"Friend, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..." Those words begin one of the most persuasive speeches in literature. Explore the elements of persuasion in a series of lessons related to William Shakespeare's Julius...

Middle schoolers watch a video to discover subtle forms of persuasion. In this persuasive techniques lesson, students watch a video about elephants as they determine which elements of persuasion were used. They discuss the language of...

Introduce ELA scholars to the basics of literary criticism with a 41-slide presentation that identifies eight different approaches to critical analysis. Each approach is defined, and advantages and disadvantages are listed. Also included...

A unit on persuasive writing guides elementary learners through the writing process. The first part examines the elements of persuasive writing, including expressing an opinion, connecting ideas, using supporting facts, and writing...

Full of tips about structure, audience, and evidence in a persuasive essay, this presentation would be a great way to start a writing unit in your class. One slide advises young writers to make up quotes and statistics in their essays....

Learning how to write a persuasive letter is a challenging, but fun writing style to learn.  You can use this PowerPoint to introduce your class to persuasive writing. It provides a checklist, language features, and an example to...

Prior to assigning your class their own persuasive writing task, present this PowerPoint and complete the task as a whole class. It outlines characteristics of persuasive writing, as well as includes a great learning activity. Your class...

As a review of persuasive techniques, groups develop a one-sentence slogan designed to entice others to purchase a produce or adopt a point of view. The group then craft a storyboard for a commercial for their product.

Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...

Provide your class with a list of tricks to make their persuasive writing more effective. They can discuss the use of personal pronouns, alliteration, groups of three, repetition, and more in their writing. This is a simple, quick way to...

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.

Upper elementary and middle schoolers study the case of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that was once-thought to be extinct. Learners explore the responsibility of people to preserve habitats, and take care of the animals who live in...

Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...

Learners demonstrate the appropriate classroom public speaking and listening skills that would be necessary to influence or change someone's mind or way of thinking about a topic. They define the elements of persuasion and recognize the...

Investigate letters to the editor and their persuasive qualities. Break your class into reading groups and give each one a different article. As they read, they complete a graphic organizer to record their thoughts and opinions. There is...

High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...

Pupils read speeches and identify the main idea as well as the literary techniques employed, paying careful attention to the persuasion and repetition elements that each speech possesses. Using a graphic organizer, they analyze,...

When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...

Relate the structure of the essay to the structure of a building. The class compares an essay to a building, with the writer being the architect, the introduction being the foundation, and so on. They use the visual representation of a...

A thorough lesson on persuasive writing takes middle schoolers through several activities, including group discussion, collaborative posters, and independent writing. They compare historical speeches and analyze the persuasive techniques...

Young scholars read various stories and write reflections in their journals. Using the text, they identify the techniques the characters used in persuading the reader or other characters in the story.They rewrite a fairy tale from the...

Students write about ways in which they used persuasive skills in the past. They evaluate what makes a persuasive argument successful. Students list the ways in which persuasive writing can help us achieve desired goals.

As part of an exploration of writing to persuade and inform, learners create a brochure or leaflet. While this presentation is just a series of tips to make this process successful, it could be used to help learners focus on the elements...

Students research social elements of the 1920s.  In this persuasive writing lesson, students make comparisons between women of the 1920s and women in the 21st century.  They work in small groups to discuss the women in The...