Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
Traditionally, teachers have encouraged students to engage with and interpret literature novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Too often, however, the spoken word is left unanalyzed, even though the spoken word has the potential to alter our space just as much than the written. After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today? This is an excellent, detailed lesson that covers listening to and analyzing speeches and then writing abut the findings. The lesson includes an assessment tool and extension activities.
