0.4 Lesson 4: methods to persuade  (Page 2/4)

These are ways of making your thinking “visible” and being explicit about the ways good readers work with texts. This kind of modeling supports all students’ learning, but may be especially helpful to English learners.

Listen carefully to students’ responses, making sure they use evidence from the text and consider both themselves and others in terms of whether the speech is persuasive. If students say this speech is not persuasive, a follow-up question you might ask is, “Who might this speech be persuasive to?”

Ask students to look again at their homework from the previous evening. Ask:

• Is Truth’s speech persuasive? Why or why not?

After they have talked for a few minutes, ask them:

• How is Sojourner Truth’s speech persuasive? Share some specific lines or phrases that are persuasive.

As students share specific lines or phrases, have them say how or why those are persuasive. Support them to articulate the method or strategy Truth is using to persuade her audience. Then ask students to talk about the effect the method had on them, the listener, and what effect they think Truth was hoping for from her audience, especially the male ministers who disagreed with her. Share a choice of your own as a model for students.

As students share, chart the methods and an example of each method on chart paper titled Methods to Persuade. You will be adding to this throughout the unit, so it is important not to list the effects of these methods on the listener. Before long, students will learn that methods have different effects depending on the argument and audience.

Students may or may not be familiar with English language arts academic vocabulary for the persuasive methods that Truth uses. Help them to acquire the academic vocabulary by writing the academic term on the chart for the methods students offer. For example, if a student says, “Truth makes you feel bad for her when she talks about seeing most of her children sold off into slavery,” respond by asking something like, “so, are you saying she’s appealing to your emotions?” Give the student an opportunity to confirm your revoicing. Then write “emotional appeal” on the Methods to Persuade chart with the student’s example.