Students are often asked to perform speeches, but rarely do we require students to analyze speeches as carefully as we study works of literature. In this unit, students are required to identify the rhetorical strategies in a famous speech and the specific purpose for each chosen device. They will write an essay about its effectiveness and why it is still famous after all these years.

By analyzing Dear AbbyŐs ŇrantÓ about bad grammar usage, students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character, and ŇproperÓ language use are intertwined.

The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this short unit, students will spend three lessons exploring some of Abraham Lincoln's speeches. Students will explore Lincoln's themes and consider how they address the issues of his time, and they'll analyze the literary and rhetorical devices he used to express his ideas.

In this lesson, students will read two speeches given by Abraham Lincoln and consider how he shaped his words to have the most impact on his audience. They’ll consider how these speeches reflect the national situation just before the Civil War and put themselves into the mind-set of a New Jersey state senator.

Students explore the concepts of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Lesson plan designed for consumer health class, that is also useful for media literacy. Contains a link to an ad for an abdominal strengthening machine that provides the basis of the lesson. SL.9-10.2 eval & integrate sources

Great site! Offers student tons of confusables! Also offers quizzes and a pull-down menu for one "confusable" at a time. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.2, L.11-12.2b Spelling, L.11-12.4 Word Meanings

Describes the recent movement known as "informal logic." Summarizes its brief history, provides several detailed examples, and explains its relationship to philosophy. Bibliography included.

Plato's views on rhetoric and poetry have been very influential on western thought and literature. Read this detailed article to find out why.

An extensive discussion of the Stoic beliefs about logic, their advancements in the field of logic, the arguments of the Skeptics and the answers of the Stoics

How do you get what you want, using just your words? Aristotle set out to answer exactly that question over two thousand years ago with a treatise on rhetoric. Camille A. Langston describes the fundamentals of deliberative rhetoric and shares some tips for appealing to an audience's ethos, logos, and pathos in your next speech. [4:30]

Learn about the treaty that established the Wind River Reservation and the two tribes that inhabit it, the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone. Included is a lesson plan and discussion guide. [4:18]