Today was Argument day. Not debate, but argument--the principles of logic and argument.
We started with inductive and deductive reasoning; I asked my students and they supplied me with definitions of each, and I provided the examples. We then moved on to Aristotle's three appeals: pathos, ethos, logos.
I gave them word associations to remember which was which (pathos = sympathy, ethos = ethics, and logos = logic), then we distinguished each from the other with examples. The students provided most of the examples when I asked, although I have some tried and true examples that I threw in as well:
Pathos: Humane Society commercials
Ethos: Every adult who has ever said to my students "Because I'm an adult and you're a kid"
I also shared my cupcake (or ice cream sundae) analogy: Logos is the cupcake itself, ethos is the icing, and pathos should just be some sprinkles on top.
We then moved on to fallacies in argument. I love teaching fallacies--there are just so many great examples to go with each (especially during an election year)!
Today's class was closer to lecture, but truly I made the students tell me most of the material, so rather than talking at them, I had a conversation with my students about what we have experienced to be successful or unsuccessful arguments. We remember conversations, but rarely monologues, I have found.
I enjoyed teaching fallacies to my sons. I learned along with them. It's surprising how easy it is to get caught up in them and how often advertising plays off our lack of awareness that we have them. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I find fun new examples to use for each fallacy nearly every semester--you're right, our world is full of them.
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