Lesson 4: methods to persuade
Agenda for the day
- Share homework in pairs
- Reread again differently: Truth’s argument and methods
- Methods to persuade
- Structure linked to purpose and audience
- Retrospective work: Inspiring change through words
- Co-construct the characteristics of effective persuasive speeches
- Homework
- Read to get the gist: “Remarks to the Convocation of the Church of God in Christ,” by William J. Clinton
- Prepare to discuss: Issues for student speeches
Standards addressed in this lesson
R2.8 | Evaluate the credibility of an author’s argument or defense of a claim by critiquing the relationship between generalizations and evidence,the comprehensiveness of evidence, and the way in which the author’s intent affects the structure and tone of the text. |
LS1.1 | Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments with convincing evidence. |
LS1.13 | Analyze the types of arguments used by the speaker, including argument by causation, analogy, authority, emotion, and logic. |
R2.5 | Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration. |
Instructional materials for lesson
Student work tool | Reader's/Writer's Notebooks |
Amplified Student work tool | Amplified Reader's/Writer's Notebooks |
Unit Text + Transparency copy | "Ain't I a Woman?" by Sojourner Truth |
Overhead projector | |
Chart paper and markers | |
Unit Text | "Remarks to the Convocation of God in Christ" by William Clinton |
Share homework in pairs
Ask students to take about five minutes to discuss with a partner their responses to last night’s homework assignment. Tell them they will be using these responses in today’s lesson.
Reread again differently: truth’s argument and methods
Methods to persuade
Tell students that today they are going to take a closer look at methods Truth uses to build her argument and persuade her audience. Explain to students that when people speak to persuade, not only do they think about what they’re going to say, but they also think about how they’re going to say. They consider their argument and audience, and try to figure out how to build and support their arguments in ways that are persuasive for their audiences. The strategies they use are their methods.
Methods may include such things as: the use and placement of reasons, claims,&rebuttals to counterarguments; the use of analogies, metaphors, case studies, quotations, facts, etc. to support reasons and opinions; loaded words; repetition of key phrases; appeals to logic, emotions, or ethics; rhetorical questions; etc. The speaker’s purpose for using certain methods might be to establish credibility, grab the reader’s attention, appeal to the reader’s sense of sympathy or pride, cause the reader to stop and think, shock the reader, etc.