Text and

Context Connection
(Critical Reading)
 ACTIVITY TIME!
TITLE: CONVINCE ME!
• The class will be grouped into three (with
more or less 10 members each).
• We will test your reasoning skill by
convincing the judge through your own
reasons based on the situation and the
topic assigned to you.
• You will be provided three sets of
situations wherein all the groups will take
turns to be the judge and to be the
participant.
 ACTIVITY TIME!
TITLE: CONVINCE ME!
• For example, on the first situation, group 1 will
be the judge and the remaining two groups will
be the one to give their reasons.
• For every situation, each group will only be
given 5 minutes to brainstorm.
• After brainstorming, speakers will be allowed to
convince the judges by giving their own reasons.
• After all the speakers have given their reasons,
the judge will give their judgment based on the
materials and the reasons presented by each
group.
 FIRST SITUATION

Rhian wants to have a movie date with her

family, which genre do you think is better to
watch?

GROUP 2 – HORROR MOVIES

GROUP 3 – ROMANTIC MOVIES
GROUP 1 will be the judge.
 SECOND SITUATION

Onay is craving for sweets, which is better

for her to eat?

GROUP 1 – FRUITS
GROUP 3 – CHOCOLATES
GROUP 2 will be the judge.
 THIRD SITUATION

Cardo wants to go on a vacation, which

tourist destination is better for him to go to?

GROUP 1 – PALAWAN
GROUP 2 – BORACAY
GROUP 3 will be the judge.
 PROCESS QUESTIONS

What did you feel while doing the activity?

For the participants:

• How did you come up with those kinds of
reasons?

For the judges:

• How were you able to make sound
judgment?
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
• Whenever you read something and you
evaluate claims, seek definitions, judge
information, demand proof, and question
assumptions, you are thinking critically.

• This type of reading goes beyond

passively understanding a text because
you process the author’s words and make
judgments after carefully considering the
reading’s message.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
• But why should you read critically?
• Reading critically means you are thinking
critically.
• This shows that you do not simply accept
the message on the page.
• You bring to your reading your own
experience and perspective, and use
these to separate yourself from the text
and judge for yourself what you consider
important, logical, or right.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
• This interaction between the text and the
reader is necessary because reading
results from a negotiation of meaning
between the text and the reader.
• By reading critically, you find out the
author’s views on something, ask
questions, evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of the author’s argument, and
decide whether to agree or disagree with
it.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking

• Critical reading thus allows you to enter

into a dialogue with the author – and this
deepens your understanding of the issue
or topic discussed.

• Therefore, in order to arrive at a sufficient

interpretation of the text, you need to
become a critical and active reader.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking

Critical reading is a technique for

discovering information and ideas within a
text.

Critical thinking is a technique for

evaluating information and ideas, for
deciding what to accept and believe.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking

Critical reading refers to a careful, active,

reflective, analytic reading. In actual
practice, critical reading and critical thinking
work together.

Critical thinking allows us to monitor our

understanding as we read.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking

• Reading to see what a text says may

suffice when the goal is to learn specific
information or to understand someone
else's ideas.

• But we usually read with other purposes.

Students need to solve problems and
make meaningful connections.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
• Critical reading can be defined as the process of
understanding, questioning, and evaluating a
text, which is carried out actively and
consciously, in order to well assess the accuracy
and validity of a writer’s ideas.

• It is a skill highly necessitated in both academic

and everyday lives.

• It could be developed through learning and

practices
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
• Critical reading is a process of analyzing,
interpreting and, sometimes, evaluating.

• It is a deeper and more complex engagement

with a text.

• Critical reading is a more ACTIVE way of

reading.

• When we read critically, we use our critical

thinking skills to QUESTION both the text and
our own reading of it.
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
Difference Between Reading and Critical Reading
Reading Critical Reading
• To form judgments about HOW a text
Purpose • To get a basic grasp of the text.
works.
Activity • Absorbing / Understanding • Analyzing / Interpreting / Evaluating
Focus • What a text SAYS • What a text DOES and MEANS
• How does the text work? How is it
argued?
• What are the choices made? The
• What is the text saying?
patterns that result?
Questions • What information can I get out of
• What kinds of reasoning and evidence
it?
are used?
• What are the underlying assumptions?
• What does the text mean?
• AGAINST the text (questioning its
• WITH the text (taking for granted
Direction assumptions and argument,
it is right)
interpreting meaning in context)
Response • Restatement, Summary • Description, Interpretation, Evaluation
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
Accomplished
STAGE THEORY IN CRITICAL Thinker
(skilled and
THINKING DEVELOPMENT insightful)

The
Practicing
Advanced
Thinker
Thinker
(practicing
Beginning to develop)
Thinker
(trying to
Challenge improve)
d Thinker
(becoming
Unreflective aware of
thinker problems
(unaware of in thinking)
Process
problems in
thinking)
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
Attitudes Of A College-level Critical Thinker
Attitude Sample Statement

Truth-seeking “Let’s follow this idea and see where it leads.”

“I have a point of view on this subject, and I’m anxious to hear

Open-minded
yours as well.“

Analytical “Taking a stand on the issue commits me to take some action.”

“The speaker made some interesting points, and I’d like to hear
Systematic
some more evidence to support each one.”

“After reading the book for the first time, I was confused. I’ll be able
Self-confident
to understand it after studying the book some more.”

“When I first saw that painting, I wanted to know what was going
Inquisitive
on in the artist’s life when she painted it.”
“I’ll wait until I gather more facts before reaching a conclusion on
Mature
this issue.”
 Critical Reading as Looking for
Ways of Thinking
Process for reading critically
1. Taking notes
2. Testing answers to your questions,
3. Brainstorming
4. Outlining
5. Reflecting on your own reading and thinking
6. Describing aspects of the text or argument
7. Raising objections to the ideas or evidence
presented
8. Highlighting important points and examples
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text

Defining Claims
• Knowing how to identify explicit and implicit
information will help you in one of the most
important skills needed in critical reading.

• Evaluating the claims made by an author.

• This involves going back to the text to recognize

the writer’s arguments and evidence so you can
begin judging the writer’s work.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text

Defining Claims
• Whenever you read something, you find yourself
looking for the writer’s point or position regarding
the chosen topic.
• That point is also known as the claim, or the
central argument or thesis statement of the text.
• This claim is what the writer tries to prove in the
text by providing details, explanations, and other
types of evidence.
• As such, it is usually found in the introduction or
in the first few paragraphs of the text.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text

Defining Claims
• The claim is the most important part of the text.

• The quality and complexity of the reading

depends on the claim, because the claim
defines the paper’s direction and scope.

• The claim is a sentence that summarizes the

most important thing that the writer wants to say
as a result of his or her thinking, reading, or
writing.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text
Defining Claims
The following are the characteristics of good
claims:
1.A claim should be argumentative and debatable.
– When a writer makes a claim, he or she is making a
case for a particular perspective on the topic.
– Readers expect to be able to raise objections to your
claim, and they can only raise objections if the claim
is something that can be reasonably challenged.
– Claims that are only factual or based on opinion, thus,
are not debatable.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text
Characteristics of good claims:

2.A claim should be specific and focused.

– If the claim is unfocused, the paper will be too broad

in scope and will lack direction and a clear connection
to the support provided.

– It may also lead to overgeneralizations and vague

assertions.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text
Characteristics of good claims:

3.A claim should be interesting and engaging.

– It should hook the reader, who may or may not agree

with you, to encourage them to consider your
perspective and learn something new from you.

4.A claim should be logical.

– It should result from reasonable weighing of support

provided.
Explicit and Implicit Claims in a Text
Here are some questions to help you
determine the writer’s claim while you are
reading a text:

1.What is the author’s main point?

2.What is the author’s position regarding to?

 Claim of Fact
Claims of Fact state a quantifiable
assertion, or a measurable topic.

• They assert that something has existed,

exists, or will exist based on data.

• They rely on reliable sources or systematic

procedures to be validated; this is what
makes them different from inferences.
 Claim of Fact
• Claims of fact usually answer a “what”
question.

• When determining whether something is a

claim of fact, the following questions are
useful:

– Is this issue related to a possible cause or

effect?
– Is this statement true or false?
– Is this claim controversial or debatable?
 Claim of Policy
• Claims of policy posit that specific
actions should be chosen as solutions to a
particular problem.

• You can easily identify a claim of policy

because they begin with “should,” “ought
to,” or “must.”
 Claim of Policy
• Claims of policy because they defend actionable
plans, usually answer “how” questions. The
following questions will be useful in evaluating a
claim of policy:

– Does the claim suggest a specific remedy to

solve the problem?
– Is the policy clearly defined?
– Is the need for the policy established?
– Is the policy the best one available? For
whom? According to whose standards?
– How does the policy solve the problem?
 Claim of Policy
• Being a critical reader also involves
understanding that texts are always developed
with a certain context.

• A text is neither written nor read in a vacuum; its

meaning and interpretation are affected by a
given set of circumstances.

• Thus, context is defined as the social, cultural,

political, and other related circumstances that
surround the text and form the terms from which
it can be better understood and evaluated.
 Claim of Policy
• Knowledge of the text’s context, you may ask
questions like:

– When was the work written?

– What were the circumstances that produced

it?

– What issues does it deal with?

 Claim of Value
• The claim of value asserts something that can
be qualified.
• They consist of arguments about moral,
philosophical, or aesthetic topics.
• These types of topics try to prove that some
values are more or less desirable compared to
others.
• They make judgments, based on certain
standards, on whether something is right or
wrong, good or bad, or something similar.
 Claim of Value
• Claims of value attempt to explain how
problems, situations, or issues ought to be
valued in order to discover these explanations,
you may ask the following questions:
– Which claims endorse what is good or right?
– What qualities should be considered good?
Why is that so?
– Which of these values contend with others?
Which ones are important, and why? Whose
standards are used?
– What are some concrete examples of such
values?
 Context of Text Development
• Various studies have reported differences
between offline and online reading,
however, the findings are not conclusive.

• These are those who claim that offline

reading is faster than online reading
because of the farmer’s familiar layout.

• Some studies say that the slower rate is

due to the presence of hypertexts.
 Context of Text Development
• Still, there are studies which report that offline
reading is slower because readers are generally
focused and usually requires note-taking and
highlighting.

• A number of researches have likewise noted the

different strategies employed when doing offline
or online reading.

• Online reading has been used more for

information-getting purposes, so the common
strategies used are skimming, scanning, and
visualizing.
 Hypertext
• Hypertext is a relatively new way of
reading a text online.

• Traditionally, reading was viewed a linear

process, where you read from the
beginning until the end.

• However, the advent of the Internet and

technology has created new ways of
reading and process a text, which includes
hypertext.
 Hypertext
• Hypertext, therefore, is a non-linear way of
showing information.
• Hypertext connects topics on a screen to related
information, graphics, videos, music –
information is not simply related to text.
• This information appears as links and is usually
accessed by clicking.
• The reader can jump to more information about
a topic, which in turn may have more links.
• This opens up the reader a wider horizon of
information or to a new direction.
 Hypertext
• A reader can skim through sections of a text,
freely jumping from one part to another
depending on what aspect of the text interests
him or her.
• Thus, in reading with hypertext, you are given
more flexibility and personalization because you
get to select the order in which you read the text
and focus on information that is relevant to your
background and interests.
• You therefore create your own meaning out of
the material.
 How to Attack Electronic Texts
• Always remember that to maximize your online
reading, you must be very clear about your
purpose:

– Do you read just to look for specific information?

– Do you read and then try to “recreate” the material to
show your understanding of the text?
– Do you read with no clear purpose in mind?

• Hopefully, you have answered the first two

questions with a “Yes” and the last one with a
“No.”
 How to Attack Electronic Texts
• Another important thing you have to remember
is that an electronic text (unlike a printed text) is
nonlinear.

• An internet article, for example, usually has

some visual elements (like pictures, video clips,
hyperlinks, graphs) between or within
paragraphs and sections.

• When you click the video and then goes back to

reading the text, it makes your reading
nonlinear.
 How to Attack Electronic Texts
• Therefore, you have to navigate the pages
properly and efficiently to make the most of your
electronic reading.

• By all means interact with the available tool bars

and other menu, but never forget your purpose
in reading. Don’t get lost!
 How to Attack Electronic Texts
• You should also make sure that the electronic
material you are about to read is trustworthy.
• Check the host/creator of the website by looking at
its URL (Universal Resource Locator) endings.
• Especially for factual information, it is good to read
materials from those having a .edu or a .gov ending.
• A website that is regularly updated speaks well of its
creator / administrator.
• Be cautious of articles written by persons who use
pseudonyms or just use “Anonymous.”
• It is good to check the background and credibility of
a writer before reading his or her articles.
 How to Attack Electronic Texts
• You should also make sure that the electronic
material you are about to read is trustworthy.
• Check the host/creator of the website by looking at
its URL (Universal Resource Locator) endings.
• Especially for factual information, it is good to read
materials from those having a .edu or a .gov ending.
• A website that is regularly updated speaks well of its
creator / administrator.
• Be cautious of articles written by persons who use
pseudonyms or just use “Anonymous.”
• It is good to check the background and credibility of
a writer before reading his or her articles.