How Can We Improve Our Political Discourse?

For my project, I will be working with 11th graders inside a unit called the American Dream. In this unit, we will explore what it means to be American, and we will examine diverse voices on various issues that are central to American identity. I will elicit from students what they see as the most pressing issues of our time, and I will provide them with various readings that explore different sides of these issues, but they will have the opportunity to explore and find their own resources on these issues. We will look at some of these issues from a historical perspective and see how speakers, politicians, advertisers, artists, and writers have approached them differently. For example, we will look at speeches from both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, as well as contemporary speeches from President Trump, Vice President Biden, members of the BLM movement, and members of the police force. The entire course centers around the close study of language and the choices writers make that influence how we read, listen to, or visually consume texts. For my project, we will be looking at the state of our political discourse, and we will be exploring how we might be able to improve it. We will examine political speeches, ads, political cartoons, essays, and articles, both from the present and from throughout history, and examine the choices writers have made in how they compose their words (and include images) and what the impact of those choices are. We will think about things like word choice, imagery, juxtaposition, syntax, organization, and details, and how all of these elements fit together to contribute to a certain tone and achieve a certain purpose. We’ll talk about how speakers make appeals to emotion, logic, and ethics, and how they establish their credibility with their audiences. We’ll look at examples of speeches that inspire hope, optimism, and togetherness versus those that inspire fear, rancour, and division, and we’ll do the same with advertisements, works of art, and political cartoons. Students will experiment with writing their own speeches or creating an advertisement on a political or social topic of their choosing, experimenting with techniques that bring people together versus those that are more divisive.

RESOURCES 

For educators:

1. Great Speeches in American History

This resource from the Constitution Center introduces educators to some of the most effective and influential speeches in American History, and explains what makes these speeches so effective.  Teachers can use this resource to familiarize themselves with what rhetorical techniques look like in real life speeches and how they come together to create meaning.

2. Most Influential Political Ads

This resource from KQED, an NPR affiliate, identifies some of the most influential and successful political advertisements.  It also explains what made these ads so successful.  This resource will help teachers who are unfamiliar with this work understand how to guide students through this sort of analysis and how to help them with their own content creation.

3. PBS NewsHour Lesson Ideas on Speeches

This PBS resource provides actual lesson ideas for teachers on how to teach this sort of analysis to their students.  Teachers could use these exact lessons if they wanted to, or they could use them as a jumping off point for their own lesson creation.

4. Analyzing Trump’s Rhetorical Techniques

This video will help teachers understand how to analyze an actual political speech, and in turn how to teach this sort of analysis to their students.  Something that I find so useful about this video is that it does not take a political stand on Trump’s speech; rather, it is simply focused on the techniques he uses and how they are effective.  Once teachers have a grasp on this, they could use this video with their students if they wanted to.

• How to use Adobe Spark

This is a very helpful video on how to use Adobe Spark, a tool that students will use to create their own content.  If teachers are unfamiliar with this tool, they can use this video to quickly learn how make their own sample video for students and how to teach students how to use it.

For Students:

• Rhetorical Devices in Speeches

This video introduces students to the power of rhetorical devices and techniques in speeches.  It helps them both to identify the presence of these techniques in speeches and to become aware of how to use them in their own content creation.

• MLK Speech Screencast

This is a screencast I made that shows students how to dissect a speech and look for specific rhetorical choices that a writer has made.  It goes through a step by step process on how to identify these choices and to consider what impact they have.

• Sample Adobe Spark Video

This is a sample video I made that is an example of the sort of finished product students could create in this unit.  I combine visual images, music, and written text to appeal to emotions, logic, and credibility.  I include information from sources and cite these sources.

• Introduction to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

This video introduces students to the three main appeals that are used in the art of persuasion.  It gives students a brief history of this model of thinking, and it provides real life examples to help them understand how these appeals play out in the real world.

• DIDLS Intro Video

This video introduces the acronym DIDLS, which we use to help us analyze speeches.  This acronym is a key tool for analyzing speeches and understanding their tone and purpose.  Students will use the elements of DIDLS as they examine numerous speeches, and they will consider them when they craft their own speeches. 

Technology Tools For Learning:

-Screencast-O-Matic

Students will create a screencast of the text of their speech, and they will use Screencast-O- Matic to highlight and explain the rhetorical choices they chose to include.  They will walk us through the way they chose to open the speech, the appeals they make to logic, emotion, and credibility, specific words and phrases they chose to repeat, and powerful image and detail inclusions.  The screencast will both help their viewers understand their choices and it will force them to reflect on the choices they made and whether they make sense.  This tool falls into the modification level of SAMR.  While students could explain the choices they have made in person, by making a screencast of their work, they can readily share this self-reflection with others, preserve it, and use all of the visual tools to highlight their choices in a way that is much easier to follow than if they were doing it live.  

-Conceptboard

Students will use Conceptboard to collaborate on their analysis of the text of a speech or political ad.  They can import the text of the speech into the board, mark it up together, add in auditory commentary explaining their annotations.  They will also use conceptboard to workshop their own speeches, getting feedback in small groups and responding to that feedback.  This tool falls within the modification level of SAMR.  The task of working collaboratively to analyze a text is significantly improved through the use of this app.  Students can collaborate even if they are not physically together, they can record their voices, respond to each other at different times, make changes, and return the work in a way that would not be possible without this tool.

Adobe Spark

Students will use Adobe Spark to explore how content, sound, visual imagery, and rhetorical strategies all come together for a particular purpose.  They will create a finished product about their issue of interest using this tool, which will allow them to synthesize all of the work they have done in this unit.  Adobe Spark falls into the Redefinition level of the SAMR model.  Without this technology, students would not be able to create a product that has a visual, auditory, and textual component.

Twitter

Students will follow three figures of their choosing and study their speech patterns.  They will look at speech that is divisive and speech that is unifying, and study the reactions others have to both types of speech. They will pay attention to any particular trends they notice.  Twitter falls into the Redefinition level of the SAMR model, for it allows students to engage in a level of study that would not be possible without this technology.  They are able to study real life experts in fields of their interest, and to see exactly how these people speak in real time.

DISCUSSION 

Question: How might we improve our political discourse and improve our ability to engage in discussions with those we disagree with?

• This project allows students to explore figures and topics that they are interested in and inspired by, and to closely analyze and explore what makes powerful speeches and ads on these topics. They will also have the opportunity to come up with their own original speech, ad, or presentation about a topic they are passionate about.  In their product, they can include visual components if they feel they will contribute to the impact of their speech.  While all students will create some sort of persuasive piece, they will have significant leeway in what it looks like terms of how they want to present it.  They can perform/present it live if they want to, using technology to enhance their presentation, or they can use technology to record themselves using Adobe Spark, including visuals and auditory enhancements, like sound effects and/or music.  And everyone will be selecting a topic of their choosing while they explore various speeches and ads along the way. 

• This project touches on many of the key elements of core tenants of an ELA curriculum, among them reading, writing, and speaking.  Students will engage in the analytical work of reading various texts and reflecting on the choices writers made in crafting them a certain way.  They will do some of this work alone, and some of it collaboratively with peers.  They will learn how to write persuasively, studying both the craft of writing and the substance/ideas that are necessary to be persuasive.  Finally, they will need to speak well, understanding how to organize their ideas well in their speech and pay attention to tone, and adapting their speech for their intended audience.  What is variable in this unit is the content.  Students will each be exploring topics of their choosing, and the finished product will allow them to focus on their particular strengths and interests.  Their final product may be more text focused, it could be more visual, and it might incorporate music.  They may choose to perform their piece live with a technological supplement, or they may prefer to have their entire piece be technology based.  

  
  

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.5

Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6

Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.5

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.6

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 11-12 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1.B

Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1.C

Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

Assessments in this unit will focus on both the analysis of others’ speeches, ads, and on the creation of their own. 

Persuasive Speech Rubric Speaker _____________________________ Topic__________________________________

Criteria	Effectively Accomplished  5                                                                   4.5	Partially accomplished  4                              3.5                          3	Not accomplished     2.5                                           2
Attention Getter	Effective use of attention getting strategy (quote, statistic, question, story, etc.) to capture listeners’ attention and to introduce topic. Attention getter is relevant and meaningful and seemed to gain the desired response from audience.	Use of relevant attention getting strategy, but did not seem to adequately capture audience attention and/or lead to desire outcome.	No attention getting strategy was evident. No clear or relevant connection to topic and/or speech purpose.
Thesis Statement/ Argument	Speaker clearly formulated and stated thesis statement during the speech introduction.  Speech ends with a clear call to action.	Thesis is clearly implied, although not explicitly stated.  Speech ends with a clear call to action.	No thesis statement (implied or explicit). Main points are not clearly identified, audience unsure of direction of the message.
Connection w/Audience	Clearly stated the relevance of topic to audience’s needs and interests. Attempts to humanize oneself to the audience.	Topic seems somewhat relevant to audience, but not explicitly stated. Vague reference to audience needs and/or interests.	Topic seems irrelevant to audience needs and interests. No attempt made to connect topic to targeted audience.
Subject Knowledge/ Evidence/ logical appeal	Depth of content reflects knowledge and understanding of topic. Main points adequately supported with timely, relevant and sufficient support.	Provides some support for main points, but needed to elaborate further with explanations, examples, descriptions, etc.	Provides irrelevant or no support. Explanations of concepts are inaccurate or incomplete. Listeners gain little knowledge from presentation.
Organization	Uses effective organizational pattern for speech purpose. Main points are clearly distinguished from supporting details. Signposts are effectively used for smooth and coherent transitions. Purpose of speech is clear from beginning.	General structure/organization seems adequate but some blurring between main points and supporting details. Logical flow, but no clear signposts for smooth transitions.	Lack of structure. Difficult to identify introduction, body, and conclusion.
Rhetorical strategies	Uses repetition, rhetorical questions, parallel structure effectively.	May make an attempt at some rhetorical strategies, but the effect may not entirely be effective.	No use of rhetorical strategies.
Emotional appeal	Effectively and ethically appeals to audience emotions (anger, fear, compassion, etc.) to achieve the persuasive goal. Vivid and emotive language effectively used to create imagery to engage audience emotionally.	Makes some appeals to audience emotions (anger, fear, compassion, etc.) to achieve the persuasive goal. Creates some effective imagery through language.	Fails to appeal to audience emotions. No attempt to use vivid, descriptive, or emotionally charged language
Counter- argument	Balances a variety of perspectives and recognizes a variety of opposing views/counter-arguments.	Seems fair, but fails to fully acknowledge and respond to opposing perspectives.	No attempt is made to establish credibility and authority of sources presented. One- sided argument, no other perspectives are considered. Some identifiable bias.

Total Score _______________________/50

Real Life Connection:

This unit is very much tied to the real world.  Right now, we are living in an incredibly rancorous time.  We need to look no further than the first presidential debate to see this.  People spend less and less time with other people who have different political views than they do, and social media has helped to fuel further polarization.  I think it’s imperative that students are informed consumers of information, and I also want to help them understand that there are ways to have strong opinions, be passionate, and even disagree without vitriol and blatant contempt for the other side.  The work in this unit will be collaborative as students will work together in their analysis of speeches, ads, and essays, and also as they get feedback on their own speeches in the drafting and revision process.  It is learner-centered in that each learner has the opportunity to engage with a topic/issue that is of interest to them personally, and they will be able to explore and follow real life people who are speaking today on some of these issues.

The greatest barrier I anticipate facing in this project is the very political rancour that the project seeks to alleviate.  My students come in with their own political views and preconceived notions about particular issues and figures.  Since we will be looking at actual political speeches and ads related to contemporary figures, I worry that some students may feel personally offended if we are dissecting the speech of someone they personally support, and/or they may feel that I am infusing my own bias.  I hope to combat this by looking at a variety of works on people on both sides of the political spectrum, and by trying to keep the analysis objective and based on strategies and not as much on content.  Also, I hope that most of the work will come from the students themselves.  I will guide them in the beginning and along the way, but I hope to keep myself out of it as much as possible.

I find this unit incredibly exciting on so many fronts.  I am probably most excited about the genuine potential to create future leaders that will be able to approach some of the most difficult issues of our time in a way that is less divisive and more constructive.  I am also very excited to see what issues my students choose to tackle.  I look forward to seeing real passion and interest from them, and I would like for them to be able to put these speeches out into the real world and see their value.