Eloquence

Teaching Strategies

To pique the interests of students without overwhelming them with an unfamiliar topic, it is best to start with familiar content, in this case hip hop, as a vehicle for the rhetorical concepts before applying them to the unfamiliar, which is the historical element of Lincoln's Address. This will instill in the students a feeling of historical continuity before we return "home" again to the present age, where they will draw a final connection between the elements of rhetoric in past and present culture.

The students should be told one week prior to beginning the unit to listen to both albums for homework. They should be instructed to listen to each album straight through, beginning to end, without prolonged pausing or skipping songs. On the first day of the unit, the students should come to class with a list of questions, comments and reactions they had concerning the albums. Which one did they like better and why? Which parts did they like the best? The least? That way, the students come to class not only with background knowledge but a stake in what is to be learned; the rest of the unit will introduce the language they need to persuasively develop these views.

It is important that the teacher understand that the content of the musical albums is important only insofar as it illuminates how the artist uses rhetorical strategies to negotiate through the key issues. Introducing the Kendrick Lamar album under a thematic umbrella such as, "How does Kendrick talk about gang violence?" for instance, will provoke a more insightful discussion than an imperative like, "List Kendrick Lamar's rhetorical techniques and explain their effect." The strategic goal is to move from a general understanding of a theme to the specific techniques that convey the artist's perspective, creating a sort of learning loop. This allows students really see the purpose of rhetorical strategies by experiencing their effects themselves, instead of just learning about the techniques.

I included an analysis of every song on Kendrick Lamar's album so that the teacher can respond accordingly to the areas the students gravitate toward most in the album. Chunking the songs together within a discussion for time's sake, asking questions that play off students' prior knowledge, and emphasizing the latter half of the album are all more judicious strategies than close readings of every song, which risks becoming too repetitive and compromising student interest. It's also important that the teacher limit the class discussions to just a few key rhetorical devices that appear in both Lamar and Lincoln's works, such as epistrophe, anaphora, and antithesis. Stick to two or three devices per class discussion to draw deeper connections and to prevent confusion.

Each day should begin with a close reading of a song, or remarkable tidbits of songs, on "good kid, m.A.A.d city." The teacher will model annotation strategies on an overhead or Smart Board projector, and the students will make their own annotations on hard copies. The framing of the lesson should be inductive. After a read-aloud, the students should be asked to highlight or underline the most striking parts of the song. Then they should be asked to write down what they think these lines mean, and what effects the lines have on them as listeners, (i.e. "What did these words make you think or feel?"). Only then will the teacher introduce the rhetorical devices used in the song, and the student will appropriately annotate those occurrences in the lyrics. More often than not, the recurring moments of student interest will already correspond with the loci of these rhetorical devices. Draw attention to these occurrences: this helps the students build confidence in their inferences and leads to more student ownership over the text. Remember, we want the students to become critics. After the first few lessons, encourage the students to identify and explain the effects of the rhetorical tropes themselves.

To keep the discussion on a higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy, it is best to use question stems that begin with "how" and "why," moving from analytical questions into more evaluative questions as the teacher sees fit. The teacher must get the students to critically think about the effectiveness of rhetoric. A question like, "How could Kendrick Lamar have said this differently?" is aptly followed by, "Why do you think he chose to say it this way instead of another way?" The teacher should employ elements of the contrasting album, "Magna Carta Holy Grail," to prompt students to make evaluations concerning the successfulness of rhetoric. Take two comparable uses of rhetoric from both albums and ask, "Which line feels more authentic or truthful? What about it makes this one feel more real than that one?" To elicit the most insightful conversation, the discussion should be framed through comparing and contrasting. Use Venn Diagrams when comparing authors' styles.

Before the students begin their final projects, they need to be exposed to actual album reviews of "good kid, m.A.A.d city" and "Magna Carta Holy Grail." Give students copies of the reviews listed in the bibliography. Have the students annotate the reviews by highlighting persuasive words and explaining their effect on the reader. Next, have the students evaluate the reviews. Ask the following questions when appropriate: How accurate is this review? Do you as a reader agree or disagree with it? Which specific parts would you add to, remove, or otherwise change based on your own understanding of the album? How could the author's language have been more effective at convincing the audience to listen or not listen to the album?

Use the same strategies above when teaching the Lincoln and Everett material. Use only one or two paragraphs of Everett's Oration for the purpose of contrasting the rhetorical style with Lincoln's. The emphasis needs to be on Lincoln's style of "plainspeaking" and how it conveys a sense of truth. The class only needs to spend one to two days on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The teacher must provide a brief historical background that includes the information above. After the discussion, the students should complete a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts the rhetoric that Lincoln uses with the rhetoric that Kendrick Lamar uses. The thematic link between these two speakers is the concept of a funeral oration. Both speakers deal with mourning and loss. Discuss the connecting theme of both works, but focus on just three rhetorical devices: antithesis, epistrophe and anaphora. How are these devices used in each work, and to what effect? This connects the tropes of the past with the tropes of the present. These teaching strategies will aptly prepare the students for the activities that follow.