Unit(s): Debate
Purpose:
Students will note how much they read into what they read or hear.
Objectives:
Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills and analytical skills as they differentiate between fact and inference.
Materials:
- Difference in statement of fact and inference handout
- The Robber Story
Procedure:
- Review with students the difference in a fact and an inference.
- Give students a copy of The Robber. They are to read the paragraph and answer the questions which follow.
- After all students have completed the assignment discuss the answers with students. Ask them why they missed the questions they did. Did they assume? What stereotypes are evident in their answers?
Made after observation or experience.
Confined to what one observes; cannot be made about the future.
Limited number possible.
High probability - not certain - perception may be faulty.
Brings people together; further agreement.
Made anytime - before, during or after observation.
Goes beyond what one observes; may concern the past, the present or the future.
Unlimited number possible.
Represents some degree of probability.
Creates distance between people; likely to cause disagreement.
The businessman had just turned off the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opened the cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up and the man sped away. A member of the police force was notified promptly.
Based on this story determine if the following statements are fact or inference.
A businessman had just turned off the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opens a cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up and the man sped away. A member of the police force was notified promptly.
1. A man appeared after the owner had turned off his store lights. T F ?
2. The robber was a man. T F ?
3. The man did not demand money. T F ?
4. The man who opened the cash register was the owner. T F ?
5. The store owner scooped up the contents of the cash register T F ?
and ran away.
6. Someone opened a cash register. T F ?
7. After the man who demanded the money scooped up the T F ?
contents of the cash register, he ran away.
8. While the cash register contained money, the story does not T F ?
state how much.
9. The robber demanded money of the owner. T F ?
10. The story contains a series of events in which only three persons T F ?
are referred to: the owner of the store, a man who demanded
money, and a member of the police force.
11. The following events were included in the story: someone T F ?
demanded money, a cash register was opened, its contents
were scooped up, and a man dashed out of the store.