CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher:

Ms. Easton

School:
Boltz Middle School
English Language Arts

Date: 11/15/2016
Grade Level: 8

Content Area:

Title: Logical Fallacies

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Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

directly from the standard)

Lesson

(Write Content Standards

CCSS:RI.8.8

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing
whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify
false statements and fallacious reasoning.

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

Understanding each fallacy and how it is commonly portrayed in the students daily
lives.
Understanding how to encounter each fallacy and why it is logically flawednot just
learning fallacies as a type of argument but as a type of argument that cannot be
used and can be refuted in their rebuttal for the error or invalidity of its logic.

Inquiry Questions: (Essential questions relating knowledge at end of the unit of

instruction, select applicable questions from standard)
How can I show that my opponents argument is flawed?
How do I know an argument is flawed?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)

Every student will be able to: (Create your own lesson objectives from the
standard, follow the ABCD format, using student voice)
I can: Find logical flaws in my opponents arguments and explain why they are
invalid.

This means: That I can look at an argument and point out what fallacy it is using.
Then I can show why it is a fallacy so that I can strengthen my own argument.
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List of Assessments: (Write the number of the learning target associated with
each assessment)
1. Worksheet: students will determine which fallacy each of the three
commercials used
2. Homework assignment: students will be able to create three of their
own examples of logical fallacies

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Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson
Should be a creative title for you and the
students to associate with the activity.
Think of the purpose as the mini-rationale
for what you are trying to accomplish
through this lesson.
Approx. Time and Materials
How long do you expect the activity to last
and what materials will you need?

Logical Fallacies

Anticipatory Set
The hook to grab students attention.
These are actions and statements by the
teacher to relate the experiences of the
students to the objectives of the lesson, To
put students into a receptive frame of
mind.
To focus student attention on the
lesson.
To create an organizing framework
for the ideas, principles, or
information that is to follow
(advanced organizers)
An anticipatory set is used any time a
different activity or new concept is to be
introduced.

For Morning Work, the students will read the following prompt on the
SMARTBoard:
Read each argument and write on your notebook why they are
bad arguments.
- We should follow the law because good people follow the
law. People are good because they follow the law.
- You can like either vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream.
- He doesnt wash his socks the week before a game
because he wins every time he doesnt wash his socks the
week before a game.
- You make a good case when you say I cheated, but could
you imagine what would happen to my grades if I got a
zero? I could get kicked out of the football team, and then I
wouldnt do well in school, and then I would drop out of
school and then run away from home!
Students will share their answers, and I will point out that each of these
answers follows a trend: they all point out that these arguments flaws
are due to what are called fallacies.
Before class: I will prepare the classroom with sections of
construction paper, each of which will be labeled with a certain fallacy. I
will tape each one across the classroom and place markers nearby each
station.

Procedures
(Include a play-by-play account of what
students and teacher will do from the
minute they arrive to the minute they

The lesson will last approximately 80 minutes. I will need access to the
SMARTBoard, connection to YouTube to show video clips of fallacies,
worksheets, construction paper, tape, and markers.

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leave your classroom. Indicate the length
of each segment of the lesson. List actual
minutes.)
Indicate whether each is:
-teacher input
-modeling
-questioning strategies
-guided/unguided:
-whole-class practice
-group practice
-individual practice
-check for understanding
-other

Closure
Those actions or statements by a teacher
that are designed to bring a lesson
presentation to an appropriate conclusion.
Used to help students bring things
together in their own minds, to make
sense out of what has just been taught.
Any Questions? No. OK, lets move on is
not closure. Closure is used:
To cue students to the fact that
they have arrived at an important
point in the lesson or the end of a
lesson.
To help organize student learning
To help form a coherent picture and to

15 minutes: Students will go over the morning work explained above.

I will go around the classroom helping students determine why each
argument could be flawed (I will not provide the language defining
fallacies, but I will encourage students to think out loud what about the
argument does not consider a certain position).
8 minutes: Explain that each of these performs a logical fallacy.
Explain that logical fallacies are flaws in reasoning that ruin the point of
the argument. Explain that they are important to learn so that they
dont accidentally make fallacies in their argumentative writing. Most
importantly, show that they can use their knowledge of fallacies to
refute any counterclaims they encounter in their persuasive writing.
25 minutes: Go through Powerpoint. Make sure students take notes.
Briefly go through commercials with fallacies at the end.
20 minutes: Divide students into seven groups and show them each
station, or each of the sheets of paper along the room. Students will
need to write an example of whichever fallacy their station is at.
5 minutes: Bring class together at the end and tell them the
homework.
I will make sure that students understand what a fallacy is and review
their assigned homework.

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consolidate.
Differentiation
To modify: If the activity is too advanced
for a child, how will you modify it so that
they can be successful?
To extend: If the activity is too easy for a
child, how will you extend it to develop
their emerging skills?
Assessment
How will you know if students met the
learning targets? Write a description of
what you were looking for in each
assessment.

If the activity is too advanced for a single child, the student will be able
to collaborate with other students in the group as they work together. If
the activity is too easy for students, I will give them denser arguments
in which it is more difficult for students to find the fallacy. This way
students are getting a greater challenge and will be even more skilled
in locating fallacies.
When students turn in their assigned homework, I will be able to review
them and determine how well they were able to provide examples of
their own fallacies. I aim to make students able to achieve the
synthesis stage of Blooms Taxonomy by creating their own examples of
fallacies.
I also will show the students three videos with television
advertisements at the end, and the students will need to determine
which fallacy (or fallacies) each advertisement used and write that
down on the handout.

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Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize
assessment data to justify your level of achievement)
This lesson was largely unsuccessful. I had expectations that the
students would be able to understand the material as well as
high school students, but only the exceptionally talented
students fully understood the material. I gave the students too
much to learn and did not have enough time to make sure that
they understood everything. I received blank stares from most of
the students during the lecture, even though they followed along
and filled in the answers during the presentation, and during the
assessment the students were not completely certain what they
were doing.
While a wide variety of students participated eagerly and did well
when prompted to think of examples of fallacies they found in
commercials, when they individually or with a partner had to
identify fallacies they saw in commercials they were uncertain of
what to do. I never had time to bring students around the
classroom and think of examples of fallacies on butcher paper.
While I graded the logical fallacies homework for completion,
students simply were not able to create examples that explained
the fallacies they chose.
My mentor teacher wrote in her feedback that for future lessons I
will need to choose only a few fallacies and teach them more in
depth. She also wrote me the following invaluable advice:
-

Define words such as fallacy, dichotomy, and the literal

meaning of red herring for students
Vary your lesson activities so that students are not seated
for 60 minutes of direct instruction, incorporate brain
breaks
When participation is low, increase wait time or pause and
allow students to discuss their thoughts with an elbow
partner
At the end of the lesson, play one commercial at a time
and allow students to process each one individually instead
of three at a time

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would

you make if you were to teach again?
In the future, I would change this lesson strategy completely. I
would follow the advice my mentor teacher gave me, and I would
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give students more time per fallacy. Were I able to teach the
material over the course of two days, Id like to imagine that I
would have been more successful because I would have more
time to make sure every student understood the material and
could work with each fallacy more in depth; however, I would
need to radically change the lesson plan to give more examples
with which students could work on the fallacies. I would give them
more examples of each fallacy and fully define each one and its
linguistic roots, ask them to write-pair-share examples of each
fallacy, and show them commercials every two or three fallacies
that so that they would be able to compound their knowledge in
steps.
One part of the lesson I found surprisingly successful and will
often use again was goading students to think of examples of the
fallacies they found in advertisements and TV commercials they
watch. Students were not very engaged when I asked them to
give examples of fallacies they had encountered before until one
student mentioned a commercial that used the fallacythen
suddenly the entire classroom was able to think of examples.
When I encouraged students to consider fallacies they find in
commercials, they were more energetic and able to find excellent
examples. In the future, I will exploit their fund of knowledge
(from Norma Gonzlez et al., Funds of Knowledge) and prompt
students to find examples based mostly on commercials. I will
depend on this to make the topic more relatable to the students
so that they will understand the omnipresence of fallacies in their
daily lives.
Were I to only teach in one day, I would not expect students to
immediately be able to achieve the Synthesis stage of Blooms
Taxonomy and instead focus on engaging their understanding
through simple recognition of fallacies that they encounterand
make sure that they only learned the important four or five. I
would give students a scavenger hunt at the end where in
groups they need to find the fallacy on their handout and move
around. I will give more effort per fallacy so I have more time in
the future.
*at the same time, I dont believe that the lesson itself was a
failure. I took a risk in hoping that students would understand a
complex topic and know now what I need to do or change for the
future. Instead of using a safe teaching strategy, I am learning
where my students limits are in terms of how much they can
learn in a day, and I am learning more about student
management. In my opinion, understanding that I went wrong, for
which age group my lesson would be appropriate (high school),
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and how to remedy this issue is more valuable than simply one
good lesson.

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice,

reteach content, etc.)
The next lesson will be a new short story in which the students will
make claims and counterclaims to prove a point. Because this is near
the end of the semester, I will not have time to reteach the content;
however, if I were student teaching, I would have students continue to
practice finding fallacies in different arguments.

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