Evaluating arguments and reasoning

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.11-12.8CCSS RI.11-12.6England: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q4England: AP LanguageEngland: ACT Reading

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Evaluating arguments and reasoning.

I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
I can explain each step and say why it works.
I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques

Leads to: Rhetorical situation: audience, purpose, ethos, pathos, logos; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Rhetoric and persuasive techniques). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

We are not asking for much. We are asking for safe roads. We are asking for clean air. We are asking for a future. Which technique is used? (onomatopoeia / repetition (anaphora) / a statistic / understatement) → repetition (anaphora)Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?
Critics claim the plan is too expensive. Yet doing nothing will cost us far more in repairs within a decade. What does the writer do in these sentences? (acknowledges a counterargument and rebuts it / tells a personal story / describes a setting / agrees completely with the critics) → acknowledges a counterargument and rebuts itPrompt: What is the writer's main claim?
Nine out of ten dentists recommend brushing twice a day. Which persuasive technique is used? (a rhetorical question / statistics and expert authority / humour / an anecdote) → statistics and expert authorityPrompt: What is the writer's main claim?

Hook · 3 min

Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
Share the objective: Evaluating arguments and reasoning. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
Example: "Every student I asked in my class loves the new timetable, so the whole country's pupils will love it." What is the weakness in this evidence?
Step 1: Arguments have a claim supported by reasons and evidence.
Step 2: So the answer is: The sample is too small and unrepresentative to generalise.
Answer: The sample is too small and unrepresentative to generalise.
Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

"Every student I asked in my class loves the new timetable, so the whole country's pupils will love it." What is the weakness in this evidence? (It ignores personal opinion. / It uses too many students. / The sample is too small and unrepresentative to generalise. / It relies on national statistics.) → The sample is too small and unrepresentative to generalise.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?
"Dr Lin's research on traffic can't be trusted; she doesn't even own a car." What flaw does this argument contain? (It is a logical conclusion. / It uses an analogy correctly. / It attacks the person instead of her evidence. / It provides strong evidence.) → It attacks the person instead of her evidence.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

"Either we ban cars from the town centre completely, or the air will never be clean." What flaw does this argument contain? (a balanced counterargument / a personal anecdote / a reliable statistic / a false choice between only two options) → a false choice between only two optionsPrompt: What is the writer's main claim?
"Dr Lin's research on traffic can't be trusted; she doesn't even own a car." What flaw does this argument contain? (It attacks the person instead of her evidence. / It is a logical conclusion. / It uses an analogy correctly. / It provides strong evidence.) → It attacks the person instead of her evidence.Prompt: What is the writer's main claim?

Watch out for

Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

Review first: Rhetoric and persuasive techniques.
Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

Move on to: Rhetorical situation: audience, purpose, ethos, pathos, logos; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal.
Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-12.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Evaluating arguments and reasoning

Name

Date

Score/ 6

1
Question 1
"Either we ban cars from the town centre completely, or the air will never be clean." What flaw does this argument contain?
- A. a reliable statistic
- B. a false choice between only two options
- C. a balanced counterargument
- D. a personal anecdote

The Quiet Infrastructure

When we speak of infrastructure, we tend to picture concrete and steel: bridges, railways, power lines. We rarely think of the public library. Yet libraries are a form of infrastructure as essential, in their way, as any road – and, because their work is quiet, they are easier to neglect. Consider what a library actually provides. It offers free access not only to books but to the internet, to printers, to warm and safe space, to help with forms and applications, to activities for toddlers and to company for the isolated elderly. For a student without a quiet room at home, it is a study hall. For a job-seeker without a computer, it is an office. For a newly arrived family, it may be the first public institution that welcomes them without asking anything in return. Critics argue that, in an age of smartphones, these functions are obsolete. Information is everywhere; why fund buildings full of paper? But the argument confuses access to information with access to opportunity. A phone cannot print a CV, provide a warm room on a winter afternoon or offer the patient guidance of a librarian who can tell a reliable source from a persuasive fake. Moreover, millions of people still lack reliable internet at home. To assume that everyone is connected is to design policy for the comfortable and forget the rest. None of this means libraries should stand still. The best have already transformed themselves into community hubs, hosting coding clubs, repair cafés and citizenship classes. But transformation requires investment, and investment requires us to recognise libraries for what they are: not a nostalgic luxury, but part of the foundation on which a fair society is built. A bridge that collapses makes headlines. A library that closes rarely does. Its users simply scatter, each a little more alone than before. That silence is precisely why we should pay attention.

2
Question 2
Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". What is the writer's central claim?
- A. Bridges are more important than libraries.
- B. Libraries should never change.
- C. Libraries are essential infrastructure that deserve investment.
- D. Libraries should be replaced by smartphones.
3
Question 3
Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". According to the writer, what mistake do critics make?
- A. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.
- B. They overestimate the cost of books.
- C. They ignore the needs of bridges.
- D. They think libraries are too modern.
4
Question 4
Read "The Quiet Infrastructure". How does the writer strengthen the rebuttal in paragraph 3?
- A. by quoting a famous author
- B. by admitting the critics are entirely right
- C. by giving concrete examples of what a phone cannot do and noting many lack internet
- D. by changing the subject to transport

5
Question 5
"Our town's crime fell by 10% the year we installed new streetlights. Clearly, streetlights cut crime." What is the main weakness in this reasoning?
- A. It uses too many statistics.
- B. It assumes that because one thing followed another, it caused it.
- C. It considers other causes too carefully.
- D. It quotes an expert.
6
Question 6
"Dr Lin's research on traffic can't be trusted; she doesn't even own a car." What flaw does this argument contain?
- A. It provides strong evidence.
- B. It attacks the person instead of her evidence.
- C. It is a logical conclusion.
- D. It uses an analogy correctly.

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Answer key: Evaluating arguments and reasoning

1. B. a false choice between only two options
2. C. Libraries are essential infrastructure that deserve investment.
3. A. They confuse access to information with access to opportunity.
4. C. by giving concrete examples of what a phone cannot do and noting many lack internet
5. B. It assumes that because one thing followed another, it caused it.
6. B. It attacks the person instead of her evidence.