The students really started to shine in these review presentations as their speeches become more organized and technically coherent.
Our persuasion work will build on the foundations students have begun to form through their informative speeches. Our unit began with an examination of types of influence, types of persuasion, and types of persuasive speeches. These speeches demand a more specific adherence to rules and strategy and will ultimately prepare students for the work of formal debate. We revisited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech in order to identify each type of specific work that is taking place. As mentioned in class, this speech stands out as the epitome of a well-constructed speech for its use of each persuasive speaking device.
Students are in the process of reading a selection from Aristotle's "On Rhetoric" to learn about the three persuasive appeals: ethos, logos, and pathos. In the coming week, we will be discussing logical argumentation as well as the ethics of strategic speaking.
