Teaching Practice Finding the Words to Change the World THE LESSON
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What are the elements of powerful persuasion?
What does it take to create change through words?
What distinguishes legitimate persuasive writing from heavily-slanted rhetoric?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will recognize the potential of persuasion to create change.
Students will discover and utilize the elements of powerful persuasion.
Students will establish and consider target audience when creating persuasive pieces.
Students will be able to make distinctions between bias, informed opinion, fact, objectivity, and subjectivity.
Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills in viewing pop-culture media.
Students will be able to identify common fallacies of logic in persuasive writing.
Students will express informed opinions on self-selected topics using the elements of powerful persuasion.
Students will assess published, peer-written, and self-written persuasion using a rubric based on the elements of powerful persuasion.
ACTIVITIES
Day 1-4: "Students will be able to make distinctions between bias, informed opinion, fact, objectivity, and subjectivity." Students were arranged in small groups to brainstorm the topics of opinion, bias, and persuasion for 20 minutes. Each group was given a handout with various prompts (see Step Guides for prompts) and space to record their responses. We discussed each group’s responses collectively, contributing to and challenging the findings with anecdotal support. For homework, students were asked to think about an instance– great or small, personal or famous, positive or negative– in which a person’s vocal opinion created change.
Day 5: "Students will discover and utilize the elements of powerful persuasion." Students viewed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s "Declaration of War" while jotting down responses to prompts (ie: What strong words does FDR employ to evoke an emotional response?) While the students discussed the video and their notes, I recorded the elements that made the speech persuasive on the whiteboard. I supplemented their responses with persuasive writing guidelines found in our class set of Writers Inc books.
Day 6: "Students will recognize the potential of persuasion to create change." After viewing FDR’s speech, I generated talk about what it takes to create change with word. What (besides the elements of persuasion) did FDR rely upon to create change? Was the support for going to war– the attack on Pearl Harbor– deniable? Do you have to be wealthy, powerful, adult, or famous to create change with words? Does your support have to be undeniable? With these seeds in their heads and the elements of persuasion noted on the whiteboard, students reflected in their journals on personal experiences with persuasion. We regrouped to discuss techniques used by FDR that were evident in their personal experiences.
Day 7-11: "Students will establish and consider target audience when creating persuasive pieces; Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills in viewing pop-culture media." I showed students a pair of magazine ads that marketed the same product (a Jeep Liberty) toward two different audiences. The ads came from different magazines ("Surfer's Journal" and "Healthy Living"). After the students brainstormed some adjectives to describe the ads, I asked them to guess the magazines that each had come from. Their guesses were incredibly accurate, and their ideas about the audiences being targeted exhibited critical thinking. I then put the students into the director's chair. In groups of five, they developed two ad campaigns, geared toward specific audiences, for one invented product (see Step Guides for handout). Some groups acted their ads out in skit form, others created magazine ads (see Student Work). Students spent three class periods creating their ads, and the results were entertaining and insightful. By the last day of the campaigning project, students had marketed a teddy bear equipped with a self-defense mechanism to expecting mothers, a water-bottle that never requires refilling to couch potatoes, and a cloning device to senior citizens.
Day 12-14: "Students will be able to identify common fallacies of logic in persuasive writing." I introduced the students to eight common logical fallacies so they would avoid using them in their persuasive writing and speaking (see Step Guides for handout). The students were very astute in linking the fallacies to real-world situations. Once they were familiar with the eight (I used a crossword puzzle containing some key fallacy vocabulary for enrichment), the students put on their teacher hats and created fallacy quizzes (see Student Work). I told them I would draw from their quizzes to create a homework assignment that the class would take. The process was educative for me as well as for them – my students learned that you must master a subject in order to create a quiz, and I learned about the quiz formats that students were drawn to. The products were impressive, and my students enjoyed demonstrating their mastery in an authentic format. For homework, students were to think of a form of persuasive writing that they wanted to produce for the end of the unit. I gave a list of options ranging from complaint letters to persuasive poems (see Step Guides for handout). The topics they covered and their audiences had to be real and timely.
Day 15: "Students will assess published, peer-written, and self-written persuasion using a rubric based on the elements of powerful persuasion." I directed students to two web sites which feature student-written reviews and columns. I gave each student a copy of the persuasive writing rubric (see Assessment for rubric), which I based on the elements of powerful persuasion that we determined in discussion of FDR's speech. The students were able to choose from several articles online, ranging from a review of the movie "Chicago" to a column about proms. It was interesting to see what tough graders my students are! They were asked to include comments about the grade that they gave their article, and the feedback exhibited my student's understanding of the rubric.
Day 16-18: "Students will express informed opinions on self-selected topics using the elements of powerful persuasion." Students used the computers in the classroom to research the topics that they chose to write persuasive pieces on. I supplied students with individualized resources on how to write formal letters, columns, book reviews, or whatever formats they chose. I was impressed by their computer savvy as I circulated the room. For homework, students produced rough drafts of their persuasive pieces to bring to class.
Day 19-20: "Students will assess published, peer-written, and self-written persuasion using a rubric based on the elements of powerful persuasion." Students brought in rough drafts of their pieces, and I supplied them with fresh copies of the persuasive writing rubric which they had used to grade on-line pieces. The students picked partners, and assessed each other's work using the rubric. The students were able to discuss each other's work, and they used the rubric as their justification for criticism. It was important for them to have definitive elements to look for in their peer's work, as students sometimes have trouble being analytical for social or cognitive reasons. Students spent the remainder of class time fine-tuning their pieces.
Day 21: "Students will express informed opinions on self-selected topics using the elements of powerful persuasion." Students brought final drafts of their persuasive pieces to class. Those who wanted to read their work aloud did so, and several students brought letters in that we sent out (they were asked to bring stamps and envelopes; we used the school as the return address). Students enjoyed hearing the work of their peers, and the air of accomplishment and empowerment was well deserved.
Author:Sarah
Hatch (e-mail) School:Oyster River Middle School Organization:University of New Hampshire Credits: Paula Ickeringill, ORMS Language Arts Teacher
Mike Middleton, UNH Internship Supervisor
Jason Demers, ORMS Science Teacher and Technology Wiz
