Adult Night Class Fall 2018 W4

It’s week 4 of the night class. Time for learn about cause and effect.

Hour 1

Pair Work Conversation (15)

1. What’s something that you’ve always wanted to try?
2. Can you tell me something you’ve always wanted to learn?
3. What’s the craziest thing you have ever done?
4. What interesting food have you eaten?
5. Who is the greatest person you have ever met?
6. Have you ever broken a bone?
7. What sports have you played?
8. What is the best and worst restaurant you have eaten at?
9. Have you ever been on TV or the radio?

Critical thinking Activity 

Intro (5)

In the next 60 minutes, we will finish a 4 part exercise that can improve critical thinking skills. You will learn and use 3 concepts:

• correlation
• cause and effect (causation)
• argument

Part a. Correlation (10)

A correlation describes how two events change at the same time. A correlation does not say that one thing causes the other thing to happen. Just only how they move together.

Here is an example. Let’s look at the Chicago murder chart.

1. What are the 2 variables (the two things that change)?
2. What is the correlation?
3. Does this chart show causation?
4. Is this chart true?

Part b. Correlation Sentence Pattern Practice (15)

You make talk about correlation with a simple sentence pattern. Let’s look at that and practice.

Even More Practice (5)

Look at these correlations. Do they talk about a good cause and effect connection?

• The more I sleep, the more I remember.
• The louder the music in a beer bar, the more beer people drink.

Part c. Superstitions – a special kind of correlation (10)

Read this short dialogue. 

A: Why is there a bag of salt in front of your door?

B: To keep the evil spirits away.

A: Did it work?

B: Yes, we’ve had no bad luck since my mom put the salt near the door.

Superstition is the idea that there is some kind of special power in the world that we cannot see. However, if we do something, we can bring good or bad luck to people.

Superstition is a belief in a cause and effect relationship between two variables. But there is no causation. It might however be correlation.

Here are some examples:

• A baseball player does not change his socks when he is hitting the ball very well for many games. He thinks those socks bring him good luck and that luck makes him hit the ball well.
• In Korea, mothers do not serve seaweed soup for breakfast if a son or daughter has a test on that day.
• I can’t believe I failed my chemistry test. I knew I should have worn my lucky sweatshirt to the test.

Here is the basic sentence pattern of superstitions.

• A happens before B.
• Therefore, A causes B to happen.
• But …. time order is not proof of causation.

Hour 2

Part d. Describe causation with arguments (10)

An argument is an idea that we suggest is true. It has two parts: a claim and at least one premise.

Part 1 Claim

Claim: a statement that can be true or false. For example:

1. There is more air pollution these days.
2. Vegetables are good for you.

Part 2 Premise

A premise is a phrase or sentence that tells us why (or sometimes how) we should believe a claim. For example:

1. There is more air pollution because energy companies are burning a lot more coal.
2. Vegetables are good for you because they contain nutrients and fibre.

Tip

Simplify complex ideas with this sentence pattern. The claim will come before the word because.

• The writer believes (claim) because (premise).
• The writer believes vegetables are good for you because they contain nutrients and fibre.

Pair Work: Practice Making Arguments (10)

1. Cooking at home is a good idea for university students.
2. People should drive compact cars.
3. Getting a job these days is hard.
4. Teaching in elementary school is a good job.

Pair Work: Even More Practice (5)

Arguments are in advertisements. Most arguments begin with the claim, “You should buy this product because …. ”

Take a look at this magazine ad. What’s the argument?

Put it all together!!

a) Critical Thinking Exercise Intro (10)

This slide show introduces the new writing assignment. 

b Watch Video (2)

Commercial Chevy Volt

Pair Work Tasks (15)

1. What’s the argument?
2. Are the arguments presented clearly in the video?
3. Are there any missing arguments?
4. How many premises are there?
5. Using the extra date, do you think the arguments are valid (i.e. true)?

Class Discussion (10)

Let’s think about the advertisement and arguments together.

Extra Notes (2)

These facts by themselves are not very useful for this assignment. You have to create a use for them.

Get the critical thinking notes worksheet here. 

Hour 3

Compound Words (15)

Can you make new words by joining two together? Let’s try and build your vocabulary.

Here is the compound word worksheet.

Can you tell me 4 or 5 …

• invisible things
• things that come in pairs
• things that can be full or empty
• things in a jar
• things in a carton
• things that work well upside down
• one syllable nouns
• elements of Korean feng shui
• two syllable verbs
• three syllable adjectives
• kinds of porridge
• kinds of Korean food (English words only)