Logical Fallacy Skit Project for AP® Seminar and High School ELA

This is a group skit project designed originally for an AP Seminar class. After using it in AP Seminar, I started applying it in my 10th grade English classes as we covered argumentation and rhetoric. It's a great way to introduce the many types of fallacies to your students and get them to actually remember them. In AP Seminar, students must be well-versed in identifying arguments and lines of reasoning, but students also need to be able to offer valid criticism of incomplete or invalid arguments. The project requires students to plan and perform a series of skits which is a great way to get your students in front of the class- a skill they need to develop quickly in this course!

Teaching students to identify fallacies is incredibly helpful for showing them how to offer a criticism of an author's argument. They do not need to have all the types of fallacies memorized, but just having them work through some common fallacies gives them a toolbox with which to work for dissecting and evaluating arguments and line of reasoning.

Included in this resource is a 4 page worksheet with a list of common fallacies. Students need to define and give examples for each fallacy listed. When students have completed this individual assignment, they should form groups for the skit portion of the project.

Fallacies covered include:

• Hasty Generalizations
• Post Hoc (False Cause)
• Slippery Slope
• Weak Analogies
• Appeal to Authority
• Ad Hominem and Tu Quoque
• Straw Man
• Red Herring
• False Dichotomy
• Equivocation
• Appeal to Ignorance