Background Information
At the beginning of every school year, we establish the classroom community. This is an incredibly important task in order to set the tone for academic year. It gives the students the opportunity to meet their peers and really get to know them; additionally the teacher has the opportunity to assess students, both academically and behaviorally. At the onset of the year, I will introduce the students to the new vocabulary word ethos. Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, gave this term a special meaning: When we find something persuasive, he noticed, we do so partly because we trust the character (ethos) of the person speaking to us. Aristotle's practices and ideas have influenced generations of scholars, and for the purpose of this unit, his vocabulary and ideas about rhetoric will be defined and connected to elementary student learning. Aristotle's Rhetoric, as translated by Lee Honeycutt, indicates that there are three modes of persuasion, the first one being "personal character of the speaker" (Honeycutt 2004). Jay Heinrichs, a 21 st century scholar of rhetoric, explains Aristotle's term ethos as "argument by character which employs the persuader's personality, reputation, and ability to look trustworthy" (Heinrichs 2007, 40). It is my intention to motivate students to respond to this information favorably so as to create an ethos that is conducive to the learning environment and the contributions they are going to make to the classroom community this school year. This theme of ethos will be recurring throughout the school year and will contribute to the success of the speeches they will eventually deliver to their peers because, as Aristotle suggests, a person's "character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses" (Honeycutt 2004). Students need to be taught that their voice is linked to their character. Aristotle suggests that when people "feel friendly to the man who comes before them for judgment, they regard him as having done little wrong, if any; when they feel hostile, they take the opposite view" (Honeycutt 2004). Students need to consider this with all of their actions and mannerisms in the classroom, so that when they do speak and want to motivate and persuade others, they are not received with hostility. Heinrichs suggests, "While our brain tries to sort the facts, our gut tells us whether we can trust the other person, and our heart makes us want to do something about it" (Heinrichs 2005). Early on students want to "inspire confidence" (Honeycutt 2004) in their character so that other students are interested in hearing them speak. In order to do this Aristotle recommends they seem to have "good sense, good moral character, and good will" (Honeycutt 2004).
In addition to ethos, Aristotle coins another mode of persuasion as pathos, and it's defined in his Rhetoric as "putting the audience into a certain frame of mind" (Honeycutt 2004). When developing their speeches students will integrate passion and emotion into their speech as a motivating factor to move their peers into the type of action they are suggesting for being responsible citizens. The third mode of persuasion is logos. Aristotle refers to logos as "to reason logically" (Honeycutt 2004). Heinrichs echoes this definition referring to logos as "argument by logic" (Heinrichs 2007, 40). In order to construct a logical and organized speech, students will employ the use a graphic organizer in order to assemble their speech in an organized fashion that demonstrates understanding of the components described as needed in a persuasive speech.
In developing and delivering speeches, students also need to be aware of their intended audience, for it is the audience who carries the message and theme of the speech away and is called to action based on the persuasiveness of the speech and speaker. In Aristotle's Rhetoric, Honeycutt translates "For of the three elements in speech-making — speaker, subject, and person addressed — it is the last one, the hearer that determines the speech's end and object" (Honeycutt 2004). Students need to be aware of the audience members' or "hearers'" participation in the speech. They need to consider and address the audience(s) of the speech they are delivering and make sure not to offend anyone in their audience.
Aristotle's Rhetoric says "There are three divisions of oratory-(1) political, (2) forensic, and (3) the ceremonial oratory of display. Political speaking urges us either to do or not to do something" (Honeycutt 2004). For purposes of persuading peers to be responsible citizens, students will be creating oratories reflective of political speaking. "The political orator is concerned with the future: it is about things to be done hereafter that he advises, for or against" (Honeycutt 2004). Aristotle recommends the considerations of "making his own character look right and putting his hearers, who are to decide, into the right frame of mind" (Honeycutt 2004). Students will integrate what they know about the strategies employed by Aristotle to develop a good character in order to be recognized as a credible and trustworthy source. They will do this in order to deliver a logical speech that persuades an audience to recognize and take action to be a responsible citizen.
Cicero's theory of persuasion may also help in teaching our students. Cicero was a Roman philosopher and orator who wrote hundreds of years after Aristotle, in ancient Rome. He prescribed certain considerations for the development of persuasive speeches and he employed his theory in the creation and delivery of his own speeches.
Cicero's theory of persuasion advises speakers to consider different perspectives on their topic. Students following this theory can imagine how they would address the audiences of other students who support what they have to say, students who may have an argument against their ideas, as well as the adults (teachers and administrators) in the building who are accountable for students having responsible actions.
Cicero recommends going through five steps when writing a speech: invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. In De Inventione, Cicero explains that invention involves creating the topic and finding material to use in the speech. Arrangement concerns how the speech is organized and sequenced. Elocution consists of choosing the right words and sentences that support the topic. Memory involves being comfortable with the words so as to speak from memory and not read a script. And delivery represents how the speech is presented including the use of "the voice and body in a manner suitable to the dignity of the subjects spoken of and of the language employed" (Yonge).
In the collection Great Speeches in American History, William Safire introduces the book with a narrative about ten qualities of a great speech. These qualities include shapeliness, pulse, occasion, forum, focus, quotation, phrasemaking, theme, delivery, and awareness of undeliverable words (Safire 1997, 21-25). These qualities will be introduced individually to students, posted in the classroom, and students will be held accountable for showing mastery and ownership over the steps in the process and delivery of their speech. Safire advises that a speech should follow the structure of introducing the topic, talking about it, and then reminding the audience of what you told them (Safire 1997, 21). The pulse of the speech involves the "beat, a changing rhythm" (Safire 1997, 21-22). The speaker needs to consider the occasion for the speech and the forum of the speech. Students will be developing the speech to inform their peers of their position on how to be responsible citizens in the school community, and the occasion will rise out of wanting to make a difference and share with others ways they too can make a difference in the school environment. The forum of the speech will be the school community although the audience they will be directly addressing in person will be their classmates. However, their speech will be recorded and shared with the rest of the school. I think it is important for them to feel comfortable with their audience, especially with this being one of the first speeches some of the seven and eight year old students will ever deliver. In order to provide them with a comfortable environment it should include the peers that they know well and who have come to support them throughout the year. But their message and persuasion can benefit the larger school community and their voice deserves to be heard by all. Quotation and phrasemaking are some tactics students can employ to enhance the value of their speech. Students can quote other meaningful speakers or catch phrases in order to relate their message better to their audience, or they can also share anecdotal stories and thread them throughout their speech in order to enhance the significance and the personal connection to the topic. Additionally, students can add poetic value to their words by using metaphors, similes and alliteration (Safire 2007, 24). Throughout the whole speech, students need to keep in mind the theme, or "what the speech was about" (Safire 2007, 24). They need to be clear with what they want the audience to take away from their words and by using a graphic organizer as a visual that reminds them to thread the theme throughout their entire speech will help with this. After crafting their speech students will have the opportunity to deliver it. Safire emphasizes that "Delivery is the final step to eloquence; it requires practice, discipline, drill" (Safire 2007, 25) and he cautions against using words that are undeliverable, meaning words that may look good on paper and be appropriately fitting to the topic, but will not sound correct when spoken in the context of a speech (Safire 2007, 25).
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