Modern Patriots

Big Ideas: Elements of effective speeches, propaganda and its effects,

Essential Understandings (KUDs): Students will be able to identify and then use ethos, pathos
and logos in speeches. Students will be able to recognize and use rhetorical devices (rhetorical
questions, repetition, alliteration, parallel structure, anecdote, analogy, alliteration)
Lesson:
1. Each student will have been asked to bring in a movie clip, a speech transcript, and/or
an audio recording of a speech that uses some of the elements we have been working
on. They will turn in a rationale as part of this homework to me that explains which
element that they see in the speech. My advanced students will be given a list
(rhetorical questions, repetition, alliteration, parallel structure, anecdote, analogy,
alliteration) and will be asked to say which they saw and where/how in the clip. The
struggling students will be given a speech scavenger hunt that we use in class which has
each element listed as a question:
List all rhetorical questions asked:
List one example of ethos:
List one example of pathos:
List one example of logos:
Is there an anecdote? What is it about?
Is there an analogy? What it is about?
Is there alliteration? What is it?
Is there parallel structure? What is it?
IS there repetition? What is it?
All students will be required to pick a speech that has at LEAST three of these elements.
2. Students will be put in groups of four and will share their videos, transcripts and audio
with one another.
3. After they share or as they share, they will be marking which elements are most
repeated. They will pick one of the elements that they see in most of a lot of the
speeches and they will be presenting that element to the rest of the class.
a. Side note: if there is no one reoccurring element, they will just have to pick the
one that they found most powerful.
4. Then they will pick from the following ways to present this to the class:
a. Create a video
b. Poster
c. Write a song/parody/rap
d. Skit
e. Game
f. Radio broadcast
g. Powerpoint
h. Class activity
i. Demonstration
5. In each activity, students will need to do the following things:
a. Explain/define their element. For example, logos is a logical appeal to the listen
that makes the listener think that the speaker has the facts, information and
research to prove their position right.
b. Demonstrate how this can be effective. For example, in a powerpoint the group
could show advertisements that feature repetition or could repeat the same idea
themselves multiple ways. Another way this could work would be if one group
were demonstrating alliteration and created clever tongue twisters for the
students to say or a game where they could only start sentences in a
conversation with the same letter or sound or could create a clever song using
alliteration that is catchy.
c. After the demonstration each group needs to show how this element works. For
example, rhetorical questions make listeners think about what their own
response would be before the speaker anticipates the audience and answers the
question for them either answering the likely question or thwarting audience
expectations.