Plan
Lesson Plan, Revised - Persuasive Argument and Rhetorical Analysis
Objective: Students should learn how to study bodies of text, especially those written to persuade, and be able to identify what makes those texts effective or not. In class, we will be reviewing some fundamental elements of persuasion/ argument: pathos, ethos, and kairos. Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which the students will have read the night before, will be used to highlight these principles. Emphasizing the importance of these principles, students will discuss the topics they are interested in using for their Rhetorical Analysis, and we will review how they could use these three principles in their own writing.
Materials: Before Monday’s class, students will have read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in their Inventing Arguments textbooks for homework. In-class, they will receive a handout containing samples from King’s letter and a mystery politician’s speech.
Time Estimate: This lesson will take an entire class period.
Outline of Lesson:
11:00 - Distribute handout and ask students to skim over it
11:05 - Ask students which speaker they thought was most effective, or ask them to read aloud passages that struck them as either very persuasive or uneffective and explain why they liked/ disliked them
11:15 - Re-introduce the principles of ethos, pathos and kairos - ask students to elaborate on what they know/ remember
11:30 - Ask students to share some of the ideas they have for their Rhetorical Analysis Assignments
11:35 - Using one or two of the students’ potential project topics/ pieces, break students into groups of three, asking two groups to discuss how ethos, kairos, and pathos could be used to argue the chosen topic
11:40 - Have representatives from each group discuss what they decided on
11:47 - Remind students of what has to be done by the next class
11:50 - End class
Method of Assessing: There will be two main methods of assessment. At the beginning of class, a handout will be sent around to each student containing segments from King’s letter and the speeches of an unnamed politician (Trump). After having the students review the passages (reading some outloud), they will be asked to reflect on which passages they found most moving or effective, and ask them to elaborate on why. After this brief discussion, the principles of ethos, pathos, and kairos will be reintroduced and the students will be asked to describe passages from both writings/ speeches that display them (this will be the first assessment). From there we will move on to talking about the students’ own ideas for their Rhetorical Analysis projects. Using a possible topic from the class, the students will go up to the board and write a sample sentence or idea that could be used to argue that topic using the three principles (this will be the second assessment).
When creating this lesson plan, the most important resources that I used were from personal experience. After having taken this class as a freshman, I remember very well what I was interested in, what lessons served me the most, and what would prove to be most important later on in the class. One of the most important lessons I enjoyed was the review of ethos, pathos, and kairos- I was incredibly happy when I realized it would be taught again in class, and even happier when we reviewed the principles in 388V. Because of my experience as a student, and the wonderful opportunity to discuss with other TA’s potential lesson plans to teach this topic, I believe I can provide and interesting lesson plan for the students in ENG 101. As the weeks have progressed and I have started to recognize the interests of the students, and what has gotten them most excited and involved in class, it has been having some form of presentation by their peers, or rigorous involvement. Because the students seem to like being so deeply involved, I wanted to include many opportunities in which they could read, speak or present in low-pressure situations that would keep them interested and involved. Thinking about it from the perspective of another student, I think (I hope) that this lesson plan would be interesting to them as well. In addition, not that this is condoned, they seem to almost always fail in doing their reading assignments from the night before, so I wanted to provide them with in-class readings so we could have a long, productive discussion.
Reflection
When writing the first draft of this lesson plan, I used the readings that I had described earlier - however, I utilized this lesson plan on Monday March 6, the day after I had read Rose and Palmer’s pieces for one of our discussion posts. Palmer’s piece deeply impacted me- I have certainly known fear as a student, and the night before teaching an entire class for the first time I was definitely experiencing anxiety, this time as a teacher. Palmer’s reading helped me think through what I was feeling and look at things a little more differently. While I may have responded to some of Palmer’s advice rather sarcastically the night before, I definitely took some of the elements of the reading into the consideration while teaching. In the end, I had a very positive if not nerve-wracking experience teaching.
Objective: Students should learn how to study bodies of text, especially those written to persuade, and be able to identify what makes those texts effective or not. In class, we will be reviewing some fundamental elements of persuasion/ argument: pathos, ethos, and kairos. Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which the students will have read the night before, will be used to highlight these principles. Emphasizing the importance of these principles, students will discuss the topics they are interested in using for their Rhetorical Analysis, and we will review how they could use these three principles in their own writing.
Materials: Before Monday’s class, students will have read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in their Inventing Arguments textbooks for homework. In-class, they will receive a handout containing samples from King’s letter and a mystery politician’s speech.
Time Estimate: This lesson will take an entire class period.
Outline of Lesson:
11:00 - Distribute handout and ask students to skim over it
11:05 - Ask students which speaker they thought was most effective, or ask them to read aloud passages that struck them as either very persuasive or uneffective and explain why they liked/ disliked them
11:15 - Re-introduce the principles of ethos, pathos and kairos - ask students to elaborate on what they know/ remember
- Ethos: refers to credibility. Can your audience believe you? Ethos can take a very long time to acquire and a very short time to destroy- think of politicians and their scandals. It may take years to build up credibility, and an affair or email scandal to destroy it. (Be knowledgeable, be fair, build a bridge to your audience, demonstrate professionalism)
- Intrinsic ethos: authority, education, and experience
- Extrinsic ethos: the way the speaker goes about making the argument
- Intrinsic ethos: authority, education, and experience
- Pathos: refers to emotional appeal. How does the speaker/ author make you feel, and how do they accomplish this? Vocabulary, reference to important current events? Pathos is a delicate balance- you don’t want to come across as being cheesy or over-dramatic. (Use concrete language, use specific examples/ illustrations, use narratives, and finally use words/metaphors/analogies with appropriate connotations)
- Kairos: refers to the timing of something - when is the right time to bring this up? Ex: when do you ask your parents for something - probably when they’re in a good mood or after you’ve done your chores, etc. Politicians should speak about a tragedy immediately after it happens to show they’re responsive and care about the issue. This also has to do with exigence - is the topic pressing/ relevant?
11:30 - Ask students to share some of the ideas they have for their Rhetorical Analysis Assignments
11:35 - Using one or two of the students’ potential project topics/ pieces, break students into groups of three, asking two groups to discuss how ethos, kairos, and pathos could be used to argue the chosen topic
11:40 - Have representatives from each group discuss what they decided on
11:47 - Remind students of what has to be done by the next class
11:50 - End class
Method of Assessing: There will be two main methods of assessment. At the beginning of class, a handout will be sent around to each student containing segments from King’s letter and the speeches of an unnamed politician (Trump). After having the students review the passages (reading some outloud), they will be asked to reflect on which passages they found most moving or effective, and ask them to elaborate on why. After this brief discussion, the principles of ethos, pathos, and kairos will be reintroduced and the students will be asked to describe passages from both writings/ speeches that display them (this will be the first assessment). From there we will move on to talking about the students’ own ideas for their Rhetorical Analysis projects. Using a possible topic from the class, the students will go up to the board and write a sample sentence or idea that could be used to argue that topic using the three principles (this will be the second assessment).
When creating this lesson plan, the most important resources that I used were from personal experience. After having taken this class as a freshman, I remember very well what I was interested in, what lessons served me the most, and what would prove to be most important later on in the class. One of the most important lessons I enjoyed was the review of ethos, pathos, and kairos- I was incredibly happy when I realized it would be taught again in class, and even happier when we reviewed the principles in 388V. Because of my experience as a student, and the wonderful opportunity to discuss with other TA’s potential lesson plans to teach this topic, I believe I can provide and interesting lesson plan for the students in ENG 101. As the weeks have progressed and I have started to recognize the interests of the students, and what has gotten them most excited and involved in class, it has been having some form of presentation by their peers, or rigorous involvement. Because the students seem to like being so deeply involved, I wanted to include many opportunities in which they could read, speak or present in low-pressure situations that would keep them interested and involved. Thinking about it from the perspective of another student, I think (I hope) that this lesson plan would be interesting to them as well. In addition, not that this is condoned, they seem to almost always fail in doing their reading assignments from the night before, so I wanted to provide them with in-class readings so we could have a long, productive discussion.
Reflection
When writing the first draft of this lesson plan, I used the readings that I had described earlier - however, I utilized this lesson plan on Monday March 6, the day after I had read Rose and Palmer’s pieces for one of our discussion posts. Palmer’s piece deeply impacted me- I have certainly known fear as a student, and the night before teaching an entire class for the first time I was definitely experiencing anxiety, this time as a teacher. Palmer’s reading helped me think through what I was feeling and look at things a little more differently. While I may have responded to some of Palmer’s advice rather sarcastically the night before, I definitely took some of the elements of the reading into the consideration while teaching. In the end, I had a very positive if not nerve-wracking experience teaching.
Materials
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