The main purpose of this unit is to implement strategies to improve a student's ability to persuade others about a particular issue. Through this activity students will gain a better understanding of the necessary parts of the persuasive essay. We will complete activities in brainstorming, thesis writing, argument and conclusions. Students will discuss in the persuasive piece why it is important to communicate or use force when conflict arises. The students will begin by exploring ideas about what they know about how U.S. conflict has been resolved during the Cold War.
Students will be provided with an SAT type essay prompt which will present them with an issue. They will read a quotation and write a persuasive speech from the assignment.
"In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe."
John F. Kennedy
Assignment
: Is it better to solve a conflict through the use of force where a solution may be quick with the loss of lives or by communicating, which may take a long time? Plan and write a speech in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support you position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experiences, or observations.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming and clustering activities will be used to generate ideas for the writing piece. I will give the students ten minutes to work as a group to list every word or phrase that they can concerning the material that we have covered in the previous activities. I will encourage the students to allow their pens to roll across the paper with ideas while constantly stressing that all thoughts and ideas should be recorded. When the time is up we will read over the list and look for patterns of reoccurring ideas or a central theme. Two of the students involved in the activity will be native speakers of other languages. I will stress to them that this brainstorming activity can be conducted in their native languages. Once we complete the activity they can translate what they wrote.
The lists from the brainstorming activity will be clustered together into a thematic graphic organizer map to generate a visual scheme or chart to help understand the relationships among our central theme and its subtopics. The central theme will be placed in the middle of a piece of copy paper. This topic will be circled. Surrounding the central theme will be main parts of the topic. This will be done to provide the students with a visual representation of ideas that relate to each other which can be grouped into relating material for a future paragraph.
We will transfer the information from the brainstorming activity into a graphic organizer which helps the students order the information. This accommodation will help to arrange the student's thoughts into a structured piece of writing with a beginning, middle, and end while transitioning between each paragraph effectively. (See Graphic Organizer in Appendix.)
Introduction, Paragraph, and Thesis writing
The thesis is the seed of the whole speech. All other thoughts revolve around this one statement. Found in the beginning paragraph, it states the main idea. We will begin by looking at the speeches and try to identify the thesis statement of each. After identifying the thesis I will ask what was included in each thesis. The answer that I expect my students to come up with will identify two parts: a topic and a comment. Students will then begin to generate ideas for their own thesis statement. With the graphic organizer the student will identify what their topic is and comment on how they feel about it. A good thesis for this speech would be:
When nations that disagree with each other are able to communicate effectively the possibility for a cooperative resolution is likely. The topic in the thesis is "nations that disagree with each other are able to communicate effectively" and the comment is "the possibility for a cooperative resolution is likely."
Paragraph Formation and Transitions
When assessing my student ability to compose effective paragraphs, I look for three things: unity, coherence and development. Unity focuses on the main idea the thesis. I then ask is there coherence? Are the sentences clearly related to each other? If so do they have development? Is the thesis supported by specific details? If the student is able to accomplish this, then I am happy. We will begin by analyzing paragraphs from each of the speeches. Students will identify unity, coherence and development. They will then have an opportunity to write their own paragraphs from the graphic organizer, asking if their paragraphs have unity, coherence and development.
It is important to transition between paragraphs so that the speech flows smoothly and coherently. Three ways I teach my students are through repeating key words, using parallel structure, and using transitional expression. By repeating words the same phrase used in the last sentence of the previous paragraph will be used in the first sentence of the new paragraph.
Conclusion
A strong conclusion is just as important as a powerful introduction. As the introduction whets the appetite of the audience, the conclusion should provide them with a feeling of satiation. I will have my students begin the conclusion with a restatement of the thesis. They will then summarize the major points of the persuasive speech and conclude with a question, quotation, vivid image, a call for action or a warning. We will analyze the four presidential speeches to determine how the speech was concluded.
