Objectives
Oklahoma's standards are the PASS (Priority Academic Student Skills) Objectives. This unit meets the standards for Reading/Literature by exposing students to a wide variety of speeches from different politicians and different time periods. These works represent a wide range of voices and messages, from Queen Elizabeth I motivating her troops to fight bravely against Spanish forces in 1588, to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's speech to the National Press Club in 2007 on the necessity of improving education to combat poverty. I selected these works to help students make connections between pieces from different periods and issues, and to convey a sense of how rhetorical tools are used in different settings, often to similar effect. I also want them to think about the variety of issues covered (health care reform, education reform, minimum wage increase, space exploration, immigration reform, responses to difficult economic times), their opinions on those, and possible intersections with their experience. It will also give them a variety of models to review when they begin writing speeches on their chosen issues.
Vocabulary development and Media Literacy are addressed as we look at advertisements to understand and illustrate the meaning of various rhetorical devices. My students are always borrowing magazines from my classroom collection of newspapers and magazines. This activity activates students' background knowledge by taking a genre they are already familiar with (advertising) and using it to reinforce the meaning of various devices, while also illustrating how students see them every day while flipping through their favorite magazines. This will reinforce the idea that these are not just remote, abstract concepts; on the contrary, these devices are at work in the world around them (and that often, they are members of the intended audience).
Students will develop their comprehension as we analyze organizational patterns in speeches and evaluate the speakers' arguments, using guiding questions and graphic organizers to facilitate understanding. They will draw inferences and make assertions about these arguments, using specific references to the text to support their analysis, while also deepening their understanding of the influence of historical context on the piece. My students sometimes make assertions about a text based on what they think they remember, without going back to the text for support. The guiding questions and graphic organizers will require them to support their interpretation with evidence. They'll also use these tools to analyze how elements such as organization, repetition, word choice and use of literary devices affect the development of a work. These products will also serve as visual reminders and models of the development of different works they can refer to when preparing their own pieces.
To give them a solid foundation to work from when developing their arguments, students will research issues and select information to go into their 'casebooks'. I want them to look at specific aspects of the issues they choose (the history, important events and people, major claims and counterclaims, anecdotes, etc.), which will improve their research skills, and give them a place to keep their facts and anecdotal information together, so they can access them easily when they begin writing.
Students will write and edit their persuasive speeches using the Writing Workshop model, paying careful attention to including rhetorical appeals and concessions, supporting their opinion with appropriate evidence and using devices they have learned from modeling throughout the unit (such as repetition, parallel structure and antithesis) to reinforce meaning, always bearing in mind that they're writing a text for oral delivery and making rhetorical choices accordingly.
And finally, they will deliver their speeches and listen to those of their peers, allowing them to hear and respond to each other. I believe students benefit greatly from sharing their ideas, and also gain confidence from delivering them orally. It is my hope that this process allows them to take ownership of their ideas and their writing, ultimately giving them greater ownership of the issues.
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