Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 1, The Power of Persuasion (7th-8th)
Hello, all you persuasive people!
Well, it was the first day of a course that is shaping up to be fast-paced, jam-packed with learning and activities, and very hands-on! Today we started with a discussion about the art of persuasion – where it might be utilized, what toolkits of tactics and strategies we can build, and how it can make us successful in surprising places in our daily lives. We learned about rhetoric and rhetorical devices (such as metaphor, simile, parallelism, and analogy, to name a few) and the big three that we dubbed “Heart, Head, and Cred“. Ask your student what specific strategies each of these represents because we will talk about and use them a lot as the week progresses.
Next, we did some individual reading and a literary analysis of a poem that most students have been exposed to many times over; specifically seeking out the rhetorical strategies within the author’s method. We paired up and had a table discussion about the effectiveness of these strategies, why they were used, and what they successfully or unsuccessfully helped communicate. We applied our learning about using language specifically and intentionally by interviewing a partner about a conflicted choice they had made in the past. And then we tried to convince them they had made the wrong decision and should have chosen differently!
After lunch, it was time to practice and really apply the theories and concepts in team debates. The questions at stake, you ask? Are the humanities as important in education in today’s world as STEM? Is technology eventually going to save the world and help us solve some of our most urgent problems or will it destroy us? I must y’all, I was thoroughly impressed with all of our persuaders today! The teams did such an excellent job on both affirmative and opposition sides for both issues that it was incredibly close. In fact, we could have had a debate between the two adjudicator teams about who won!
Each morning, we will have a team trivia review of concepts and vocabulary. Within the evening blog each day, I will include a hint for a bonus question answer. Please share the hint with your student and allow them to look through the blog to find the answer!
Bonus question hints for students: I used A LOT of rhetorical devices within this post. Try to find at least one that has to do with my syntax or the way I use sentence structure, phrases, and words in a particular way to appeal to an audience. You do not need to know the name of the device being used, just look out for ways I am using rhetoric and language to convince you of something!
Just for fun: Students, ask your caregivers/parents if they happen to know the name of any rhetorical devices and if they can come up with an example. NO using onomatopoeia! Too easy!
Until tomorrow,
Ms. Rho