Standard: RI.9-10.8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
Learning Target: Students will read a nonfiction article comparing the Genesis flood to the flood in Gilgamesh, and learn about bias and finding reliable sources.
Activator: Noah’s Ark
Welcome to a shiny new Thursday, everyone! Today we’re going to be continuing with our discussion of Gilgamesh, and reading a lil bit of nonfiction about it I found this article online that compares the flood we read about in Gilgamesh to the flood that’s written in the book of Genesis in the Bible…but….
..before we get into that, let’s actually do some comparison in our own minds, shall we? I know a lot of you guys are familiar with Noah’s story from the Bible, but just in case we need a refresher, I will read the story aloud to y’all while you follow along in the textbook (it starts on page 44). Now, with that read, let’s talk about comparing the two!
There is a lot of controversy over which story came first – Gilgamesh or Genesis – and this article talks a little about why it’s so important to so many people. However, one thing we need to consider when we read articles – especially ones from the internet – is something called bias.
bi·as
/ˈbīəs/
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| Verb: |
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| Synonyms: | noun. prejudice – inclination – partiality – tendency
verb. influence – prejudice |
Interesting concept, right? If an author is prejudiced, or biased, towards one side or another, sometimes that belief comes across in their writing. It’s important for us, as scholars, to realize when an author is biased. Just because an author is biased does not mean they’re wrong – so don’t think I’m saying that – but it does mean that they’re unwilling to consider another point of view, or at least that they’re not considering another point of view in this particular piece.
Do you think an author can really make a good argument if they refuse to consider any other points of view? Do you think the author of this article is willing to look at the other side of things?
We’ll talk about what this means today while we read the article together and answer some questions
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