English essay type assignment take seriously
“i’m never going to use this! ”
you are a teacher - pick a subject. one of your students refuses to complete any work you assign to them. you attempt to make the assignments interesting, relevant, and informative. you even allow students to give you advice on how you should present assignments to them, even going so far as to change or eliminate entirely those assignments students feel are too challenging, not important, or simply too boring.

but this student, try as you might, refuses. here is what they tell you on five separate occasions:

1. i’m never going to use this! i can’t believe you keep asking this, it’s like you hate teenagers or something. i’ve passed every class since i started 10th grade. i do my work in my science class. i do what my math teacher tells me. you’re just coming after me because you don’t like me.

2. i’m never going to use this! prove to me i’ll use it, if you think it’s so important. figures that a teacher like you would have a problem with me. i’m learning my way, like how the pioneers did. they didn’t need some teacher wagging their finger in my face all the time. it was natural the way they learned. either i’m going to use this in my life or i’m not.

3. i’m never going to use this! goll-! first homework, then quizzes; the next thing you’ll want is for me to shine your shoes! i’ve got other things to be doing - i’ve spent twelve days at my new job, so i might as well just focus on that. so what if i got that answer wrong? i didn’t even get it wrong, you didn’t ask the question the right way.

4. i’m never going to use this! look, the day after i looked on canvas i got a “c” on that one assignment. obviously i know the content! you even made a mistake on that grade, so that means i didn’t do anything wrong anyway. a real teacher wouldn’t even ask us this! a real teacher would leave me alone - if i want to fail, that’s my business.

5. i’m never going to use this! i know what i know, and that’s what i know. i’ve been in high school for four years, so i know what i’m talking about. everyone knows school’s stupid anyway. you just want us to have no fun at all! you can’t even prove i didn’t do my work, so that means i may have done it! none of my friends do their work anyway, why should i?

work page
with a partner, identify the logical fallacies your student uses in three of the responses above. there are two to four fallacies in each one.

excuse #1

excuse #2

excuse #3

your response
respond to this student by building an argument for why the information you present in your classroom will be useful to them. be sure to have two to three premises that support your conclusion, and be sure to incorporate “they say, i say” into your response.

your response

grading criteria

response is at least 150 words in length. (30%)
response incorporates appropriate argumentative structure, with premises that logically flow to a natural conclusion. (40%)
response demonstrates grammar and spelling appropriate of a 12th grade honors english course. (30%).