After my students have worked through all five pieces of rhetorical situation, most recently exigence, I move into their first rhetorical analysis of a full text: an excerpt from Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the United Nations, the one that closes with “one book, one pen, one child can change the world.” It’s worth checking whether your students have already read this one in another class, since it shows up in some 10th grade textbooks; you can swap in a different speech if needed.
Because so much of this activity depends on the power of the speaker, I like to show students a short clip first. A Diane Sawyer interview with Malala from 60 Minutes works well, so they understand her story and why she was speaking to the UN.
For the annotation itself, I use a layout with the text on one side and guiding questions on the other, styled like a text message conversation (some students notice the resemblance to iMessage bubbles, some don’t, but it still amuses me). The questions go beyond just identifying the speaker or audience; they ask students to dig into choices, like how Malala addresses the violence her audience associates with her, and why she addresses it that way. Since students only have rhetorical situation to work with at this point, not the appeals yet, this format gives them a guided way into the text rather than a blank speech and a vague direction to “mark what’s important.”
I read the speech aloud or play a recording of Malala delivering it, then model annotating a section on the board before releasing students to work independently or in pairs. Most classes can finish this in one period.
Their first extended piece of writing grows out of this. I ask for 250 to 500 words on the value or function of education in the United States, a topic that connects naturally to Malala’s speech, since she’s fighting for girls’ access to education while many of my students are more used to complaining about mandatory school. I have them handwrite this first draft, since we build on it the next day in peer writing groups. The next text we pair with this topic is an excerpt from Thurgood Marshall’s Brown v. Board opinion.
I don’t start the year with full essays. I want students to build the skills for these three essay types in small, precise pieces before asking them to put together something longer.