Self-study
Some teachers claim that students would not learn curricular content without the incentive of grades. ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author argues that grades do not serve a purpose in schools as an incentive to learn because students who really love the material taught there would learn it without needing to be incentivized, and students who are entirely indifferent to the material would not respond to such an incentive.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author addresses two groups of students who fall at extremes of a spectrum: the students who are very excited about their school’s curriculum and the students who could not care less about it. However, he fails to address students in the middle of the spectrum, who might be somewhat interested in the material but not care enough to learn without an incentive like getting good grades. The author’s sweeping conclusion about the utility of grades for all students fails to address this group, so his argument is unsupported.
11.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
takes for granted ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ █ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████████
The author’s argument is concerned with how grades are used in schools, not with the purpose of the schools themselves.
b
takes for granted ████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████
Students indifferent to their grades are different from the two groups the author highlighted, who are indifferent to or very excited about the material being taught. This answer choice is wrong because it focuses on the students’ feelings towards grades rather than the material.
c
fails to consider ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ███████
Grades might serve some purpose outside of academics, but our author is not concerned with this. His conclusion very specifically applies to the academic usefulness of grades, so nonacademic purposes would fall outside the scope of this argument.
d
ignores the possibility ████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████
The author’s argument is not concerned with changing the curriculum presently taught in schools; rather, he focuses on students’ attitudes towards the current curriculum.
e
fails to consider ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██████
This answer choice highlights the group of students who don’t fall into one extreme attitude toward the curriculum. Because the author does not address this middle group, his broad conclusion about the usefulness of grades cannot be applied to all students.