English: Quarter 3 Module 4
English: Quarter 3 Module 4
English
Quarter 3 Module 4
CO_Q3_English10 _ Module 4
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Christopher C. Benigno
Juliet H. Sannad,
Loida C. Mangangey
Victor A. Fernandez
10
English
Quarter 3 Module 4 Critiquing a
Literary Selection: Formalist
Approach
Introductory Message
This Self-Learning Module (SLM) is prepared so that you, our dear learners, can continue your
studies and learn while at home. Activities, questions, directions, exercises, and discussions are
carefully stated for you to understand each lesson.
Each SLM is composed of different parts. Each part shall guide you step-by-step as you discover
and understand the lesson prepared for you.
Pre-tests are provided to measure your prior knowledge on lessons in each SLM. This will tell you
if you need to proceed on completing this module or if you need to ask your facilitator or your
teacher’s assistance for better understanding of the lesson. At the end of each module, you need to
answer the post-test to self-check your learning. Answer keys are provided for each activity and
test. We trust that you will be honest in using these.
In addition to the material in the main text, Notes to the Teacher are also provided to our
facilitators and parents for strategies and reminders on how they can best help you on your home-
based learning.
Please use this module with care. Do not put unnecessary marks on any part of this SLM. Use a
separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises and tests. And read the instructions carefully
before performing each task.
If you have any questions in using this SLM or any difficulty in answering the tasks in this
module, do not hesitate to consult your teacher or facilitator.
Thank you.
What I Need to Know
Hello learner!
Hello, Learner! This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is
here to help you how to critique and appreciate the overall artistic value of the
structure and elements of a selection based on the formalist approach. The scope of
this module permits it to be used in many different learning situations. It provides
you with contextualized meaningful tasks to develop your skills. The language used
recognizes your diverse vocabulary level. The lessons are arranged to follow the
standard sequence of the course.
What I Know
Directions: Read and answer the questions below based on your initial knowledge
of the topic to be discussed. Write the letter that corresponds to your answer. Use a
separate sheet of paper for your answers.
1. Which of the following refers to the evaluation, analysis, description, or
interpretation of literary works?
A. Literary criticism
B. Literary approach
C. Literary device
2. What element in a literary work is described as the series of related events?
A. Theme
B. Setting
C. Plot
3. What do you call the opposition of forces which is essential to the plot?
A. Climax
B. Conflict
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C. Exposition
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stirs up the dust. In a minute there will be a spurt of May rain and a real
storm will begin.
Fyokla, a little beggar-girl of six, is running through the village,
looking for Terenty, the cobbler. The white-haired, barefooted child is pale.
Her eyes are wide-open, her lips are trembling.
11.What literary device is evident in the introduction of the story?
A. Imagery
B. Metaphor
C. Irony
12.Who are the characters introduced in the story?
A. Fyokla and Anton
B. Terenty and the cobbler
C. Fyokla and Terenty
13.Where do you think the story happened? A. The story happened in the
province.
B. The setting of the story was in the city.
C. The events took place in the jungle.
14.Which of the following can be inferred from the exposition of the story?
In the beginning of the story…
A. the villagers were expecting for an approaching storm.
B. Fyokla and the villagers were preparing for a feast after the storm.
C. a storm destroyed the village.
15.They hear a whistle and a rumble, but not such a rumble as the stormclouds
carried away. A good train races by before the eyes of Terenty, Danilka, and
Fyokla. The engine, panting and puffing out black smoke, drags more than
twenty vans after it. Its power is tremendous. The children are interested to
know how an engine, not alive and without the help of horses, can move and
drag such weights, and Terenty undertakes to explain it to them.
What is the point of view of the narrator in the story based on the text
above?
A. First person point view
B. Second person point of view
C. Third person point of view
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Lesson Critiquing a Literary
Selection:
1 Formalist Approach
What’s In
When was the last time you read a story and went on an adventure, learned
something new, stimulated your imagination, and exercised your creative and
critical thinking?
Fun Facts: Do you know that reading does not only build vocabulary and
strengthen the brain but it also reduces stress and lessens depression symptoms?
By reading books, you take a break from focusing on the stressful and depressing
realities of life.
Reading can expand your horizon. The more you read, the more you understand
the world around you. Yes! When you read stories, the more you discover life and
its values.
In your previous lessons in literature, you have learned the elements of a short
story (setting, character, plot, theme, and point of view) and the different literary
devices such as imagery, symbolism, and the different figure of speech among
others. All of these are very important in understanding, critiquing, or analyzing
various literary texts. They also help you develop a deeper appreciation of literature
in general.
Welcome Future Literary Critics!
There are various approaches or styles in analyzing a literary piece. Today, you
are going to learn one of them. Are you excited?
This approach analyzes the structure or form of each individual element of a
story. It provides readers with a way to understand and enjoy a work for its own
inherent value as a literary art. It uses close reading of the text to analyze the
deeper meaning of the words individually and collectively. It also focuses only on
the text itself.
Guess what it is.
You got it right! FORMALIST APPROACH
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What’s New
In using the formalist approach, what literary elements and devices are you
going to analyze? Figure them out!
Directions: Search for the 10 literary devices and elements analyzed in a short
story based on the formalist approach. Write them on your answer
sheet.
Clue: The words were formed horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.
A B C S D R E A D E R E F A S P A
U S G E I N C H A R A C T E R S K
T I M T A M V I S O I M P E R S P
H M A T L I S A U T P H O S R B A
O I T I R O N Y S H A L D A W O R
R L E N V O I V M E Z A O M L Y T
I M A G E R Y E E B D F A T O Y H
G R I N M E T A P H O R J K T A E
W O R L D O B J E C T L P V E U M
T O N E I P O I N T O F V I E W E
What is It
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Vocabulary Development
Etymology: The word ‘formalism’ derived from the word ‘form’ or structure. The ‘ism’
is a belief or an approach of looking at things.
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Learn more about Formalism or Formalist Approach through the following diagram
It discovers the true
meaning of a work by
giving attention to the
form or structure,
elements and literary
devices operating in it. It analyzes the work as a whole, the form of each
individual part of the text from the individual
Structure/ form scenes and chapters, the characters, the settings,
the tone, the point of view, the theme, and all other
- It scrutinizes the plot literary elements and devices such as imagery .
Character- It is a person, animal, being , creature
or anything personified in a story.
(chronological sequence)
Setting-It is not only the place and time a story
takes place but also includes the atmosphere.
and the conflict in a story. Tone- It is the overall emotion conveyed by both
the choices of words, theme, sensory images,
symbolism and the narrator of the story such as
suspenseful, affectionate, happy or sad.
Point of View- It answers the question “Who is
Formalism or telling the story?”
Types: 1. First person- It uses either of the two
Formalist Approach
pronouns “I” or “We”. The narrator is a
participant in the story relating his or her own
experiences directly or an observer.
2. Second person- The story is told to
“You”.
3. Third person- It uses pronouns “They”,
It studies how the “She”, “He”, “It” or a name. The narrator may
be omniscient (all- knowing) or has a full
elements work together t
access to the thoughts and experiences of all
form unity and to give o characters in the story or may be a limited
meaning to a text. omniscient who usually cannot see into minds
a. How do elements or know the future, etc.
conspire or work Theme- It is the author’s message to the
readers.
together? Imagery-It consists of descriptive language to
b. How does the create images in the mind of the readers through
their senses.
conflict affect the
characters’ actions?
s
c. What do the object
s, events, images
or action symbolize?
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It examines a text e xclusively as a self -contained
object in isolation from the world, biographical
information about the author, or the text’s effect on
the reader.
Formalism or
Formalist Approach
It does not concern the historical events outside of
the story, social, cultural, religious nor political
ideas .
What’s More
How do you read as a formalist critic? Work on Activity 2 and identify the
characteristics of a formalist literary critic.
Activity 2: I’m the One!
A formalist critic…
____1. must be a close or careful reader who examines all the elements of a text
individually to discover how they form an organic unity.
____2. questions how they come together to create a work of art.
____3. looks beyond the work by reading the author’s life, or literary style.
____4. examines the work’s historical background and condition of the society.
____5. allows the text to reveal itself.
____6. analyzes how the elements work together to form the unity of structure and
to give meaning to the text.
____7. achieves understanding of the text by looking inside it, not outside nor
beyond.
____8. studies how the text’s influences or figures out similarity with other works.
____9. takes the elements distinct and separate from each other.
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____10. scrutinizes the point of view, structure, symbols, tone, theme and other
elements or literary devices.
Direction: Share what you have learned from the lesson. Complete the following
phrases.
My journey through this lesson enabled me to learn______________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
What I Can Do
Direction: Read the Checklist for Formalist Criticism and use it as a guide in
critiquing a selection.
A formalist critic analyzes:
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the characters are related to one another what are the actions
of the characters what are the literary devices used
how the literary devices function to create meaning
Trivia: Did you know that Benguet is a native term which refers to a lake where
water does not drain?
The name “Benguet” was once limited to the area of what is now the La
Trinidad Valley, which was well-cultivated with rice, sweet potatoes, gabi, and
sugar cane by its original settlers. The natives there were generally Ibaloys.
Source: http://latrinidad.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Brief-History.pdf
Directions: Read the story from Benguet and discover the origin of rice and small
streams.
Once upon a time, there were two blind women. They were kindhearted, but they
were very poor. In order to eat, they had to beg from their neighbors and sometimes
they were driven away or given nothing. Nevertheless, they did not complain but
went on living each day as best as they could.
Once when they had no food for some time, they decided to walk to the next village
to try their luck there. They walked slowly, feeling footholds among the hilly paths.
When they had walked some distance, they bumped into a large rock. The impact
sent their bodies reeling. Dazed, they held on to each other and tried to get back on
their feet. But they had gone too long without food, and now they could not even
stand.
The rock opened magically, and out of its granite depths a young woman emerged.
She took the two blind women by the hand and let them inside. An old woman
seated them at a stone table and gave them food to eat. “Now tell what you need,”
said the old woman to them when they had finished their meal.
One of the blind women said, “I am always hungry. I need food, but I am too blind
and I cannot work for a living in the fields.”
The other replied, “I am always thirsty. I always need something to drink, but I,
too, am blind and I cannot find my way even to the smallest spring.”
The old woman gave the first woman a sack of rice that would never be empty. To
the other she gave a bottle of water that would never be drained dry. They both
thanked the old woman profusely and they felt their way back home. They lived
together happily, never wanting any more than what they already had. After some
time, though, they told each other that it was not right to keep to themselves the
good fortune that they had been given. So, the one who owned the magic sack of
rice took a handful of grain and sowed it; when the grain was harvested she gave it
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to the people in the village. The one who owned the magic bottle poured some of the
water out onto the land where it changed into many small brooks and streams. On
their banks flowers soon grew, and to the streams people came to fetch water for
their various needs.
Source: The Origin of Tapuy and Other Cordillera Tales, Rosella Camte-Banhi,et.al pp.42-43
When you read a selection it is very important to understand how your senses
work. Your understanding of images will play a key role in appreciating the text.
1. _____________________________________ 2.
_____________________________________ 3.
_____________________________________ 4.
_____________________________________
5. _____________________________________
B. Directions: Use the table below to analyze the selection “The Origin of Rice and
Streams.” Use the guide questions provided in answering.
Elements Descriptions
1. Characters: Who are the characters
in the story? How are they related to
one another? What are their actions?
2. Setting: Where did the story happen?
Describe the environment/ atmosphere.
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Assessment
Directions: Read and answer the questions below based on what
you have learned from this module. Write the letter that
corresponds to your answer. Use a separate sheet of paper for
your answers.
1. What literary criticism approach analyzes the structure or form of each
individual part of a story and it focuses only on the text itself?
A. Moralist Approach
B. Formalist Approach
C. Marxist Approach
2. Which of the following refers to the evaluation, analysis, description, or
interpretation of literary works?
A. Literary approach
B. Literary device
C. Literary criticism
3. Which of the following is TRUE about formalism?
A. It is concerned with the historical events outside of the story, cultural,
and religious beliefs.
B. It uses quick reading to get the main idea of the text and compare it with
other related works.
C. It analyzes the work as a whole, the form of each individual part of the
text from the individual scenes and chapters, elements, and literary
devices.
4. Which of these features of a text would a formalist critic be most interested
in? A. Structure
B. Author
C. Reader
5. What is the most exciting part of a story?
A. Exposition B.
Climax
C. Resolution
6. What element in a literary work is described as the series of related events?
A. Theme
B. Plot
C. Rising Action
7. Which of the following is the central or main character in a story?
A. Antagonist
B. Confidant
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C. Protagonist
8. What do you call the opposition of forces which is essential to the plot?
A. Climax
B. Conflict
C. Exposition
9. Which among the elements of a short story refers to the perspective of the
character or narrator telling the story?
A. Symbolism
B. Theme
C. Point of view
10. How to analyze a text using formalist approach?
A. Examine a text including the biographical information about the author
and the effect on the reader.
B. Scrutinize the point of view, structure, social and political ideas.
C. Analyze how the elements work together to give meaning to the text.
11-15. Read and analyze the introductory part of the story A Day in the Country by
Anton Chekhov (English 10 Learner’s Material pp.279-284). Answer the
following questions.
A dark leaden-colored mass is creeping over the sky towards the sun.
Red zigzags of lightning gleam here and there across it. There is a sound of
far-away rumbling. A warm wind frolics over the grass, bends the trees, and
stirs up the dust. In a minute there will be a spurt of May rain and a real
storm will begin.
Fyokla, a little beggar-girl of six, is running through the village,
looking for Terenty, the cobbler. The white-haired, barefooted child is pale.
Her eyes are wide-open, her lips are trembling.
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A. Symbolism
B. Metaphor
C. Imagery
15. They hear a whistle and a rumble, but not such a rumble as the
stormclouds carried away. A good train races by before the eyes of Terenty,
Danilka, and Fyokla. The engine, panting and puffing out black smoke,
drags more than twenty vans after it. Its power is tremendous. The children
are interested to know how an engine, not alive and without the help of
horses, can move and drag such weights, and Terenty undertakes to explain
it to them.
What is the point of view of the narrator in the story based on the text
above?
A. Third person point of view
B. Second person point of view
C. First person point view
Additional Activity
Directions: Read and understand the selection “The Story of an Hour”. Analyze it
using Formalist Approach. Be guided by the Checklist for Formalist
Criticism (page 8) that you learned in this lesson. Use the graphic
organizer provided on page 16 or you may create your own design for
the presentation of your analysis.
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was
taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints
that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near
her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the
railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of
"killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second
telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in
bearing the sad message.
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She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a
paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild
abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself, she
went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into
this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and
seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were
all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In
the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which
some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering
in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds
that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite
motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child
who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and
even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was
fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of
reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.
What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt
it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the
color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize
this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back
with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When
she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She
said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the
look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright.
Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her
body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her.
14 A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded
in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray
and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to
come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms
out to them in welcome.
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There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live
for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence
with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon
a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a
crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often, she had not. What did it
matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this
possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest
impulse of her being!
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of
life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and
summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick
prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a
shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There
was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a
goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the
stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard
who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and
umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident and did not even know
there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards'
quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy
that kills.
Source: https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/
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Use the questions listed in What I Can Do Activity 4 C on page 10 to guide you in
critiquing the selection “The Story of an Hour”.
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Answer Key
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Climax
Title
Point of View
References
Conflict
Almonte, Liza, Lerma Flandez, Angelou Hermosa, Nedia Lagustan, Liberty Mangaluz, Elenita
R. Miranda, Paul Anthony Mendoza, Lito Palomar, Grace Annette Barradas- Soriano,
and Karen Villanueva. 2015. Celebrating Diversity Through World Literature. 1st ed.
Pasig City: REX Book Store, Inc.
Andres, Salirick. 2016. "Formalist Criticism Is the First of The Series of Literary Critic".
Tone
The Mindsmith. https://salirickandres.altervista.org/formalist-criticism/.
Exposition Resolution
Bunting, Joe. 2021. "Point of View In 2021: Guide To 1St Person, 2Nd Person, 3Rd Person POV".
The Write Practice. Accessed January 26. https://thewritepractice.com/point-of-viewguide/.
Symbolism
Imagery 1998. The Origin of Tapuy and Other Cordillera Tales. La Trinidad,
Cariño, Ma.Luisa.
Benguet: Igorota Foundation, Inc.
"Difference Between Criticize, Criticism, Critique, Critic, And Critical". 2021. Espresso
English. Accessed January 22. https://www.espressoenglish.net/difference-between-
criticize-criticism-critique-critic-and-critical/.
Theme
"Download Check Mark Icons Collection for Free". 2021. Freepik. Accessed January 29.
https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/check-mark-icons-
collection_806450.htm#page=1&query=check%20mark&position=3.
Stanborough, Rebecca Joy. 2019. "Benefits of Reading Books: For Your Physical And Mental
Health". Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading- books.
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