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PlayOwl

English · Grade 11

Independent Reading and Critical Response

Learners build habits for sustained independent reading of complex texts, write critical responses that interpret and evaluate rather than summarize or merely react, apply five critical lenses (formalist, historical, reader-response, feminist and economic), and treat narrator reliability as an interpretive question. Short excerpts come from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) and two works by Herman Melville. An optional honors-style lesson weighs two competing readings of Nick Carraway's claim to honesty.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 140 minutes
  • Independent reading and critical response check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, highlight a text, match pairs, put in order, sort into groups and arrange tiles
See plans Included with Family, Teacher and School plans. Open in PlayOwl

What learners will discover

  • Set purposeful reading goals and sustain reading of a complex text using strategies and a reading log of questions and evidence.
  • Write critical responses that make an interpretive claim and evaluate the text, supported by evidence, rather than summarizing or only reacting.
  • Apply critical lenses (formalist, historical, reader-response, feminist, economic) and explain what each reveals and leaves out.
  • Judge a narrator's reliability as an interpretive question, using textual evidence and considering more than one reading.

Lessons

  1. Read complex texts on your own 6 steps3 practiceabout 30 min
  2. Critical response, not summary 6 steps3 practiceabout 33 min
  3. Critical lenses 6 steps3 practiceabout 35 min
  4. Can we trust the narrator? 6 steps3 practiceabout 37 min
  5. Going further: two readings of Nick's honesty 5 steps2 practiceabout 25 min
  6. Independent reading and critical response check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

More 11th grade reading

Guide for grown-ups