Strategies:
A good place to start this unit is with a personal biography. Though writing one's story and presenting it to others might seem to be an easy task to do, it has many aspects that can be analyzed and critiqued to understand not only one as a speaker, but one's perception of an audience and how it shapes one's message.
Students will be asked to choose various facts about themselves that would be used to form an autobiographical speech about themselves to their audience. They will assume that everyone in the class does not know them and this will be their first introduction to them. Each student will have to choose which facts to include, facts that will portray either their true character or the one they want the audience to see. Many of my students have never been asked to think about their history, let alone write or speak about it to others. This can be a cause of concern for many of them. No one wants to admit that they don't know something, let alone something about one's self. Also, many feel that not knowing one's family – more specifically their father – shows to others lack of social status. However an analysis of this process, of choosing points, what order they are presented, what is said, what is not said and how one says it, is important to understanding how to use tools of persuasion in various ways.
Students will write these facts down, and then combine them together to form a brief speech answering the general question, "Who am I?" The lack of guidelines for what to include and the ambiguity of instructions on how to form this speech will allow students to formulate this creatively and to use their own specifications. After the writing process, students will form groups and present their speeches to each other. Each member of their group will write down observations and notes from each member's speech. After all are finished, they will use a venn diagram to compare and contrast the group's speeches, noting spoken and non-spoken differences, said and unsaid information. As a group they will reflect on why some members choose certain methods and others different ones to come up with a general understanding of various techniques of character. This will be followed by a discussion of what techniques worked best, and what ones caused the audience not to connect with the speaker. The class will discuss general observations of what was said and not said, and why speakers choose certain information to present and if they consciously or unconsciously analyzed the audience and catered their speech to them. The class will also discuss whether or not their speech would be different if presented to an audience of teachers, parents or college admittance counselors.
The class will then analyze President Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention Speech. This speech was Barack Obama's introduction to the general public of the nation. Students will listen and watch the video of the speech taking notes to the facts about himself that Obama presents. Just as the students did with their speeches, they will analyze how Obama creates his ethos for his audience. They will analyze whether he talks about his origin, his past, or what he plans to do if elected. This activity will end the introductory part of this unit.
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