Open Mind
Additional LifeSkills Lesson
Unit 7  Self & Society: evaluating claims
Objective: to provide further practice of evaluating
claims, this time within the context of Self & Society.
The three-step strategy for developing this soft skill is:
Step 1: Identify the claims made. (Ex. A)
Step 2: Think of questions to test the validity of the
claims. (Ex. B)
Step 3: Do research to check the validity of the
factual claims. (Ex. C)
You may decide to highlight this strategy at the
beginning of the lesson, and to conduct a short
discussion to check that the students understand the
skill and why it is useful. However, if you prefer to
teach this lesson without discussing the underlying soft
skill, this is also possible. The lesson is designed to be
engaging and successful either way.
For more information about teaching life skills and ideas
for highlighting the soft skill, please refer to p. xi and
pp. 68–69 of the Teacher’s Book.
MATERIALS:
• board and markers
• copies of the two adverts in Ex. A (one for each
pair of students) (unless you wish to write them
on the board)
Lead-in
Write the following saying on the board: He who asks is
a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains
a fool forever (ancient Chinese proverb).
Put the students in pairs to discuss what it means.
Elicit ideas and confirm the meaning (if you question
something, you may seem a fool at the time, but
ultimately it is those people who never question
anything that are the fools).
Ask the students if they tend to question things or if
they usually accept things at face value (i.e. how they
appear).
© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015. This page may be photocopied and used within the class.
advanced
A
• Write on the board evaluating claims. Put the
students in pairs and give them a few minutes to
brainstorm situations in their everyday life where
they may need to do this. Elicit ideas as a class,
e.g. when trying to evaluate someone’s argument,
when buying a product or service.
• Now dictate the following situation to the class:
You want to get the carpets in your house cleaned.
You’ve done an online search and found two adverts
for local carpet cleaners.
• Have the students stay in the same pairs. Give a
copy of the two adverts below to each pair.
Jackson’s Family Carpet Cleaners
• Family run business with over 30 years’
experience.
• We use the CarpetCare chemical treatment
method – the most effective method available.
Removes 99.9% of dirt and bacteria.
• Cost for an average-sized home is £300.
• Winner of the 2014 regional Customer
Satisfaction Award.
SteamClean Ltd
• We guarantee to clean your house within one
week of your enquiry.
• We use steam extraction – the safest and most
environmentally friendly method.
• What we quote is what we charge – we will never
charge extra.
• If we can’t remove a stain, we’ll take 10% off the
total cost.
• Ask the pairs to identify the claims made by each
company and to write a list of questions they could
ask to check the validity of those claims. Give them
plenty of time for this before eliciting ideas as a class
and writing them on the board.
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Open Mind ADVANCED

Possible answers
Jackson’s:
Do they really have 30 years’ experience?
Is CarpetCare the most effective method and what is
meant by ‘effective’? Does it really remove 99.9%
of dirt and bacteria?
What constitutes an average-sized home?
What is the Customer Satisfaction Award? Is it
prestigious?
SteamClean Ltd:
Can they really do the job within one week of enquiry?
Is there any evidence that steam cleaning is the
safest and most environmentally friendly method?
What do they mean by ‘safest’?
How do we know they won’t charge extra?
How do we know they’ll take 10% off the cost if they
can’t remove a stain? Will they take 10% off even
if they can’t remove a small stain, or does this only
apply to larger stains?
B
• Now give the pairs about five minutes to think about
and discuss how they could find answers to their
questions. If necessary, elicit one or two ideas as a
class to get them started. Then elicit ideas and write
them on the board.
I can totally recommend Jackson’s if you want your
carpets cleaned. Some people don’t like to use
chemicals, but their method got great results on my
carpets, some of which were really dirty. They look
like new! Last time I had them cleaned I had steam
extraction and it just didn’t do such a good job.
My only reservation was the price – I thought it would
cost in the region of £300 as they advertise, but
apparently my three-bedroomed house is classed as
a large home, not average-sized, so it cost a lot more
than that!
• Ask the students to work in small groups to compare
their notes. While they are doing this, write the
following questions on the board.
1 Which of your questions were answered?
2 Which claims were substantiated?
3 Which of the suggestions in Ex. B would you use
to find out answers to the remaining questions?
4 Which company do you think you would use?
• Give the groups about 10 to 15 minutes to discuss
these questions before discussing their ideas as
a class.

Possible answers Reflect

search for reviews on the internet; read independent
research on the two cleaning methods; post on local
internet forums to ask if anyone has used either
company; call the companies and ask them; do an
internet search about the Customer Satisfaction
Awards
• Erase the board and write the following questions:
Do you usually believe what you read? Do you think
you will be more sceptical in the future?
• Give the students time to read the questions and
think about their answers. Invite volunteers to share
their answers with the class.

C
• Tell the students that you have two online reviews
EXTRA: HOMEWORK
Ask the students to make a note of a claim that they
of the companies. Read the following reviews aloud
see made, either on television or in a newspaper
and encourage them to take notes. (You may need
(e.g. a claim made in an advert, or by a journalist
to read them more than once.)
in an article). Encourage them to think of questions
to test the claim and then to do some appropriate
research to find out how valid the claim is. Ask them
I used SteamClean Ltd to do all the carpets in my to report back at the next class.
house and I have to say they did a pretty good
job. Lots of my friends had used them and said they
are always able to get to you quickly – I phoned
on a Tuesday and they were at my house on the
Thursday. My only reservation is about the method
used – certainly their steam method is safe and
environmentally friendly as they only use water, no
chemicals, but they were not able to remove a couple
of large stains. That said, they did give me 10% off
the total cost as promised.
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© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015. This page may be photocopied and used within the class. 2 O CO
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