Suggestions for Teaching Chapter 10:
Becoming a Critical Reader

Copyright 2004 © Laraine Flemming.


1. It's important that students know the purpose or goal of critical reading: In possession of critical reading skills such as distinguishing between fact and opinion or recognizing tone, they are in a better position to analyze and evaluate explanations or arguments. As a result, they can make informed decisions about any number of issues from buying a used car to choosing a political candidate. Perhaps more than any other generation, our students are bombarded with claims about what's right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate. If they don't want to be led like sheep, they need to be in a position to evaluate those claims. Once I present critical reading in this light--as a way of avoiding being fooled or misled--half my work is done because students, like everyone else, hate being considered naive or gullible.

2. If pressed for time, I move as quickly as possible to the section on blending fact and opinion (pages 661-670) and breeze through the previous exercises. It's absolutely essential that students understand how one seemingly innocuous word can shape the reader's perception of a fact. If you can squeeze it in, an additional exercise on the blending of fact and opinion is well worth it.

3. In any discussion of evaluating opinions, the same old saw always comes up: Everyone has a right to an opinion. Within limits, this is certainly a legitimate position, but students often cling to it because they don't know how to validate their own opinions. It's safer for them to be egalitarian and act as if every opinion were worthy of the same consideration and respect. Then nobody has to do the hard work of justifying disputed or controversial points of view.

I think it's important to meet this objection head-on and tell students that they can personally be open-minded about any opinion no matter how nonsensical. Nevertheless, they still have to realize that the rest of the world will not necessarily follow suit. Whether they are writing a research paper or participating in a union meeting, students need to know that they will not be taken seriously if they can't support their opinions with the appropriate evidence. Viewed from this perspective, the ability to evaluate opinions becomes an important skill, even for those students who claim it's undemocratic to be so intellectually picky.

4. Ask students to bring in examples of opinions they think are well or poorly argued. Don't, however, restrict them solely to written arguments. Let them bring in opinions they heard from a friend or on television. The source doesn't matter—at least not to me—what matters is the evidence cited in support of that opinion. This assignment requires students to take a stand and be ready to explain why they think an opinion was or was not well argued.

Although it may forever brand me as a low-brow, let me suggest that USA Today is a great source of pro and con arguments on issues that interest students, and I would encourage them to look at it for this specific purpose.

5. When teaching this chapter, I like in-class debates on controversial issues like the use of surrogate mothers; a citizen's right to bear arms; the return of the death penalty; adult prison sentences for juvenile offenders; the value of bilingual education; and restrictions on smokers, among others. I give students a list of topics on which they are to form an opinion, and they have to come to class prepared to argue that opinion. The resulting discussion is usually pretty exciting, and students like being able to voice and argue a position on something they care about deeply.

6. If there is time, I like to introduce students to another common, very common, error in logic: slippery slope thinking. This kind of thinking, particularly common among tabloid journalists, insists that one step in a particular direction will invariably lead to more of the same, only much worse.

Here's an example: "Because some children are allergic to peanuts, cafeterias are beginning to eliminate peanut-based foods. While it's unfortunate that some children cannot eat peanuts without suffering a terrible reaction, forcing every child in the school to forgo peanuts does seem unfair. And where will the list end? I'm allergic to tomatoes, does that mean that were I to attend grammar school, tomatoes would be forbidden? Perhaps strawberries, which cause hives in so many of us, would have to disappear from the school menu as well. Then would come eggs. By the time the food censors were through, there would be little or nothing left in the school cafeteria to eat."

Those fond of the slippery slope approach assume that similar cases or events are exactly the same in every aspect. Thus they are bound to produce the exact same results. Slippery slope thinkers don't take significant differences in similar situations into account. To accept the above argument about the school cafeteria, for example, one has to ignore that for allergic children, eating peanuts can prove deadly whereas eating strawberries sometimes causes hives but doesn't lead to death. Thus accepting the fact that peanuts have to be purged from the menu does not automatically mean that strawberries and eggs will have to go too.



Last change made to this page: August 12, 2004

Quiz 1: Blending Fact and OpinionQuiz 2: Recognizing Tone and Purpose

Quiz 3: Looking for Errors in ArgumentsExercise: Expressing Opinions

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