Carolyn Conlon EDU 320

English AYA 9 April 2017

1. Objective: The student will be able to understand, identify, recognize, explain, and provide examples
of various rhetorical devices.

2. Content Standard (s):

- Ohio, 11th - 12th Grade, English and Language Arts
- Expectations: I expect students to gradually build their understanding of rhetorical devices
through both collaborative and independent learning, to fully engage in discussion and the inquiry
process, and to understand the relationships between new words that they learn.
- L.11-12.4 (Language: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use) Determine or clarify the meaning of
unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11-12 reading and content,
choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a words position
or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries,
thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or
clarify its precise meaning, part of speech, etymology, or standard usage.
- L.11-12.5 (Language: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use) Demonstrate understanding of figurative
language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
- L.11-12.6 (Language: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use) Acquire and use accurately general
academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and
listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering
vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or
expression.
- SL.11-12.1 (Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration) Initiate and participate
effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with
diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and
 expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
- W.11-12.3 (Writing: Text Types and Purposes) Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event
sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its
significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator
and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple
plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create
a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., sense of mystery,
suspense, growth, or resolution).
d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid
picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the narrative.

3. Motivation: Students will need a background knowledge in basic literary and rhetorical devices, such
as parallelism or rhetorical questions, as well as the conventions of standard English and the use of
rhetoric in general, which they will have just learned prior to this lesson. To motivate them, I will
facilitate the activation of prior knowledge through a knowledge rating activity, which allows for the
connection between familiar and unfamiliar words. It provides both confidence in current knowledge
and curiosity for more.

4. Instructional materials: Materials needed include writing utensils, notebooks, laptops (for each
student), Ms. Conlons Big Book, knowledge rating activity sheets, word sort activity sheets, practice
handouts, reference handouts, a whiteboard, whiteboard markers, and the assessment.

5. Procedures:
During the Rhetoric unit, students will be presented with a list of rhetorical devices in Ms.
Conlons Big Book; these words will serve as their vocabulary list for the lesson.
Students will conduct a Knowledge Rating activity, self-evaluating which words they know,
which words they have seen or heard of, and which words are unfamiliar.
Following their knowledge rating, students will get into groups of four, and each group will
 conduct an internet inquiry; they will be assigned four words to define and find an example
of.
Each group will share their definitions and examples, explaining their assigned word
succinctly and defending their example sentence.
As each group presents, students will be taking notes on each rhetorical device.
This activity will lead into a classroom discussion about each rhetorical device, especially
areas in need of clarification or elaboration. When possible, students will answer the
questions posed by their classmates.
They will then be provided with an exhaustive handout containing all of the definitions and
examples to supplement the notes they have already taken, serving as a reference sheet for
future activities.
Students will then conduct a closed word sort, demonstrating an understanding of
relationships between the words and the underlying concepts.
In their small-groups from before, students will compare and discuss their answers, paying
particular attention to any differences they might have had in their work.
The groups will be asked to share to the whole class any interesting points of similarity or
difference they had in their work.
Students will then practice using rhetorical devices. First, they will participate in a two-part
activity. On one side, they will be provided with examples, and they must determine which
device is being used; on the other side, they will be provided with the term, and they must
provide an example. In the latter stage, I will encourage students to be creative with the
sentences they create, answering the prompt: What should school be like? During this
activity, they may work with a partner and consult their notes and any handouts.
As a final practice activity, they will write a creative narrative with dialogue, in which one
character tries to convince another character of something, using rhetorical devices. They
can choose whether to present it via a traditional written form or through a video.
At the completion of the lesson, students will complete an assessment, which will be in the
same format as the worksheet during their practice, but they will do it without any
assistance from their notes, handouts, or a partner.

6. Classroom Discussion: Classroom discussion is embedded into the lesson through the Internet
inquiry that students participate in. However, after they complete their various activities, the students
will conduct a discussion on why rhetoric and rhetorical devices are important and potentially
dangerous.
7. Academic vocabulary: Rhetoric, rhetorical devices, alliteration, allusion, anadiplosis, analogy,
anaphora, antimetabole, antithesis, assonance, asyndeton, chiasmus, climax, epistrophe, hyperbole,
hypophora, litotes, metaphor, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, polysyndeton, simile, creative narrative.

8. Assessment and Evaluation: I will conduct both informal and formal assessments and evaluation. I
will informally be observing them and their participation during the class activities. They will receive
feedback on their work but will be graded based on completion. To conclude the lesson, students will
repeat the two-part activity independently, without any references. They will identify rhetorical
devices based on an example provided, and they will create their own examples of the given
rhetorical devices, answering the question Why should I read your favorite book? To receive full
credit, students will demonstrate a mastery of the rhetorical devices, both in understanding and use, as
well as creativity in their responses. This assessment will demonstrate how well they, themselves,
know the material covered, without any assistance.
Value Added:

1. Lexile Score: Approximately 1100 L

2. Resources: This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkRC4DZF-_U) is a fun resource
which identifies rhetorical devices in Disney songs, which demonstrates just how relevant this
topic is, and how inevitable it is in todays culture. Additionally, according to the article
Teaching Rhetoric Today: Ancient Exercises for Contemporary Citizens by Julie Dainville
and Benoit Sans (2016), teaching rhetoric and rhetorical principles can increase open-
mindedness, flexibility, creativity, empathy, tolerance, and proudness in a multicultural context
(Abstract). The permalink is: http://fr.opal-
libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ11
18130&site=eds-live. Furthermore, the article Engaging All Students in Internet Research
Inquiry (2016) supports the use of Internet Inquiry as being a beneficial teaching strategy to
promote cooperative learning and literacy, particularly in new media. She supports the use of
technology in the classroom in this way. She also discusses that Internet inquiry makes it easy to
scaffold instruction, which can be particularly beneficial for implementing differentiated
instruction. The permalink for this article is: http://fr.opal-
libraries.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=1120
66318&site=eds-live.
3. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
 Gifted students could conduct an open word sort, rather than a closed. This means that the
student would determine the categories into which the words would be sorted. Additionally,
these students could incorporate application sooner in the learning process. For example,
rather than giving single sentence examples of the rhetorical devices in their worksheets,
they could write in paragraph form, connecting each device through a unity of ideas.
For a student who has dysgraphia, I would have him or her verbally complete the work and
the assessments, or use a computer when he or she so desires.
For an English Language Learner, I would incorporate his or her native language into the
work, for rhetorical devices exist in virtually all languages. I would adapt the reference
handout to include translations of the examples in the students native language, so that he
or she could see the connection, as well as the universality of rhetoric.
9. Reflection: N/A