 |
Opening cartoons from the Students’ Guide
for Unit 1. |
|
Three large cards with the word REASON on
one, CONCLUSION on the second and PERSUASION on the third. |
|
Cards for the Introductory Ideas |
|
Exercise 1.1 (available in the Teachers’ Area) |
|
Exercise 1.2 (the exercise is available in
the Students’ Area and the answers in the Teachers’ Area) |
|
Summary sheet (available in the Students’ Area.) |
|
Display the cartoons.
Identify which is the ARGUMENT and which is the DISAGREEMENT.
Discuss why the first cartoon is a disagreement i.e. the idea that it is
merely two opposing statements with no justification for the positions
being taken.
Ask the students to give you further examples of disagreements.
Discuss why the second cartoon is an argument i.e. the idea that there
are three parts to Fred’s response:-
There is a REASON-“the notes on the internet are
better than mine.”
There is a CONCLUSION-“so you should revise from
them.”
There is an attempt to persuade-this is contained in the phrase “you
should” |
|
Display the three cards with the words REASON, CONCLUSION and PERSUASION (you
can print them here >>) where
they can be clearly seen throughout the lesson.
Check that in Critical Thinking the students understand that AN
ARGUMENT IS AN APPEAL TO REASON i.e. it is an attempt to make
somebody accept the truth about what is being said and in order to achieve
this it must have the three parts.
The students should complete the Summary Sheet for Unit 1, Part 1. |
|
Complete Exercise 1.1. from
the Teacher’s Guide.
(i) Display the example cards (cards
can be printed from the next page).
Discuss why they are a disagreement and not an argument. (They are two
opposing positions but there are no reasons given. There are inferred conclusions “should
go/shouldn’t go” and the word “should” has a persuasive
element but the absence of reasons means that anyone listening cannot be
expected to accept the truth of either position.)
Discuss what is needed to turn them into arguments i.e. reasons must be
given and the sentence reconstructed to link the reasons to the conclusion.
Words which attempt to persuade the listener must be included also.
Ask the students to suggest reasons which could be integrated into the
phrases to turn them into arguments.
Display the suggested arguments, identifying the following:-
(a) REASON:-“It is fun to go on the rides on the
Pleasure Beach at Blackpool and as it is my birthday next week we should
do something enjoyable.”
CONCLUSION:-“so I think we should
go to Blackpool.”
PERSUASION:-use of the word “should”
N.B. Some students may claim, correctly, that the reason is also an argument
as it contains a conclusion “do something enjoyable” with the
word “should”
as a persuasive element. This is known as an Intermediate Conclusion and
is
an idea which will be developed further in the course.
(b) REASON:-“I don’t like rides as they make
me sick.”
CONCLUSION:-“I don’t think so”-implied “I
do not think we should go to Blackpool.”
PERSUASION:- Implication of the word “should” in
the conclusion.
(ii) Distribute statements 1 to 10. Each of the statements
(a) and (b) should be given to a pair of students. The statements are disagreements.
In pairs the students should rewrite them to turn them into an argument.
The pairs should read out their arguments with the class identifying the
reasons, conclusions and the persuasive element. |
|
The students should complete Exercise
1.2 which is located in the Student’s Area.
(This could be used as an assessment exercise.)
The answers are in the Teacher’s Area. |
