Love+is+a+Fallacy


 * As the old song lyrics go, "Oooh love. Look what you've done to me...." Love is something many people think they know, many people think they'll never find, and something that drives some people absolutely insane. "What if you could convince someone to love you?" Is that even possible? Would you do it if you could?**

**This unit will focus on issues of logic. How do we convince someone of something? What is a fallacy anyway? We're going to be reading a short story called, "Love is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman.**



__**About "Love is a Fallacy"**__**:**

The story "Love is a fallacy" is about an intelligent college kid who has a roommate named Petey Burch. Petey was a simple guy who followed the crowd. The intelligent guy likes a girl named Polly who Petey also admires. Using Petey's desire for a raccoon coat against him, the main character uses his intelligence over Petey to win Polly. On his first date he realizes that Polly is not what he thought she was; she did not think or communicate like him. In an effort to make Polly a perfect partner for him, he decides he will give her a lesson in logic and teach her about fallacies. Maybe he can make her as smart as him and Polly will be more enjoyable. He explained to her all the types of fallacies. And with his patience, he had succeeded on making her knowledgeable about fallacies.

He then decides to express his feelings towards her but each time he tries to, Polly can spot the right fallacy for it. She points out the fallacies in every sentence he gives in expressing his love. In the end, Polly admits that she can't be his girl because she has already said yes to someone else. To Petey!! And all for one reason: Petey has a racoon coat.

__**Unit Focus:**__

__Themes__:

This unit is designed to get you thinking about how it's not just //how// you say something but //what// you are actually saying that counts. How does one convince another person of something? How can you use holes in someone's thinking to win an argument? How can we make sure that we are communicating effectively?

The unit is also designed to think about: How does this relate to me and my life? Of course convincing someone to love you has something to do with any of our lives in some regard (hopefully you would never try and CONVINCE someone to love you), but by focusing on the themes of the story and not only on the story details themselves, we can better connect our lives to those of the characters. Hopefully, maybe even learn a little something about ourselves along the way.

__Skills__:

This unit will focus on the following skills-


 * Background knowledge (activating schema)
 * Making connections (text to self, text to text, text to world)
 * Questioning (fat & skinny questions. What's the difference and how can we use them to go deeper?)
 * Making predictions and inferences (what do I think will happen next? What can I figure out the missing details based on clues given by the author?)
 * Understanding how an author uses story elements and lit. devices to tell a story (how can we identify them and use them ourselves?)
 * Summarizing a text (re-telling just the important details about a text)
 * Vocabulary (what is confusing? How do I find the definition to a word I don't know? How do I remember the definition?)
 * Paragraph and essay construction (how can I use a structure to clearly express my ideas about something?)

Click here for your 1st assignment