Persuasion in Democratic Politics

Strategies

The strategies employed for building background as well as interpreting and extending understanding in this unit include research, interactive journal writing, mind streaming, discussion web, the Frayer model, analysis of primary sources, RAFTS, and oral presentations.

Interactive Journal

The interactive journal is a way for my students to receive feedback on their research. I will read and make comments or ask questions on their notes about the developing country they have selected to research. Other students will be able to respond in the research journals as well. In addition to the hard copy journal, my students will be required to participate in the discussion threads on my world history wikispace. My hope is that as they read and respond to the comments and questions from both their classmates and me, they will be able to dive deeper into their own thinking and perhaps begin to build fodder for their persuasive speeches. My students will begin to understand how to build ethos, logos, and pathos into their unique persuasive speeches.

Mind streaming

Mind streaming ²⁹ is an easy way to activate prior knowledge or build background for students. Students work with a partner, each decides if they are partner A or partner B. The teacher provides a topic or idea about which the students will talk about and/or actively listen. Partner A will talk for one minute on the topic. He/she must keep talking for one minute, if they run out of ideas, then they can repeat what they have already said. Partner B in the meantime may not talk, but rather must encourage their partner with nonverbal clues. I usually do a "T" ³⁰ chart before this activity to set the ground rules and my expectations for student behavior. Another helpful tip is to make mind streaming a component of Think-Pair-Share where students talk after they have written what they think they know. You know your students best, use your teacher judgment; sometimes writing helps, sometimes writing is too much. At the beginning of this unit, students will talk about everything they know (or think they know) about rhetoric. Double check to make sure that all the students know who is "A" and who is "B" and who will be talking first. Say, "go", and time them for one minute. Because of this topic, rhetoric, I will have my students talk for one-half minute. If students run out of things to say, they can and must repeat what they have already said. In other words, they must keep talking until you say stop talking. You can be the judge, if one minute is just too long for your students, adjust the time. When time is up, partner B talks and partner A encourages and listens. You know your students. If one minute is too long, you can have partners talk for 30 seconds. Next, it is necessary for you, as the teacher, to debrief with the class. Ask what they know about rhetoric and write the information on the board, overhead transparency, or chart paper. It is important that you monitor what they think they know so that you can correct any misunderstanding and inaccurate information they have provided. Record what your students say, but introduce the concept of questioning here. If you or one of your students questions a piece of information, put a question mark next to the information in question. Say to students, "Questioning is what good readers do all the time." Tell students that when they read and study in this unit, they now have at least one purpose - to confirm or reject the accuracy of the information in question. I might use this technique often throughout the unit. For example, I could use mind streaming for concepts of developing countries, extreme poverty or the United Nations. Use this strategy when and where you think it will be effective.

Discussion Web

In class discussions we want all students to be engaged, not just a few, but it has been my experience that often a majority of the class is willing to sit back and let that few do all the talking. The discussion web ³¹ is a great strategy to involve all the students in discussion basically at the same time. This strategy must be done often, like a lot of strategies, so that the students get comfortable with the kind of talking that is essential in this strategy. You can make a template for the students or have them make their own discussion web. Before students use a discussion web independently, you must model as a whole class discussion. Use an overhead, the board, or chart paper. In the center of the overhead transparency or a piece of paper place a controversial and/or familiar topic/question, one that students will talk about. For this unit it might be: Should developed (rich) countries give money to developing (poor) countries? The students brainstorm opposing arguments. Encourage students to take sides against their personal views. During modeling, you should write their ideas in two columns, on the left-hand side of the paper write all the 'pro' ideas and on the right-hand side of the paper write all the 'con' ideas. Develop conclusions for both sides of the argument. Next, have students work in pairs to decide which conclusion seems more valid. Then as a class come to consensus. After students understand the discussion web process, they might work in pairs using a discussion web with reading selections or speeches that contain opposing viewpoints. After students have itemized support for both points of view, the pairs will join with another pair forming squares. Students will work in this small group of four to develop several conclusions or one conclusion that they think is most reasonable. Then each group selects one conclusion to present to the whole class. They must explain the reasoning that led them to the conclusion. Students can then use their discussion web to write an analytic essay. For this unit I will use the discussion web to help students identify a speaker's use of ethos, logos, and pathos in their speech.

The Frayer Model

Vocabulary and concept development is very important to comprehension. Students need ways to manipulate ideas that are related in a variety ways to the vocabulary they encounter in their learning. The Frayer Model ³² is a graphic organizer that is simply divided into quadrants, you can provide a template for your students or they can just fold a piece of paper into fourths. In each quadrant place one of the following headings: essential characteristics, non-essential characteristics, examples, and non-examples. The Frayer model strategy helps students to explore a concept more critically, more deeply and differentiate terms and information that are intimately associated with the concept from those that are only marginally associated. Just as with any other strategy, if it is the students first time with the strategy model with the whole class. The Frayer Model may be helpful before, during and after instruction as a pre-reading activity, as a formative assessment, or as a review or summative assessment, respectively. In this unit I may use the Frayer Model for the concept of 'rhetoric'. Further I might also use it as a way for students to analyze other as well as their own speeches, but I will change the number of blocks to six and the headings to ethos, logos, pathos, and examples of each. I am sure you may be able to use the Frayer Model in a number of different ways, after all, you know your students better than any one else.

Analysis of primary sources

My students will have practice analyzing actual speeches that politicians from around the world have given. I am starting my world history course with Latin America from 1945 to the Present, so I will provide my students with speeches delivered by both Juan Peron and his wife, Eva Person. My students will analyze them for the presence of Aristotle's criteria of ethos, logos, and pathos. By using a discussion web, students can compare the two Perons as to who had the better skill with respect to incorporating ethos, logos, and pathos into their speeches.

RAFTS

Writing is commitment on paper. Many times students think they understand something until they must write to explain it. The RAFTS ³³ (Role-Audience-Format-Topic-Strong Verb) strategy scaffolds the writing process for students by providing a purpose and structure for their writing. Students are to assume a role, which requires that they place themselves in another's shoes. Next they are given a certain audience to whom they must write. As they write they must sustain their attention on this audience. The format provided, such as an editorial or eulogy, requires students to be critically thinking about their word choice and purpose for writing. Finally they must stay focused on the topic. Often students' writing will drift from what they really want to say causing their writing to lose coherence, lack organization, and stray off topic. One example for a RAFTS might be as follows: the Role is Woodrow Wilson, the Audience is those gathered to form the United Nations, the Format is a speech, and the Topic and Strong Verb are to give advice on why it is so critical that United Nations succeed where the League of Nations failed.

Oral Presentation

Students will actually give their final persuasive speech to their classmates who will be in the role of a country in the General Assembly of the UN or on the board of directors of an NGO. The teacher can design a rubric so that students know what they should include in their presentation and how they should act during their presentation. I often have other students in the class complete some form of rubric assessment for the student who is performing. This evaluation helps the other students to be an actively engaged audience.