Is It OK to Be Rude to Alexa?

Do Now: Take a Poll (5 minutes)

• Project the following question on your whiteboard for students to respond to in their journals as they enter the classroom:

Is it OK to be rude to voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri? Why or why not?

• Take a poll and invite students to justify their responses. Then tell them that today, they will read and analyze arguments on both sides of the debate. Let them know they’ll be asked for their opinion again after reading. 

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Project Vocabulary: Definitions and Practice. Review the definitions as a class. Highlighted words: courtesy, etiquette, expectations, imperiously, impolite, interact. Audio pronunciations of the words and a read-aloud of the definitions are embedded on the slides. Optionally, print the PDF version or share the slideshow link directly to your LMS and have students preview the words and complete the activity independently before class. 

• Optionally, for students’ first read, have them follow along as they listen to the audio read-aloud, located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View. Then have students silently reread the article to themselves.

• Project the article. Complete the following steps as a class, modeling text marking on your whiteboard while students mark their magazines: 
  1. Using a RED pencil, draw a star next to a sentence that expresses the main argument (central claim) on one side of the debate. (e.g., “Some say there’s no need to be nice to voice assistants because they’re not human.”)
  2. Underline the details that support that main argument. (“We might call voice assistants by human names, but they aren’t human”; “They don’t experience emotions. You can’t offend a voice assistant or hurt its feelings”; “These programs use human-sounding voices only because someone designed them that way”; “We don’t type ‘please’ when we Google something. We don’t say ‘thank you’ to a washing machine for cleaning our stinky socks”; “On the other hand, if you show a voice assistant the same courtesy you show people, over time, you might begin to think of it as a person. You might start to worry about hurting its (nonexistent) feelings. Who needs that kind of stress? Plus, your expectations might become unrealistic, setting you up for disappointment when Alexa doesn’t behave like a human would.”
  3. Have students repeat steps 1 and 2 independently, but for the other side of the debate, this time using a BLUE colored pencil. (Star: “Others say it’s wrong to bark orders, whether at a sibling, a cat, or an Echo Dot.” Underline: “For one thing, being polite is a learned behavior. It’s a habit we develop only through practice—and must continue practicing to keep up”; “Plus, if you get in the habit of being rude to Alexa—imperiously commanding it to do what you want, shouting when it doesn’t understand you—you might get in the habit of being rude period”; “Making matters worse, rudeness is contagious. A 2016 University of Florida study found that people who were treated rudely—or simply observed a rude interaction—were more likely to be rude themselves”; “Hearing you shout at your device could upset your pets, for example”; “If younger siblings hear you, they might start to imitate you—except they might yell at people the way you yell at Siri.”)

• Have students fill in the “Yes/No” chart in their magazines based on the details they underlined in the text. Then discuss: Do you think the writer shows bias—that is, a preference for one side of the debate or the other? Explain and support your answer with text evidence. Which supporting detail do you think is the strongest? The weakest? 

Optionally: 

• Post the statements “YES, it is OK to be rude to voice assistants” and “NO, it is not OK to be rude to voice assistants” at opposite ends of your room. Have students choose a place to physically stand between the two statements, based on their point of view. Be sure to have students form an arc, rather than a straight line, so that they can see one another as they speak and listen.
  
  
• Invite students to share their opinions in dialogue with one another. Students should offer reasons and support for their opinions, and counterarguments to the reasons and support presented by others. Invite students who change their minds and want to move to do so, and have them explain why they chose to move.
  
  
• At the end of the dialogue, compare the number of students who support each side with the number who supported each side at the beginning of the dialogue and at the very beginning of class.

• Have students work individually to complete the Essay Kit, a guided writing activity and outline that will help them write their own argument essay in response to this question: 

Is it OK to be rude to voice assistants?

• Students can use the Great Transitions and Argument Essay Checklist anchor charts to help them edit and evaluate their essays.