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR CLASSIFICATION AND
DIVISION

Another Classified as One kind The last group

The first
Another kind Final type The next part
category
Sample Classification and Division Text:
Earthquakes can be classified into three
main types based on the plate movements.
The first type is known as a convergent
boundary. Also known as destructive plate
boundary, this type of earthquake happens
when two tectonic plates move toward one
another and collide. The second type of
earthquake is divergent boundary. During
this type of earthquake, two plates are forced
to move away from each other resulting in a
 Cause and Effect
• A cause and effect pattern organizes details based on the
cause, the reason, and the result or consequences of a
certain phenomenon.
• This pattern may discuss both the causes and effects, the
causes only, or the effects only.
• You can use fishbone map to better comprehend a cause
and effect pattern.
 Effect Causes

Effect
Cause Effect Causes
Effect Causes

Cause Effect Cause

Cause Effect Effect
Cause Effect Cause

Effect
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR CAUSE

As For Inasmuch as Since

Because (of the For the reason

One reason
fact) that

Owing to (the
Being that In that
fact)

Due to (the fact In view of (the

Seeing that
that) fact)
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR EFFECT

Accordingly Consequently So Thus

As a
For this reason So much (so) that
consequence

As a result (of
Hence So that
this)

Because (of this) In consequence Therefore

Sample Cause and Effect Text:
The advancement in technology and economy has
created major changes in modern society. One of
these changes is globalization. As we know,
globalization has affected the world in many ways.
First, it served as a catalyst to worldwide trading, thus
allowing countries to access foreign products.
Although this had positive effects, it also posed a real
threat to the merchandise of local traders. Second,
globalization affected the financial market. As a result,
different countries and more access to fund, and the
exchange in national currencies dramatically
increased. Finally, globalization also led to the
privatization of various facilities, such as public health
 Problem-solution
• It organizes ideas into problems and proposed
solutions.
• The problem section usually includes the what,
who, when, where, why, and how of the problem.
• The other part present the major effects of the
problem and the possible solution to address it, as
well as the steps in implementing the solution.
 SIGNAL WORDS FOR PROBLEM-SOLUTION

But Nonetheless One solution is The problem

One reason for

First, second One way is The solution
the
Sample Problem-Solution Text:
Today, most of the energy resources we have
generated form coal, oil, and natural gas. However,
these resources are limited. If continuously consumed
at an alarming rate, fossil fuels necessary for
generating power to operate vehicles and factories
will run out before long. Nonetheless, this problem can
be resolved through the use of alternative sources of
energy and conservation efforts. First, using
alternative sources of energy such as solar energy and
fusion energy would lessen pollution. These
alternatives are actually more accessible and cost-
efficient. Although there are some potential risks can
be mitigated by implementing strict safety measures.