Tag: critical thinking

Logical Fallacies and Critical Thinking

The History’s Mysteries project is about more than just giving students topics to write about. It also teaches students the critical thinking tools they need to evaluate information and find good sources. That includes distinguishing between fact and opinion, recognizing bias, finding authoritative sources and citing those sources correctly. Critical thinking skills also includes avoiding logical fallacies in texts, as well as students’ own writing.

Our worksheet (fill out the form below to download it) identifies some of the most common logical fallacies. The worksheet discusses the fallacies, why they are illogical, and gives students practice identifying fallacies in the wild, while also picking out good logical arguments.

Here are some logical fallacies that I think are really important to understand in today’s world, and how they are often seen in the wild.

Whataboutism:

You counterattack your opponent calling them a hypocrite rather than defending your argument. The fact  that someone else did something wrong or that your opponent is not perfect does not actually make you right, however.

• You say that I broke the law? Well, were you angry when another person broke the law?
• You say you have a solution to climate change, but you drive a car which produces a lot of air pollution.

Sometimes, you’ll see a comment on an article discussing a completely unrelated topic. This draws the writer’s attention and that of future commentators away from the article and onto a topic of the commenter’s choosing.

• You’ve raised some interesting points about why the candidate I support is not perfect. But have you heard about this guy who appears to share the same beliefs as you? He’s a criminal and yet you say nothing about him in this article.

Ad Hominem

You attack the person instead of the argument, often with insults or accusations of bad behavior. However, people can have personal flaws and still produce logical arguments. Often, these days this argument takes the form of accusing the other person of bias or suggesting they have personal reasons to attack you. Neither method addresses the logic of an argument though.

• Of course, you would say I’m wrong. You subscribe to a newspaper that often disagrees with me, so you’re obviously brainwashed to hate me.
• Sure, students say they have too much homework. But they also don’t keep the bathrooms clean so I don’t see why we should believe them!

Begging the Question

You support your argument with logic that is only true if your argument is true. Notice that this isn’t the same thing as “raising a question”.

• According to my autobiography, I’m very intelligent, so it must be true. Why else would I write that?
• Exercise is the best way to stay healthy because the healthiest thing you can do is exercise.
• This movie is very popular, probably because a lot of people like it.

Slippery Slope

Arguing that something is wrong because it can lead to some extreme case or example.

• If we let these immigrants fleeing a natural disaster into our country, we have to let anyone in and soon we’ll be flooded with millions of new people, and we won’t have done background checks on any of them, and we won’t have the resources to feed and house and employ all 7 billion people on Earth!
• I have to punish you for this. Otherwise you’ll do more and more bad things and eventually end up in jail!

Strawman

You oversimplify or distort your opponents’ argument to make it easier to attack. Sometimes this is done by linking your opponent to another group. This is very common in political debates and it often overlaps with slippery slope fallacies. One of the easiest ways to make your opponent look bad is to pretend they want some kind of extreme measures.

• My opponent says he wants to increase funding for police departments. Sounds like he wants the police to be standing on every corner watching our every move.”
• The teachers want limits on how many hours they can be forced to work. But last year, university professors in the neighboring state agreed to give up overtime. So what exactly do these teachers and professors even want?”
• You say you want to buy a cat? But many people are allergic to cats, so basically you want me to stop having friends over after school!”

Don’t forget that logical fallacies often come from misguided, but sincere, attempts to discuss an issue rationally. Who among us hasn’t inadvertently cherrypicked data to support our opinions or delighted in a ad hominem attack about a public figure we don’t like? We don’t mean to, but it happens. When our flaws in logic are pointed out, we take them back and create better arguments.

Rhetorical Techniques That Use Logical Fallacies

However, sometimes it feels as if trolls and partisan actors are working to create flawed rhetorical techniques deliberately. These techniques often disguise the fallacies by cloaking them in emotional language or merging a few fallacies together. And they play on common sense intuitions that are all too human, but do not represent the best of human reason. Here are a few that I think deserve special attention, particularly when students read about “hot” topics such as gun control, voter rights, immigration, COVID-19 measures, and claims by political figures.

Magician’s Force

You could also call this “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” but magician’s force sounds classier and is more classroom friendly. The name comes from a method used by stage magicians to control a magic trick while giving you the illusion of choice (well-known enough that I don’t think I’m spoiling anything. Good magicians use it without you even realizing it anyway).

Imagine that there are two cards on a table. The magician wants you to choose the card on the right. So they tell you to pick any card you want. However, if you choose the card on the left, the magician says to discard it. If you choose the card on the right, the magician says to flip it over. So you control your choice, but the magician controls the reaction.

In the rhetorical world, this fallacy works by finding fault no matter what. The criticism is often crafted into talking points and spread by partisan organizations. It’s particularly blatant when employed inconsistently.

For example:

• I like this linguist’s talks on TikTok but why does she wear so much makeup? It really detracts from her credibility. That other account is great too, but it’s hard to watch her because she always wears an old T-shirt. If you want people to take you seriously, you need to dress up a bit!
• You need to spend more time on self-care. Relax and enjoy yourself. But you also need to figure out how to be more productive so that you don’t become lazy!
• We shouldn’t get involved in this conflict. The government is wrong to send our soldiers into danger all the time. And remember I’m not a dove. I have always said we need to get involved in this other conflict. Our government is too slow to use military action to stop these dangerous forces!

Rhetorical Ignorance

Another classic logical fallacy is the appeal to ignorance, the belief that if there’s little or no evidence against you, it must be true! In the age of the Internet, appeal to ignorance is becoming not just a logical fallacy, but a sign that the person is arguing in bad faith.  I’m not saying Googling is the same as researching, weighing evidence, and coming to a well-founded conclusion. But it’s hard to say “I’ve never seen an elephant swim” or “I don’t remember your newspaper writing stories about this event” when you can look up “elephants swimming” or search the newspaper archives for stories.

And yet, you’ll often find people making false assertions, often disguised as rhetorical questions, without any acknowledgement that the truth can easily be discovered. Because the person rarely acknowledges the truth, it’s a very effective way of spreading falsehoods quickly. Note that the person often uses hedges like “I don’t think” or “I doubt” or “It’s hard to believe” so they can claim that they didn’t actually accuse anybody of anything. It’s appeal to ignorance on steroids. I haven’t seen it and I’m certainly not going to look for it!

For example:

• My opponent says he cares about veterans. But has he ever sponsored any programs or laws to help them? I doubt it.
• If this issue is so important, why hasn’t the mayor ever mentioned it in a speech? I don’t remember them every saying a word about it!

This technique works well in combination with whataboutism, calling someone a hypocrite for not doing something even if they may well have done that very thing.

• Your newspaper talks about these kinds of incidents but I’ve never seen you mention this other event, not even once!

In many cases, you see statements that the person admits are totally fictional:

• The administrators have cut the school budget again. But I’ll bet they have plenty of money for their own offices! They probably have brand new computers and leather chairs and all sort of things!

Casting Doubt

This fallacy (some call it the fallacy fallacy) says that if any part of an idea is questionable, the whole idea is wrong. It ignores the fact that no idea is beyond criticism or doubt and no action will be 100% effective. It’s an easy one to use to target large concepts and widescale policies.

For example,

• If evolution is real, why aren’t there talking apes?
• God can’t be real because there are so many different religions that disagree.
• This new program to boost test scores isn’t working because some kids are still getting low scores.

The trick is that these kinds of questions are not necessarily bad questions. People of faith have questions and doubts. Lawmakers are always looking to evaluate and improve programs they create and scientists are supposed to be asking questions and clarifying points. The fallacy is in assuming the existence of any doubt means the whole concept is invalid. Furthermore, proponents of the idea in question have usually thought of these questions before and can address them, even if they can’t solve them to everyone’s satisfaction!

Nitpicking Sealions

You may have heard of sealioning, where someone, often a troll on social media, insists on asking question after question. They allege that they are simply trying to understand your position but in fact they are trying to annoy you so that you lash out. They will then claim (ad hominem style) that because you said something mean, your position is wrong. It’s also a great way to find questions to cast doubt. Eventually, they dig down to some level where you aren’t sure of the answer or you can’t account for all the nuances.

For example,

A: You say that yoga reduces your stress?

B: Yes. I always feel more relaxed after doing yoga.

A: But how exactly does stretching your body lower stress levels?

B: Well, I don’t know exactly what the connection is.

A: Your ignorance of anatomy and organic chemistry proves that yoga doesn’t make you healthier!

Teaching Logical Fallacies

These are only a few of the logical fallacies and bad-faith rhetorical techniques used out there. I’ll consider talking about some more in the future. Regardless of the method used, we can give students skills to help them spot faulty thinking and create arguments that are valid. To bring logical fallacies into the classroom, you can:

• Download the Logical Fallacies worksheet below which identifies common logical fallacies
• Have them find real world examples of arguments and analyze them for fallacies and deceptive rhetorical devices. Examples can include: advertisements, speeches by politicians, opinion essays newspapers, even social media posts.
• Controversial takes on historical events are another great source of potential logical fallacies. Check out History’s Mysteries for examples!
• Students can peer edit each other’s essays and look for fallacies, then suggest how to fix them.
• Have students write logically fallacious statements or paragraphs and then fix them.
• Check out more resources including flashcards and classroom posters at https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/.
• Enjoy these logical fallacy referee memes to employ on social media or use as flash cards: https://imgur.com/a/QDbyt/all.

Guess What’s in the Teacher’s Brain: Asking Better Questions in the Classroom

This post comes from a chapter in a book by Penny Ur or Tessa Woodward about asking questions in the classroom. It’s been a while since I read it, but the essence was that too often when teachers pose a question, they are asking students to read their minds. That is, we ask a question to students that may have many answers. But we already know the answer that we want to hear. We will refuse to accept any answer besides the one in our head. And there’s no way for students to know that “right” answer, since other answers are equally valid. So asking questions in the classroom becomes an exercise in reading the teacher’s mind, not a chance to engage with the material.

I fell down?

There’s actually a great example at the beginning of the Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. The movie opens with a job training for monsters who are going to jump out of closets and scare kids (but not hurt them-this is a Disney movie, after all). The first monster in the kid’s room simulator, Mr. Bile, trips over the toys and hilarity ensues:

Obviously this would not scare a child. Afterward, the instructor asks the trainee monsters, “What was Mr. Bile’s mistake?”

Mr. Bile says, “I fell down?” This turns out to be the wrong answer. In fact, the mistake was not closing the door. This would lead to a child entering the monster world which would create chaos! OK, the instructor has a valid point. But surely it’s natural for the class to be focused on the part where Mr. Bile fell down, then bounced around in comedic pain! The question wasn’t really a question at all. It was a way to tell the trainees to always close the door. “What was Mr. Bile’s mistake?” has many valid answers, but the teacher wanted only ONE correct answer! So asking questions in the classroom can be tricky!

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Creating a Classroom Community Builder Activity

I’m a big proponent of getting to know you activities, not only on the first day of class, but beyond. However, you should definitely do icebreakers or warmers mindfully. Getting to know you activities are really for building community in the classroom. Sometimes that means you have to tweak your planned icebreaker to turn it into a classroom community building activity. That’s why I love this article with a good set of questions for choosing and implementing classroom community builders or other icebreakers. Or if you’re like me, you love to create your own activities. In that case, this article is a great guide to creating a classroom community builder of your own. I’m adding the article to my list of resources for great icebreakers and warmers.

Questions to Consider

Among the things to consider when creating a classroom community builder, according to the author, is:

“What do you want to achieve with an icebreaker? Do you want to set the tone for the learning community or lead into course content in engaging ways?”

This is a really important thing to think about. A lot of times we deploy an activity on the first day of class expecting community without thinking it through. It feels like that South Park episode about the underwear gnomes

• Step 1: Activity that looks fun/went well for us before/students enjoy
• Step 2: ?????
• Step 3: Classroom Community

Why Are We Doing This?

So it’s worth taking a second to sit and think about exactly what we want to do here! I’d add some other purposes for using community builders, such as building rapport among students, learning students’ interests and needs, and learning names. No one activity is going to do all these things. So it’s good to know why you are doing the activity you are. Sometimes I also find an activity that teaches me student interests can also help me learn names. Because each student has to go around and speak once or twice (for example), I ask them to say their name first. So thinking about purpose can help you adapt an activity and make it more useful or dare I say, purposeful?

I also love that the authors recommend explaining the purpose of the activity to students. I often forget to explain to students why we are doing the things we are doing. And some icebreakers may feel like empty fun if we forget to explain our purpose to our students. A fun activity done in the first few minutes of class can go wrong if students aren’t quite in classroom mode, as well.

Creating Your Own Community Builders

In addition to the advice in this article, if you’re looking for a chart that can help you creating a classroom community builder or icebreaker of your own, I’ve created a DIY creating a classroom community builder chart that outlines the four major steps of an icebreaker activity. In writing 50 Activities for the First Day of School, and then Classroom Community Builders: Activities for the First Day and Beyond, I tried to identify some of the typical steps that go into an icebreaker. Although this doesn’t apply to every activity, here’s what I came up with.

1. Students usually acquire information from each other or the classroom or teacher. From the other side of the coin, they are sharing or giving information
2. Then they usually have to record that information somewhere, and usually as they record it, they are manipulating it, doing something with it.
3. Then they share or distribute the information.
4. Finally, they use that information in someway. This step can be as simple as reporting back to the class or as complex as writing a biographical essay about a partner.

Reverse-Engineer a Community Builder

For each step, the chart has a number of examples of how that could be done. You can also think back on your favorite icebreaker and reverse engineer it to see how it accomplishes each of these steps. For example,  Instant EFL Lesson Plans starts with an activity called “Circle of Life”. I’ve used it as grammar practice, but the author, Cristian Spiteri, uses it as an icebreaker. Let’s take a look at how it works:

In this activity you write some important information about yourself without telling students the meaning. Students have to guess what it means. I might write Victor, 1995, 20, Minecraft. Students ask questions or make guesses to figure out what those words and numbers mean. In this case, I have a good friend named Victor. I graduated university in 1995. I have been teaching for 20 years. I love to play Minecraft.

Circle of Life 

Does this fit the pattern?

1. Students acquire information that you write on the board.
2. They manipulate it by guessing the significance, which takes some logic and critical thinking skills. (They don’t really record it though, do they?)
3. They share it by asking questions.
4. And they use it to figure out what the words mean!

Check out my other Back to School Tips or share your own advice for icebreakers, warmers, or classroom community builders in the comments. You can also browse our Back to School titles in our catalog of Teacher Tools.

How to do a Play with ESL Students

Producing a play in class can be an amazing learning experience. Drama is more than just a way to cover a book or a fun treat! Plays are a powerful too for teaching speaking skills, particularly natural, authentic English conversation. And producing a play is a great group project, a fantastic example of project-based learning. However, doing a play can be a challenge. So our author, Alice Savage has provided her extensive and valuable experience in how to do a play with ESL students!

She produced her own original play, Rising Water, with her community college students. You may need to find plays of different levels and topics to take into account your students’ age and level. But the basic process of producing a play in class is the same! And the payoffs are just as rich!

Why do a play in the ESL classroom?

Thunder claps, lightning strikes, and rain begins to fall as two high school students approach the bus stop. Magnus is a model child with good grades, Ajax is a bit of a misfit But as an ordinary autumn rain turns into a natural disaster, the issue what kind of people we’ll really need in the future is called into question in a new way.

In the production of this exciting play, the audience responds viscerally to the action and the performances of the students. When a play goes well, something miraculous happens. The actors’ classmates, teachers and friends are following the plot. They understand the pronunciation, and they empathize with the characters. These ESL actors have brought a story to life, and they have done it in English. Plays are not only powerful stories and speaking practice: they are great group work opportunities.

To being the group together, however, they had to do some work. In this elective, an integrated skills through theater class, students took on the ultimate group project, a play. In this post, we will share Alice’s process and her advice for how to do a play with ESL students. It’s not as difficult as you might think!

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10 Ways to Teach English with Plays

Why teach English with plays?

Plays are a natural resource for the English language classroom. They offer opportunities visit and revisit language in action, particularly if the play was written in natural dialogue. Furthermore, when students read an informational text, or even a short story, they aren’t always thinking about communication beyond the words. However plays are written to be spoken. That means playwrights must consider how their lines will sound out loud. That’s why plays reveal insights into the way speakers use fixed expressions, intonation, and gesture to convey feelings or wants, and to navigate relationships.  And they do so more effectively than other texts.

What’s more, producing a play, even in readers’ theater format, helps students loosen up and feel more confident “playing” with English and its many possible meanings. When students know what they are supposed to say, they can focus more on how to say it. In fact, when students have a script, they can practice different ways of saying the same line and explore how the meaning changes. Finally, producing a play can bring a motivating and much-needed sense of fun to the classroom.

Alice Savage, author of the Integrated Skills for Drama series, has written 10 ideas for extending the content or language of a script into a lesson. And we’ve turned them into images that you can download, print out, and add to your teacher room or classroom wall.

The activities can be used in any order and can suit a variety of goals. Some help students overcome insecurities about speaking and performing. Others foster critical thinking and writing skills, and some help ground pronunciation or grammar work in a relevant context. Pick and choose, adapt, and modify. Looking for other resources for doing plays in class? Look no further!