Logical Fallacies Blended Unit

Alex Prather
Content: English/Language Arts
Grade: 10th grade
Unit Length: 6 days
Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.1A: Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from
alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear
relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce,
publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of
technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and
dynamically.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.3: Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use
of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or
distorted evidence.
The student will be able to:
Detect when commercials and print ads use fallacious reasoning.
Create a commercial for a product using fallacious reasoning.
Analyze what makes fallacious reasoning effective.
Identify the components of logical fallacies.
Rationale
Students are constantly communicating and receiving information from outside
sources. This unit will help the students learn how to analyze arguments and
advertisements. The TESOL International Association recommends using commercials
to teach students how to analyze critically (Tuzi, Young, Mori 69). The students will
learn how to look at advertisements through a critical lens to decide whether or not an
argument is valid and logical. The students will connect with this unit because it is using
media that the students are exposed to every day. The students will also learn how to
pace themselves and work with a group to complete a project.

Materials
Student laptops
Class set of iPads (at least 8)
Projector
Teacher Computer
iMovie Software
Paper

Pencils

Unit Plan
Day 1- Before class the students will have watched an Introduction to Logical Fallacies
video. If the students havent watched the video, its not important. During class I will be
going over the 8 fallacies. The students will be creating a foldable to take notes with.
Each fallacy will have its own tab. Along with definitions I will be showing examples. The
list of fallacies, definitions, and examples is below. There are some touchy examples so
I would explain that the students can have their own opinions and that the examples are
just examples of fallacies.
Day 2- The students will be in groups of about 3-4 and they will go through station
rotations, following the station rotation model of blended learning (Clayton Christensen
Institute). There will be 8 stations, one for each of the fallacies. Each station has an
example of the fallacy in a commercial and print ad. The students have to work together
and guess which fallacy it is, analyze the parts of the ads, talk about why each fallacy is
effective, and why its used. Each group will turn in one sheet of paper but each of the
group members will take turns recording the answers for a station (if there are 4
members and 8 stations, each will record twice). They may either write their answers by
hand or use a computer or iPad. Since all of the stations are online, the groups can
work at their own pace using either laptops or iPads or both. Students will be able to
choose their own groups. After a group finishes a station, they need to get it checked by
the teacher. The group that finishes first and the most thorough group will be able to
choose their fallacy first.
Day 3- The groups will take time to finish their stations when they come to class. Once
the groups are finished with the stations, they will begin their project. Each group will
download the project assignment sheet. The students are given a scenario. They need
to advertise a new candy bar for a company using a logical fallacy in a commercial. The
group will need pick a fallacy and no groups can have the same fallacy unless there are
more than 8 groups. The groups will sign a group contract before beginning. Once the
groups have picked their fallacy and it has been approved, the groups will start
planning, scripting, and filming their commercials. The students will be able to use either
Google Docs or paper to script their commercial. Laptops and iPads will be provided to
film the commercials, which have iMovie for the students to use to edit their
commercials.
Day 4 and 5- The students will continue scripting, filming, and editing their commercials.
Day 6- The groups will present their commercials. The groups that arent presenting will
write down what fallacy that the group used (the groups should keep their fallacy
secret), the strengths of the commercial, what could have been improved, and if they
would buy their candy bar.

Logical Fallacies

Straw man (1)- misinterpreting someones argument to make it easier to attack

o Person A has position X. Person B presents position Y (which is a
distorted version of X). Person B attacks position Y. Therefore X is
false/incorrect/flawed.
o Senator Jones says that we should not fund the attack submarine
program. I disagree entirely. I can't understand why he wants to leave us
defenseless like that
o Opposing argument: Bicycle infrastructure should be expanded because
cycling is a sustainable mode of transportation. Straw man argument:
We should not build bike lanes because cyclists run red lights and
endanger pedestrians.
Bandwagon (2)- you appealed to popularity or the fact that many people do
something as an attempted form of validation
o Bill thinks that welfare is needed in some cases. His friends in the Young
Republicans taunt him every time he makes his views known. He accepts
their views in order to avoid rejection.
o The Steak Escape. Americas Favorite Cheesesteak"
Appeal to Authority (3)- you said that because an authority thinks something, it
must therefore be true
o My 5th grade teacher once told me that girls will go crazy for boys if they
learn how to dance. Therefore, if you want to make the ladies go crazy for
you, learn to dance.
o Jim has a doctorate in theology, and he says its okay to believe in
evolution and the Bible.
Ad hominem (4)- you attacked your opponents character or personal traits in an
attempt to undermine their argument
o How can you argue your case for vegetarianism when you are enjoying
your steak?
o A: All murderers are criminals, but a thief isnt a murderer, and so cant be
a criminal. B: Well, youre a thief and a criminal, so there goes your
argument.
Slippery slope (5)- you said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually
happen too, therefore A should not happen
o We have to stop the tuition increase! The next thing you know, they'll be
charging $40,000 a semester!"
o You can never give anyone a break. If you do, they'll walk all over you.
o "We've got to stop them from banning pornography. Once they start
banning one form of literature, they will never stop. Next thing you know,
they will be burning all the books!"
Appeal to emotion (6)- you attempted to manipulate an emotional response in
place of a valid or compelling argument
o Power lines cause cancer. I met a little boy with cancer who lived just 20
miles from a power line who looked into my eyes and said, in his weak
voice, Please do whatever you can so that other kids wont have to go
through what I am going through. I urge you to vote for this bill to tear
down all power lines and replace them with monkeys on treadmills.

o The new UltraSkinny diet will make you feel great. No longer be troubled
by your weight. Enjoy the admiring stares of the opposite sex. Revel in
your new freedom from fat. You will know true happiness if you try our
diet!
Circular Reasoning (7)- the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end
with
o The Bible is the Word of God because God tells us it is... in the Bible.
o If such actions were not illegal, then they would not be prohibited by the
law."
Hasty Generalization (8)- a person draws a conclusion about a population
based on a sample that is not large enough
o My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since age fourteen and
lived until age sixty-nine. Therefore, smoking really cant be that bad for
you.
o Four out of five dentists recommend Happy Glossy Smiley toothpaste
brand. Therefore, it must be great.

Accommodations (Case Study B)

During this unit, students have the ability to work at their own pace, within
reason. During the stations, groups can spend as much time as they need completing
each station. If a student is absent, all of the materials are online, which they are able to
access. Most of the students read and write below grade level. This unit does not
require much reading or writing. For the commercial project, a planning sheet is
available for groups that need it. This sheet is to help students organize their thoughts
and plan their commercial script. For every written assignment, the students have the
option to either type or write their answers. Since this unit does not require much
reading or writing, the students will not become frustrated as easily if their was a lot of
reading and writing. They will not be graded on their writing except for their commercial
script but that grade is more based on their creativity. There is no required homework
for this unit. After the students complete each station and part of the project, they will
have to report their work to me. This allows me to check for understanding. If I see a
group hasnt checked-in in a long time, I will be able to see if they are struggling or off
task. Students wont want to be off task because the first group to finish the stations up
to standard will be given a small advantage in the commercial project. This small
amount of competition will help generate excitement about logical fallacies and the
project (Nichols and Sullivan). The students are able to pick their own groups so that
they can work with people that they feel most comfortable with. The gifted students will
be able to work faster than everyone else if they need to. The unit uses media and
videos so it relates to student lives.
Citations
"Blended Learning Model Definitions." Clayton Christensen Institute. Clayton
Christensen Institute for Disruptive Learning, 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Nichols, Sharon, and Jeremy Sullivan. "Competition." Education.com. N.p., 23 Dec.
2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Tuzi, Frank, Ann Junko Young, and Keiko Mori. "Go To Commercial: Using Television
Commercials in Multilevel EFL Classrooms." Multilevel and Diverse Classrooms.
N.p.: n.p., n.d. 69-80. Multilevel and Diverse Classrooms. TESOL International
Association. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_cp_multileveldiverseclassrooms_653>.