Summer Career Connections at SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 1 – The Power of Persuasion (Rising 7th)
What a great first day! Our morning began with lively introductions followed by completion of concept maps designed to explore the term “persuasion”. Following, we constructed a working definition of the term that will serve our class’s needs: “An ethical means of influencing and motivating others.”
We engaged in a community-building exercise designed to illuminate student’s habitual communication patterns and tactics. Students were given prompts about how they communicate (e.g. “How do you communicate at the end of the day?”) and encourage to navigate towards a corner of the room designated either Rabbit, Hawk, Turtle, or Tiger. This activity sparked fascinating discussions about how moods, emotions, tactics, and relationship dynamics can impact one’s ability to communicate. Interpretations of the animals and their connotations varied, leaving students with plenty about which to respond in their journals.
Next, we talked about Aristotle’s pyramid of rhetoric: ethos (appeal to ethics), logos (appeal to logic), and pathos (appeal to emotion). Students gave examples and non-examples of arguments descriptive of each of the three categories. We had a brief conversation about the importance of rhetoric to nearly all careers.
We returned to Aristotle and discussed the theorist’s concepts of narrative and story structure, as articulated in Poetics. One by one, students shared stories according to a simple beginning, middle and end sequence, with the intention of engendering empathy and appealing to pathos.
After, an intentionally open prompt was given, asking students to examine and write down what they value and believe. Students wrote down personal stories that could be utilized to support statements of belief – such as, “We should try our best to be kind to one another.” We didn’t have time for all students to share their stories, though the room was eager to do so!
Overall, the day went phenomenally, with every student participating and engaging with one another. We cannot wait to see them tomorrow!
David Lee
Some Pictures From Our Day
