Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes – Part A: The Viewpoint of Dying To Live
30 minutes – Part B: Understanding – How can Rhetoric Change Minds?
30 minutes – Part C: Applying Learning
15 minutes – Reflection

Part A: The Viewpoint of Dying To Live

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by sharing the following clip with students, explaining that it is from the documentary film Dying to Live. The clip students are about to watch features the true story of Zaidee and her family.

Dying to Live: Zaidee's Story (https://youtu.be/cuZafGNh_hk)

Step 2.

Once complete, invite students to sit together in groups of three. Distribute a piece of A3 size paper to each group and ask them to work together to create a mind-map of the events, ideas and themes that students saw in the clip. Advise students to leave the centre of the mind-map blank, noting their ideas around the edges of the page, after which they can work together to agree on the main idea of the clip. Once they have agreed on the main idea, they can note it in the centre.

Students may need to view the clip a second time before beginning their mind-map.

Step 3.

Invite each group to share the contents of their mind-maps in a class discussion. Alternatively, if you are short on time, you could invite groups to join together and share their minds maps with each other.

Step 4.

Once each group has finished sharing, write the following question on the whiteboard:

“What do you think the filmmaker is trying to say about organ and tissue donation?”

Invite students to respond to the question in writing first so that they have an opportunity to consider their own response. There is space on the Student Worksheet for students to write. Time permitting, ask students to share their responses.

Students responses may include:

The filmmaker thinks that organ and tissue donation is a good thing to do.
The filmmaker is trying to say that when we die, we should donate our organs to sick people.
The filmmaker is trying to say that anyone can donate their organ and tissue to people who need them.

Through your discussion, state for the class that the filmmaker has a view about the topic of organ and tissue donation and has created a documentary film to share that view, and to change people’s minds about organ and tissue donation. There are many ways that we can try to change people’s minds, including using persuasive language – otherwise known as rhetoric.

Inform students that the rest of the lesson will be dedicated to exploring how we can use rhetoric to change people’s minds and opinions about a topic.

Part B: Understanding – How Can Rhetoric Change Minds?

Step 1.

Begin this part of the lesson by gauging students' prior knowledge about rhetoric by inviting them to work together to brainstorm what they know about it. You could do this in the following order:

Invite students to re-form their group of three and distribute another piece of A3 size paper to each group.
Write the question “What do we know about rhetoric?” on the whiteboard and ask students to copy it into the centre of their paper.
Give students five minutes to note down as many things as they can in response to the question. Students may not be able to recall much of what they know during this time – reassure the class that this is ok, and they will be learning more about the concept throughout the rest of the lesson.

Inform the class that they will be asked to add to what they’ve written later in the lesson. Time permitting, ask groups to join together and share what they have noted.

Step 2.

Ask students to position themselves so that they can see the screen, and distribute a Seed Discussion Organiser to each student. Introduce the following clip as a TED Ed video by Camille A. Langston called “How to use rhetoric to get what you want”. Inform the class that there’s lots to take in in the clip, so they should listen actively, and take notes on their Seed Discussion Organiser while the video is playing. Students will likely require the clip to be played more than once, or for the clip to be paused at times so that they can make notes.

TED-Ed: How to use rhetoric to get what you want - Camille A. Langston (https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-use-rhetoric-to-get-what-you-want-camille-a-langston#watch)

Step 3.

Invite students to work in their groups of three to discuss the notes they made about the clip. Encourage students to be inspired by what their classmates are suggesting and to add notes to their own organiser in response to what is being discussed.

Step 4.

Further extend students' understanding of how we can use language to change minds by distributing and reading through this Rhetorical Devices Factsheet. Further explanation of specific language choices can be found in:

Teacher Resource: Persuasive Language Techniques, provided by ACARA (https://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Persuasive-Language-Techniques.doc)
Analysing Persuasive Language in Brett Lamb's Lesson Bucket article (https://lessonbucket.com/english/year-9-english/persuasive-language/analysing-persuasive-language/)

Step 5.

Invite students to illustrate the understanding they have built, using a different coloured pen to add to their Seed Discussion Organiser. For example, students may write an answer to something they wanted to know, or an explanation of vocabulary they were unsure of.

Step 6.

Encourage students to show the growth in their understanding by giving groups five minutes to revisit and add their new knowledge and understanding to the “What do we know about rhetoric?” brainstorm.

Step 7.

Enable students to revisit their learning by hanging each group’s brainstorm somewhere visible in the classroom.

Part C: Applying Learning

Step 1.

Inform students that they now have the opportunity to put their understanding of rhetoric into practice by reading a news article, identifying the rhetorical devices used in it and analysing how they work to change the reader’s mind.

Distribute a copy of the ABC news story “Organ donation 'opt-out' petition led by teenager who received two kidney transplants” to each member of the class and invite students to read through the article once on their own, and have a go at identifying examples of the rhetorical devices used in it. Students can use the tables on the Student Worksheet to record their thoughts.

Remind students to refer to the Rhetorical Devices factsheet while they are working through the article.

Step 2.

Once students have had some time to work through the article independently, you could then work through the article as a class, making notes on the whiteboard as the analysis progresses. Ensure that students are taking notes in their own table on the Student Worksheet while the class discussion is occurring.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to complete the reflection activity on the Student Worksheet. They are asked to respond to two questions:

How much do you know about using rhetoric to change minds? 1 = I don’t know very much … 5 = I know most things about it

(Circle one) 1 2 3 4 5

Why did you give yourself that rating?

Circle one thing that you could do to improve your understanding:

Revise what you learned in this lesson
Try the activities again in your own time
Re-watch the clip about Rhetoric
Talk to your teacher about rhetoric some more
Do some more independent research on Rhetoric
Other activity (write down your idea):

Differentiated Learning

Extension – Encourage students to re-watch Zaidee’s story and identify any rhetorical devices that are used to appeal to the viewer. Identify the effect of those devices – how are they being used to change minds?

Provisions for Learning Support – When students are analysing the news story, work alongside students to model some examples.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Dying To Live - What is Rhetoric?

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