Marwa El Sayed

Differentiated lesson plan

EDCO 601
6-Oct-14

Date: TBA
Students: 9 high school students - Undergrads
Subject: Intro to Philosophy
Topic: Logical Fallacies
Duration of session: 40 minutes
Pre-assessment: Find out if anyone has studied philosophy before or
the topic of logical fallacies. Possibly ask them to read in advance a
short one-page on the structure of an argument, definition of a fallacy
and a brief overview.
Preparation:
1. Review different resources and select 10 of the most common logical
fallacies for students to examine during the lesson.
a. Hasty Generalization
b. Circular Reasoning (begging the question)
c. Slippery Slope
d. Ad Hominem
e. False cause
f. Appeal to Authority
g. Appeal to the people (bandwagon)
h. Red Herring
i. False dichotomy (False dilemma)
j. Non sequitur
k. False Analogy
l. Strawman
2. Select videos, transcripts, quotes and pictures from various sources to
help illustrate examples of fallacies in everyday communication.
3. Prepare 4 centers of discovery:
a. PowerPoint presentations: short bullet point form
b. Instructional videos
c. Books, Wikipedia: more comprehensive
d. Illustrative pictures
4. On the whiteboard:
a. Write down a couple of sentences employing fallacies
i.
ii.

iii.

As everyone knows, leaders are born, not made.

Either we raise taxes or Social Security fund will go

bankrupt.
If I can balance my checkbook, why cant the Congress
balance the budget?

iv.

If we let the government ban assault rifles, the next thing you
know theyll be taking all of our guns away.

Seating arrangement:
For first part semi-circle and for second part prepare around centers at
the back of the room
Materials/Equipment:
Laptop - USB - iPad Books: Informal fallacies - Printouts
Learning Objectives and Goals: By the end of the session, the
SWBAT:

Recognize and identify informal logical fallacies in everyday

communication: advertisements, speeches, print, and quotes.

Come up with their own examples of different kinds of fallacies.

Understand the importance of avoiding the use of fallacies in

their own speech and writing and how it weakens their
arguments.

Come up with alternative ways of improving arguments that are

riddled with fallacies.

Methods used:
1. Start by presenting a short fallacy - on screen: video, speech,
transcript, quote OR written on the board.
2. As a group elicit students assessment of the arguments. Do you
see any problems here?
3. Short intro to Logical Fallacies on PowerPoint slides
a. Objectives of this unit
b. Argument structure
c. Why study Logical Fallacies?
4. Class is divided into 3 groups of 3 OR 4 pairs and each group is
given 3 fallacies to work on.
5. Students visit the centers collecting information about the
chosen fallacies.

6. They may choose to visit one center only or more than one given
the time limit allotted. If you are confident that you understand
it well enough, and you don't need to go to another station that's
your choice you don't have to visit all centers.
7. Students are told they will come back to the main circle to
present their 3 fallacies in whatever means they like:
a. They can verbally explain
b. They can draw/write on the board
c. They can illustrate it with a short skit
8. The teacher oversees, goes around the different centers to make
sure everyone is on task. Remind them to take notes as they are
collecting information so they can share it later on and also while
others are presenting their fallacies.
9. Play the game: Name that Fallacy!
a. In their groups students compete to get as many answers

10.

as possible
b. Use both written examples as well as videos (ads)
For HW: Students will investigate the remaining fallacies for

an end of unit project.

a. Write up a conversation between two people or a speech.
b. Design a comic strip, or an advertisement.
c. With a partner, act out a scene or debate a particular topic.
Justification:
The centers present the same content in different ways in order

to appeal to the different learners.

The students get to choose their preferred work setting, how best

they choose to obtain the information.

HW assignment allows them to choose how they will be
assessed.

Pictures center visual info:

Printed out and placed on the wall