A Flipped Classroom: Argument Analysis Essay Example

author, Tucker, makes all the arguments valid and credible because of his resources. He has Bergmann and Sams, the two science high school teachers, who decided to buy software to start this “flipping” of the classroom idea. Absent students appreciated the opportunity to see what they missed.

But, surprisingly, so did students who had not missed class”(Tucker). Bergmann also states, “I now have time to work individually with students” (Tucker). The author also includes important quotes from the science teachers and also from other teachers who have used the idea of “flipping. ” He includes the thoughts of NCAT and the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education which both is credible sources of this topic/subject.

Overall, the article appeals to ethos, but the argument appeals to logos. The article is ethos because it focuses on the two teachers and their idea of “flipping”. The author makes them credible and makes the reader believe the piece even more. The argument, as to how they would find the time to reteach the lessons absentees missed, appeals to logos because of Bergmann and Sams reasoning and evidence as to how it could/did work to find time. Overall, this article was very well organized, which explains how this essay is Classical.

The first paragraph of the essay (Tucker) was straight forward in providing a brief introduction and the main claim of the article. Basically stating Bergmann’s and Sams’ struggles to find time to reteach absentees and then how they invested software with $50 that allowed them to record and annotate lessons, and then could post them online to make available for

the students. The argument itself kind of covers both problem-solution and cause and effect. The cause/problem as stated time and time before is the students that are absent miss out on lessons and the teachers do not have time to teach them.

Then the solution/effect is when they invest in a software program that allows them to record and annotate the lessons then post them online for all students to view, even the students who go to class can view them. It does not really help neither does it harm the argument because the argument itself is pretty straight forward. Now does the tone, language, or word choice help or harm the argument? Not one of these helps neither does it harm the argument. The tone is a normal tone, like an informational/reassurance tone. The language and word choice are simple, not hard at all to understand what the author was trying to get across.

Additionally, nothing is actually missing from this argument/article. The author made sure to give multiple views of “flipping” the classroom and he also added the opposing side and factual facts to support and/or not to support the evidence. To add something to strengthen this argument, they should have probably add more views, for and against the problem. Like adding the thoughts of the students from Bergmann, Sams, Smiths classes who tried the “flipping” or even the professionals from NCAT or UCEA Center for Advance Study of Technology Leadership in Education should input their thoughts.

The conclusion, like in Toulmin’s and Classical argumentative style it ended with a restate of the problem and a brief of each side

of the problem. On a scale between the strong and weak, it is in between, understanding where both sides are coming from and how they both plan to continue in the “flipping” idea and research for it. According to “The McGraw-Hill Guide”, its example of appealing to pity, of common flaws in arguments, they teachers could have possibly felt this way, but the way it sounded in the article was that the teachers wanted to help the absentees.

The article could also have been appealing to tradition because when telling the opposing view they bring up that with “Given educations long history of fascination with new instructional approaches…” “…it also runs the risk of being falsely pigeonholed into one of education’s many false dichotomies, such as the age-old pedagogical debate…” Basically saying this has been going on for some time now. And in conclusion, this issue has its advantages along with its overtime flaws. In the end this article provided well information and it was very clear and did not require people agree or disagree, but for the reader to understand the problem.