Motivational Activity: (Give it a witty name)

The teacher will present memes that illustrate logical fallacies (e.g., "Appeal to Authority"

meme of a famous person saying something untrue with the text: “It must be true because they said so!”) and ask students to guess the fallacy type or describe why the reasoning is flawed. The teacher will let the students discuss why these examples do not make sense or lack credibility. Then, the teacher will discuss each example briefly, introducing the concept of logical fallacies in a fun, relatable way.

Lesson Presentation Strategy

The teacher will present examples of logical fallacies and interact with the students for their observation on the texts. Then, the teacher will expound on each type of logical fallacies.

Lesson Development

The teacher will divide the class into five people per group for fallacy type identification activity. Students will be given pictures or texts of relevant or known arguments. Instructions would include students re-enacting the situation wherein their peers have to correctly identify the type of logical fallacy. Students with the most points will be given incentives for their assignment.

Application

The teacher will give each student a short paragraph from a sample position paper that contains logical fallacies and ask them to read the paragraph, identify any fallacies, and rewrite it to improve its credibility by removing or correcting the fallacies.

The Short Paragraph from a Sample Position Paper

The feminist argument that pornography is harmful has no merit and should not be discussed in college courses. I read “Playboy” magazine, and I don’t see how it could be harmful. Feminists might criticize me for looking at porn, but they shouldn’t talk; they obviously look at it, too, or they couldn’t criticize it. Many important people, including the Presidents, writers, and entertainers who have been interviewed by the magazine and the women who pose in it, apparently agree. Scientific studies so far have not proved that pornography is harmful, so it must not be harmful. Besides, to be harmful, pornography would either have to harm the men who read it or the women who pose in it, and since they both choose these activities, they must not be harmful. Feminists should take a lesson from my parents—they don’t like loud music and won’t have it in their house, but they don’t go around saying it’s harmful to everyone or trying to prevent others from listening to it. Ever since feminists began attacking our popular culture, the moral foundation of our society has been weakened; the divorce rate, for example, continues to rise. If feminists would just cease their hysterical opposition to sex, perhaps relationships in our society would improve. If feminists insist, instead, on banning porn, men will have no freedom and no pleasure left, and large numbers of women will be jobless and will have to work as prostitutes to support themselves. In light of these consequences, feminists shouldn’t be surprised if their protests are met with violence. Truly, the feminist argument is baseless.

Generalization

The teacher will ask a question to the class to generalize their topic: “How can identifying and avoiding logical fallacies improve the strength and credibility of an argument in a position paper?”

Assessment

The students will write a one-paragraph argument on a current issue and avoid logical fallacies

and focus on clear, logical reasoning.

Assignment

The students will find a short article or position paper online, highlight any logical fallacies they

find, and explain why these weaken the argumen

Time management and organizing activities.

I was quite lucky to have the opportunity to do a practice teaching session before the actual one because it gave me time to practice time management. During my first teaching session, things didn’t go as I had planned—everything felt a bit off. But in the second session, my teacher gave me a lot of helpful feedback, which made me feel more confident and do better. By the time of the final, actual teaching session, I timed myself to keep track of how much teaching time I had left. I was able to complete every step of my lesson within the allotted time without going over. I was very happy.

Class management

Classroom management was quite easy for me because I’m good at teaching secondary school students. At first, I wasn’t very confident, but gradually I became more confident, and managing the classroom became easier. I focused on activity-based learning, and when the students enjoyed the activities, it made classroom management much easier.

Problem solving while teaching and staying in designated school.

The main issue I faced was with technology. I had to control the slides at the front of the class the whole time, which made me walk back and forth constantly. However, my mentor teacher suggested that I use a pointer to make it easier. Even then, the signal wasn’t very stable, so there were still some problems, but they weren’t too serious.