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Pre-AP Lesson Plan: Building a Toolbox for Rhetorical Analysis
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by Amy Benjamin
Hendrick Hudson High School
Montrose, New York
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Students will gain the tools necessary for analysis of the rhetorical components of the kind of text that appears on the AP English Language and Composition Exam.
Context
This lesson is appropriate for ninth-grade students who are reading oratory and personal letters of the type that appear on the AP English Language and Composition Exam. The lesson is the first step toward establishing a habit of mind that allows students to approach rhetorical analysis in a systematic manner. Therefore, it is a lesson that should be repeated with different exemplars of text. The lesson can easily be adjusted for middle school students, and can also be used in an AP class itself.
Activity
This lesson teaches students how to do the kind of thinking that is necessary for rhetorical analysis. This kind of thinking is abstract: We need to separate what is being said (content) from how it is being said (rhetorical analysis). I tell my students that we are not looking solely for what the piece is about; we are discovering how it is about what it is about. If the piece were an article of clothing, we'd be talking about the choice of fabric and how that particular kind of fabric falls and folds as it is worn. We'd be turning the garment inside out, examining its seams and stitching to see how it was put together so that it will stay put together. We'd be able to understand and explain why the eye is drawn to particular details or decorations on the garment. And, importantly, we'd be using the language of the tailoring craft to do this analysis, to have this conversation: We'd know the parts and processes that go into making a garment, and we'd have the technical language to speak to each other as professionals.
Learning is durable when it engages the senses, is sociable, and puts the key language into the students' mouths and hands. We can give students notes, lists, and worksheets, but graphic organizers are a more effective way of having students see relationships, remember, and understand. This lesson has students creating a kind of three-dimensional graphic organizer: students construct a "rhetorical analysis tool box" out of small boxes, each of a different color. They can use a shoebox that has been divided into three compartments with cardboard wedges. Or, they can use the plastic containers that crudités and dip are sold in, and it wouldn't hurt them to eat the contents first. They can even use paper plates -- the kind that is divided into three segments. They will also need colored index cards or cardstock paper in three colors, preferably the brightest ones they can find.
Compartment 1: Rhetorical Forms
We will be looking for nine possible rhetorical forms in the text: example, definition, comparison-contrast, classification, process analysis, description, narrative, cause-and-effect, assertion/justification. These are broad forms that the speaker or writer can take to shape the message. Writers decide to hang their message upon one or more of these forms. The first step toward rhetorical analysis is to identify the dominant and subordinating forms that the writer has chosen.
Just as a sweatshirt goes nicely with jeans, and a sport shirt goes well with a pair of khakis, some of our rhetorical forms tend to pair off comfortably: narrative and description; definition, classification, and example; cause-and-effect; and assertion/justification. When students set up these likely pairs, they have cues to help them identify dominant and subordinate forms.
Everything has features: jeans have zippers; blouses have buttons; tennis shoes have rubber soles. If you wanted to create or describe these items, you would have to use the language of these features. Likewise, rhetorical forms have features and the features are made of language: temporal language is a feature of process analysis and of narrative; spatial language, of description; words expressing causal relationships (thus, therefore, hence...) are features of cause-and-effect forms. When students learn to recognize the language features of the nine rhetorical forms, they improve their reading comprehension and their writing skills.
To fill Compartment 1, we cut three index cards into three strips. On one side of each strip, we write the name of the rhetorical form. On the reverse side, we write a few words or phrases that are likely to be found in this form. I like to use neon-colored index cards or cardstock paper, because the brighter the colors, the more memorable. Of course, the process of creating the strips, manipulating the visuals, is a process that in itself strengthens learning.
Compartment 2: Style
Style infuses rhetoric as dye infuses fabric. Style is to be found everywhere, but it has discrete elements: diction and syntax. Via diction and syntax, the writer expresses tone, connotation, and figurative language. Students learn to analyze style by developing an awareness of diction, syntax, tone, connotation, and the extent to which figurative language is used. We begin training our minds to analyze style by asking broad questions:
- Is the diction mostly formal or mostly informal? Mostly polysyllabic (Latinate and Greek) words or mostly short (Anglo-Saxon) words? Is the diction scientific, scholarly, or conversational? If it's conversational, is it colloquial? Slang?
- Are the sentences mostly long or mostly short? Are most of the sentences meandering, or are they terse? What kinds of punctuation do we see? How does this punctuation establish relationships among ideas within the sentences? Is there cataloging of information?
- Is the tone mostly serious or mostly playful? What emotions do you sense from the writer?
- Is the language mostly literal or mostly metaphorical? Do the metaphors bring to mind something positive or something negative?
To fill Compartment 2, we use four whole index cards, labeled diction, syntax, tone, figurative language. On the back of the cards, we write the above questions.
Compartment 3: Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical devices are the jewelry of rhetoric: they create sparkles and interesting little gems of writer's craftsmanship. Like jewelry, rhetorical devices should not be used to excess lest they become garish. Most rhetorical devices have Greek names: metonymy, synecdoche, apostrophe, anaphora, cataphora, polysyndeton, asyndeton, chiasmus, diacope. Students need to learn how to go beyond the mere identification of rhetorical devices. But let's not forget the devices that are named by more accessible language: allusion, parallel structure, repetition.
To fill Compartment 3, we cut as many as ten strips from the index cards. On each strip, one rhetorical device appears, along with a brief definition. On the reverse side is an example. I try not to have too many of the Greek-based words in the compartment because an excess of them "overdresses" the analysis.
So now we have a visual, created by the students themselves, that represents the major and minor terminology that we use to analyze rhetoric. This activity is meaningful, fun, and memorable.
Amy Benjamin teaches AP English Language and Composition and AP English Literature and Composition, as well as ninth grade English, at Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose, New York. In addition, Amy is an education consultant who has trained teachers in 20 states. She is the author of numerous books and articles about educational issues, most notably writing in the content areas and differentiated instruction. Amy is the president of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English. She is the recipient of awards for excellence in teaching from Tufts University, Union College, and the New York State English Education Council.
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