Spreadsheet Lesson Framework
Topic Description:
This spreadsheet activity focuses on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, specifically Part II and Tom Robinson's trial. In this activity, my 7th grade English students will analyze the rhetorical and persuasive devices in Atticus Finch's closing argument. Prior to this activity students have studied rhetorical and persuasive devices in advertisements, propaganda, and political speeches. As part of the activity, students will close read Atticus's closing arguments and outline/analyze the different techniques used. However, the main focus of the lesson is to identify and explain the effect of the techniques on the reader and the novel's characters.
Lesson Goals:
Students will -
Data Description:
The data in this activity will come from Atticus's closing arguments in chapter 20 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Students will complete the majority of each column with either quotations from Atticus's argument that employ rhetorical techniques, the techniques employed, and/or the effect of the technique.
This spreadsheet activity focuses on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, specifically Part II and Tom Robinson's trial. In this activity, my 7th grade English students will analyze the rhetorical and persuasive devices in Atticus Finch's closing argument. Prior to this activity students have studied rhetorical and persuasive devices in advertisements, propaganda, and political speeches. As part of the activity, students will close read Atticus's closing arguments and outline/analyze the different techniques used. However, the main focus of the lesson is to identify and explain the effect of the techniques on the reader and the novel's characters.
Lesson Goals:
Students will -
- Analyze argument using close reading strategies
- Identify rhetorical and persuasive techniques in an argument
- Explain the rhetorical and persuasive techniques' effect on the reader and/or characters in novel
- Record data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet
Data Description:
The data in this activity will come from Atticus's closing arguments in chapter 20 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Students will complete the majority of each column with either quotations from Atticus's argument that employ rhetorical techniques, the techniques employed, and/or the effect of the technique.
- Column Headings - There are three column headings in this spreadsheet: Quote, Technique, and Effect. In the Quote column, students will identify direct quotations that employ rhetorical techniques. In the Technique column, students will identify the technique used, and in the Effect column, students will explain the effect(s) of that technique.
- Row Headings - For this spreadsheet, their are not any specific row headings; however, in the rows, students will record their data according aforementioned columns.