Scholastic
Persuasive Communication (Grades 9–12)
Before your students reached your morning class to learn about persuasive writing, they probably saw dozens of examples of persuasive communication in the form of advertisements. A short, introductory lesson inspires class members to...
Scholastic
Choose Your Words Wisely (Grades 9-12)
Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Help your 21st century learners develop their media smarts with this resource that has them examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use to influence specific demographics and then to use these techniques to craft their own ads.
Curated OER
How To Be Persuasive in an Entertainment Review
Students write persuasively through description and word choice while reviewing a topic of interest to them.
Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson's Library: Making the Case for a National Library
The United States Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. But such was not always the case. The library was destroyed during the War of 1812. In a persuasive letter to Samuel H. Smith, Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his...
Newseum
Propaganda Through History: Analyzing Historical Sources
Working in teams, pairs, or individually, scholars select one resource from a gallery of historical sources and consider which examples might be considered propaganda, the techniques used to persuade audiences, and evaluate how the...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Two Specific Documents
Students are able to read and analyze the essential parts of two specific types of documents, the informed consent document and the position paper, used by scientists to communicate information about their research to two different kinds...
Curated OER
Emotion or Reason?
Students use persuasive devices to construct oral or written arguments. For this arguments lesson, students discuss the types of persuasive devices used in arguments and form groups to select a topic to research. Students create a...
Curated OER
Taking a Closer Look (Critical Viewing)
Students explore persuasive writing in advertisements. In this advertisements lesson, students evaluate tobacco advertisements for persuasion techniques. Students then create a counter advertisement against smoking.
Curated OER
H.D. Thoreau's Philosophy of Government
Students read an essay by H.D. Thoreau as analysis of his philosophy on government. In this Thoreau analysis lesson, students work in groups to paraphrase two of Thoreau's criteria for his beliefs about government. Students write a...
Prestwick House
Reading Nonfiction: Analyzing Joseph McCarthy's "Enemies from Within" Speech
Looking for a lesson plan that teaches class members how to analyze nonfiction? Use Joseph McCarthy's famous "Enemies from Within" speech as a instructional text. Worksheet questions direct readers' attention to the many historical...
K20 LEARN
The War of the Words: Grammar and Parts of Speech
Here's a activity that adds some zip to a study of parts of speech. Class members read two versions of the same article, one loaded with evocative nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, while the other is missing this sensory language....
Curated OER
A Question of Faith?
Should organized prayer be prohibited at high school sporting events? Students explore their own feelings about prayer in school-sponsored events, before discussing the recent Supreme Court decision banning public prayer at high school...
Curated OER
Connotation in Propaganda
High schoolers assess persuasive techniques in propaganda. They identify and critique rhetorical devices in primary source documents (sources are not specified, but links to sites that contain various documents are included). Groups make...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms and the...
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Identifying Persuasion in Media Literacy
As part of a study of media literacy, groups examine advertisements from Money, Fortune, The New Yorker, or Good Housekeeping and identify the types of rhetorical appeals used in the ads. After groups present their findings, the whole...
Curated OER
Advertising Gimmicks - Critical Thinking Required
Students identify reasons why advertising works, evaluate reasons for its success, and write commercials.
K20 LEARN
Building Arguments With Evidence: Constructing Arguments Part 2
The second session in the two-part "Building Arguments with Evidence" lesson asks scholars to craft an argument essay on a topic of interest to them. Writers establish a claim, locate evidence, and justify their stance.
Curated OER
Language Arts: The Three Appeals
Students are able to identify and describe the persuasive techniques used in editorial writing. They are able to label persuasive techniques with the logos, pathos, and ethos terminology.
iCivics
Yeah, But...
Impress upon your young learners the importance of formulating counter arguments based on facts and not opinions. This resource is meant to strengthen arguments designed in a previous lesson, but could also be used as a stand-alone...