AJ0326 Critical Reading

Faculty of Education
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Barbora Kašpárková, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Zuzana Kršková, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Supplier department: Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Prerequisites
Mastery of the English language is a prerequisite for students to proficiently engage with assigned materials.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 8 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course introduces students to the basic skills of critical reading, thinking and writing. At the end of the course, students will be able to pose effective questions for subsequent analysis, examine crucial concepts in writings from varied disciplines, make connections between ideas, and synthesize them. They will learn how to turn their interpretation into a complex argument and support it with relevant textual evidence. The Critical Reading course is not an overview course, i.e. it does not necessarily follow a chronological development of British literature and history, although there is an overlap with both the present course and History, Literature and Culture of the USA. Critical Reading exercises, reading strategies, and analytical skills PRIMARILY. It is a support course that branches out into all module courses on both Bachelor's and Master's levels.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students will:
- be able to choose a topic suitable for an academic analysis;
- formulate an argument;
- pose effective questions for an analysis of a literary text and other cultural material;
- approach the literary and cultural material from various perspectives (using different literary approaches to the analysis of a literary/cultural material) ;
- distinguish quality secondary sources;
- use the textual evidence to support their argument
Syllabus
  • 1. Critical thinking and writing - how to become a critical reader and writer P> 2. How to read and write about poetry
  • 3. Basic principles of an analysis (contextual approach) – practical part, analyzing a primary text
  • 4. Choice of a suitable topic and argument
  • 5. analysis of a specific topic
  • 6. Socio-cultural context
  • 7. Setting and a point of view
  • 8. Central idea and a character
  • 9. Conflict
  • 10. Feminist criticism
  • 11. National identity and cinema
  • 12.Race and identity
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Terence Brunk, Suzanne Diamond, Priscilla Perkins, Ken Smith: Literacies: Reading, Writing, Interpretation, Second edition, 2000
  • BARNET, Sylvan, William BURTO, William E. CAIN and Cheryl L. NIXON. Literature for composition : an introduction to literature. Eleventh edition. Boston: Pearson, 2018, xxxi, 1439. ISBN 9780134678702. info
  • BARNET, Sylvan, Morton BERMAN and William BURTO. An Introduction to Literature : fiction, poetry, drama. 8th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1985, 1219 s. ISBN 0316082279. info
Teaching methods
independent reading, class discussion, individual projects (reading assignments and written assignments), peer review
Assessment methods
Attendance is required.
Active participation in class discussions
Completion of the course is based upon the timely completion of various assignments during the semester and the creation of a final portfolio collecting all the materials required for the preparation in the classroom.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Teacher's information
http://moodlinka.ped.muni.cz/course/view.php?id=1516
The access to the moodlinka course is reserved only to people currently registered there. The password will be announced in the first class of the semester. Although this course addresses some elements of English composition, this is not its major focus. Therefore, this course cannot be recognized as a replacement for other writing courses, where composition is its main activity, offered at the MU university or elsewhere. Students doing their Erasmus study stay abroad and students with IPS are not required to attend the classes, but they are obliged to submit all the required assignments and take the exams.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2025/AJ0326