Teaching Logical Fallacies in Social Problems

Because of post hoc changes I've made to my social problems curriculum, I now have two extra days coming up in a few weeks where nothing is scheduled (I scrapped their third multiple choice quiz and am having them do a series of four assignments that will help prepare them for their final project instead).

I'm thinking about filling the extra days with instruction on logical fallacies and an in-class activity. The vast majority of these students are not sociology majors. They aren't planning on going into research, either. They will graduate and get all different sorts of jobs, and many will leave the world of academia behind forever. More important than deep theoretical understandings of social problems is an ability to critically approach information about social problems as it is presented to them (likely via the media).

I think the best place to find a good debate to deconstruct is in the comments thread of a controvertial post. But it will have to be a good thread. Anybody know any controversial posts with really good comment threads?

So, the project would go something like this:

1. A lecture on Logical Fallacies: How to spot them, how to refute them.
2. A review of the basic components of analyzing a social problem: distinguishing descriptive conditions from subjective concerns, determining the root influence of the subjective concern (belief about descriptive conditions, values, morals), finding the counterarguments.
3. Find a good post on a problem that is relevant and interesting. The one that gave me this idea is Why Would Scholastic Book Fairs Ban Books With Same-Sex Parents in Them?
4. To prep, I would take the article and comments thread and make a handout out of it, numbering the comments for easy reference.
5. Give each student a copy of the article and about 10 comments. The student must analyse the comments for claims being made about descriptive conditions, what subjective concern is being raised and why, and are there any logical fallacies present.
6. Conclude with students sharing any interesting comments and what their analysis of it was.
7. They submit their work, and I can put together a general overview of what they found to present to them the next class period (I wonder how long that would take.)

Another option, which I think might be more fun, less work for me, but would it be as instructive, since they're not seeing real-life examples of the fallacies and arguments?

1. Do the lecture on logical fallacies and the review of how to deconstruct a social problem.
2. Pass out a controversial article.
3. Have students write five comments of their own on the article. One of the comments would use their knowledge of how to deconstruct a social problem to agree with whatever is being said, then a second would use that same knowledge to disagree. Then they pick their three favorite logical fallicies, and write comments that illustrate each.

Either way, I think the results would make for a good blog post.