ReadWriteThink
Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
Curated OER
Rhetorical Devices in a Primary Source
Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...
Curated OER
Liberty Rhetoric
What is liberty rhetoric? Examine how people have used it in four different time periods and situations. High schoolers investigate original source documents and compare them with the Declaration of Independence to decide how liberty...
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Pearl Harbor Activity #2: Why Do Words Matter?
Words matter! That's the big idea behind an activity that asks scholars to replace words in FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech with synonyms. They then listen to a recording of President Roosevelt's address and compare his version to their own.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Pearl Harbor Activity #4: Who is the Audience?
Young historians use the prompts on a worksheet to analyze President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. They identify the intended audience for the speech, the devices FDR used to persuade his audience, the responses promoted, and the...
Polk Bros Foundation
John F. Kennedy: Remarks in the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Berlin
“Ich bin ein Berliner.” Here’s the full text of John F. Kennedy’s famous address delivered to the people of Berlin on June 26, 1963. The resource could be used as part of a study of Kennedy’s presidency, of rhetorical devices, or as...
Curated OER
In The Words of Abraham Lincoln...
High schoolers explore the words of Abraham Lincoln. In this Abraham Lincoln lesson, students analyze segments of "The Gettysburg Address," his annual address to Congress in 1862, and his letter to Mrs. Bixby. High schoolers conduct...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.3
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream," is one of the most famous in United States history, but why was it so effective? Ask your class to determine the answer to this question. While the resource includes a description of...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
A Mini lesson on Semicolons
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-instructional activity on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then...
Curated OER
Emotion or Reason?
Young scholars use persuasive devices to construct oral or written arguments. In this arguments lesson, students discuss the types of persuasive devices used in arguments and form groups to select a topic to research. Young scholars...