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Cycle #2: Marketing the "Mea Culpa"
February 11, 2020
In a series of 4 lessons, students will be engaged in an interdisciplinary (Humanities/Biology) project in which they will explore the nuances of rhetorical strategies through an examination of current advertisements. They will be encouraged to look at the underlying themes of the advertisements, as well as why products are marketed to specific demographics.
During this lesson, students will learn the key concepts of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle (ethos, logos and pathos), and identify them in modern-day advertisements. The students will then apply these types of appeal to create storyboards and “elevator pitch” their advertisements to the class. Lastly, they will rate their use of rhetorical appeals and form focus groups to further apply demographic appeals as focus groups.
Quick Links:
Lesson Study Lesson Plan
Lesson Series Slides
Literature Synthesis & Annotated Bibliography
Focus Student Work samples
Reflection
Cycle #2: Marketing the "Mea Culpa"
February 11, 2020
In a series of 4 lessons, students will be engaged in an interdisciplinary (Humanities/Biology) project in which they will explore the nuances of rhetorical strategies through an examination of current advertisements. They will be encouraged to look at the underlying themes of the advertisements, as well as why products are marketed to specific demographics.
During this lesson, students will learn the key concepts of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle (ethos, logos and pathos), and identify them in modern-day advertisements. The students will then apply these types of appeal to create storyboards and “elevator pitch” their advertisements to the class. Lastly, they will rate their use of rhetorical appeals and form focus groups to further apply demographic appeals as focus groups.
Quick Links:
Lesson Study Lesson Plan
Lesson Series Slides
Literature Synthesis & Annotated Bibliography
Focus Student Work samples
Reflection
Lesson Elements
Research Question:
How can we support 11th and 12th grade students in identifying rhetorical elements and crafting a persuasive argument?
Theory of Action
If we design opportunities for high school students to communicate through multiple modes of representation in a Humanities lesson, then they will be able to practice identifying and utilizing rhetorical elements (ethos, pathos, and/or logos), resulting in the ability to articulate a specific, persuasive message.
Goals
Equity Goal: students will engage in critical thinking with linguistic formats that are culturally responsive to their unique identities.
Content Goal: students will write a persuasive argument in the form of an advertisement to gain the support of the audience.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.11-12.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Lesson Elements
Research Question:
How can we support 11th and 12th grade students in identifying rhetorical elements and crafting a persuasive argument?
Theory of Action
If we design opportunities for high school students to communicate through multiple modes of representation in a Humanities lesson, then they will be able to practice identifying and utilizing rhetorical elements (ethos, pathos, and/or logos), resulting in the ability to articulate a specific, persuasive message.
Goals
Equity Goal: students will engage in critical thinking with linguistic formats that are culturally responsive to their unique identities.
Content Goal: students will write a persuasive argument in the form of an advertisement to gain the support of the audience.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.11-12.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Focus Students
Accessing Student Strengths
Focus Student #1
Focus student #1 is a caucasian female. She is known as a "straight A student," who consistently does great work academically, but suffers from debilitating bouts of anxiety/panic attacks. She has a 504 to help manage her symptoms.
Focus Student #2
Focus Student #2 is a neurotypical caucasian female and has a reputation for being tough, aggressive and direct with feedback. She plays basketball for the school, and is openly gay.
Focus Student #3
Focus student #3 is a mixed race male with an IEP (ADHD). He has a reputation of being quiet and respectful. His mother reports problematic behaviors that do not ever seem to manifest at school.
Focus Student #4
Focus student #4 is a neurotypical african-american male. He has a reputation for being outspoken, and does not see much value in school. Politely defiant (e.g. verbally dismissive of work, but is respectful to staff). His father died suddenly last year, and he leaves class often to wander hallways. He has a student support team (SST) to help keep him focused on schoolwork.
Focus Student #5
Focus student #5 is a Hispanic male with an IEP (ASD). He is extremely clever and witty student, but consistently has challenges "reading the room" and following the group plan. He often needs prompting and redirection to stay on task. He is very focused on being funny and getting laughs.
Focus Student Work Examples
Click individual samples to get more information on their process.
Click HERE to see full samples from each day.
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Reflection
This lesson was intense! I had thought that my previous sketch of a lesson would be a slam dunk, but I neglected to take into account that there would be so many moving parts. The original lesson started as a three day series with a single class, but by February, it turned into two classes: one class of 11th graders, and one mixed grade class of 11th and 12th grade honors students.
The biggest challenge, however, was having to get (and keep!) the attention of a full class, when previously, I had only worked with specific students during push-in segments. Having to differentiate lessons elements on the fly was a whole different experience, as well as fielding off-topic questions and keeping track of students that would go in and out of the class.
The night before the lesson, I called an audible and decided to start with the Three Corners activity as a warmup in lieu of the original plan, which was an “Entrance Card” with some minor quiz questions. The Three Corners activity was WAY better, since it got them on their feet, moving, laughing and interacting with the content. Plus, the following day, students would point to the area of the room that ethos, logos and pathos were in, when referring to their traits. So that was awesome, because it created a multi-modal learning experience!
One of the keys to the lesson study going as well as it did, was collaborating with John Santos (the man who let me take over his class) to create effective groupings based on each student’s individual strengths...and it couldn’t have gone better! Watching the students (who hadn’t been put in those groupings before) do fantastic work during the segment was amazing!
The one thing I’d do differently is ask each group “what questions can I answer?” individually during open work time, as it would have helped clarify expectations.
Overall, though I was quick to beat myself about the couple things that didn’t go well, I can say that I was honestly pretty happy with the outcome. I was especially shocked how much the kids took away from the lesson. I aggregated the data they gave me, and found that students gave the lesson an average of 4 out of 5. And more than that, they gave honest and direct feedback about the lesson and what they took away from it (you can see the focus students surveys HERE).
I’m really, really proud of what they did!