Lesson Plan
Persuasion Portfolios
Students apply what they’ve learned about perspectives and persuasion in Weighing the Arguments and The Tools to Persuade lessons to an analysis of the advocacy surrounding a contemporary issue.
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Duration
More than 90 minutes
Topic(s)
- Current Events
- Journalism
- Women's Rights
Grade(s)
- 7-12
(Note: For more support, see expanded procedure in downloadable lesson plan.)
- In advance, you may want to review the worksheet examples in the downloadable lesson plan.
- Tell students that they are going to apply their knowledge about the women’s suffrage campaign to modern social and political debates.
- As a class, review the concepts of fact and opinion, perspective, author, audience, purpose and persuasion techniques.
- Brainstorm current social and political issues that generate widespread debate. Keep track of students’ ideas on the board.
- Divide your class into small groups and let them select one of the topics to research. Distribute the directions handout and analysis worksheet.
- Remind students to find examples of messages representing different viewpoints about their issue.
- Individually or in a team, students write a short report summarizing their findings, including the perspective, arguments and evidence of both sides of the debate.
- Persuasion Portfolios Directions handout (download), at least one per group
- Persuasion Artifact Analysis worksheet (download), at least 10 per group
Have students present their portfolios to the class and discuss their findings. Prompts include:
- What did you already know about the issue that you chose?
- What did you learn that surprised you?
- Which side of the debate were you on when you began this project? Did you change your mind after completing your research? Why or why not?
- Which of the messages that you found do you think is the most persuasive? Why?
- Compare and contrast these messages and visual techniques with those the artifacts on the women’s suffrage media map. How are they similar/different?
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Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. -
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. -
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3
Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. -
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1
Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. -
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.3
Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
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National Center for History in the Schools: NCHS.Historical Thinking.3
A. Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas. B. Consider multiple perspectives. C. Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation, including the importance of the individual, the influence of ideas. D. Draw comparisons across eras and regions in order to define enduring issues. E. Distinguish between unsupported expressions of opinion and informed hypotheses grounded in historical evidence. F. Compare competing historical narratives. G. Challenge arguments of historical inevitability. H. Hold interpretations of history as tentative. I. Evaluate major debates among historians. J. Hypothesize the influence of the past.
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National Council of Teachers of English: NCTE.3
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
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Center for Civic Education: CCE.V
A. What is citizenship? B. What are the rights of citizens? C. What are the responsibilities of citizens? D. What civic dispositions or traits of private and public character are important to the preservation and improvement of American constitutional democracy? E. How can citizens take part in civic life?
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NCSS Curriculum Standards: NCSS 1
Learners will understand how human beings create, learn, share and adapt to culture. -
NCSS Curriculum Standards: NCSS 2
Learners examine the institutions, values and beliefs of people in the past, acquire skills in historical inquiry and interpretation, and gain an understanding of how important historical events and developments have shaped the modern world. -
NCSS Curriculum Standards: NCSS 5
Students know how institutions are formed, maintained and changed, and understand how they influence individuals, groups and other institutions. -
NCSS Curriculum Standards: NCSS 6
Learners will develop an understanding of the principles, processes, structures and institutions of government, and examine how power and authority are or have been obtained in various systems of government. -
NCSS Curriculum Standards: NCSS 10
Learning how to apply civic ideals to inform civic action is essential to participation in a democracy and support for the common good.
