Unit on American Identity
Rhetorical Devices
Ms. Salemme
California Standards
● Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and
relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the
action is ordered, how the characters/archetypes are introduced and
developed).
● Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text,
including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of
specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with
multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)
● Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing
what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire,
sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
● By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories,
dramas, and poems, in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
What is Rhetoric?
anyone heard of it before?
Hook 1
Image: stick figure thinking.
Rhetoric: the art of persuasive
speaking or writing
Image: woman teaching
Now, we’re going to take a look at
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a
Dream” speech.
What parts of this speech leaves an
impact?
What parts jump out to you?
Do you notice anything special or
unique about this speech?
What effect does this speech have?
Image: King at the March on Washington,
August 28, 1963 (New York Magazine) Hook 2
Now, let’s look at some
examples of rhetorical devices
Repetition
The action of repeating something that has already been said
or written.
'One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish,
Black fish, Blue fish, Old fish, New fish.
This one has a little car.
This one has a little star.
Image: yellow fish
Say! What a lot of fish there are.'
Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham
Dual Coding 1: Drawing
Metaphor and Simile Visual Aid 1
Metaphor: a comparison of two seemingly unlikely things that
actually share common characteristics.
Simile: a comparison between two things using like or as.
Image: Pig in mud. Metaphor
Example: I’m a pig in mud right now!
Simile Example: I’m like a pig in mud
right now!
(KnowYourPhrase.com)
Amplification
Extending a phrase or a sentence, often repeating the
phrase, with elaboration and embellishment.
Her love was great, a love filled with the purity of a thousand
suns and extended to the far reaches of the Earth.
Image: heart and sun
Dual coding 2
Allusion
Visual Aid 2
A reference to a person, place, event, work, element
of pop culture, etc.
Image: (Iamag.co)
Shrek References.
Shrek compared to
Snow White.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CT_Zet8k6ew
Now you try!
Give your own example of
one of the devices
Progress Monitoring 1
let’s look back at the
speech
Notice any of the strategies
you just learned?
Take a couple minutes with a
partner to search the speech.
Progress Monitoring 2
Allegory and Analogy
Allegory: A story, poem, or
work where each element is
representative of something
else.
Analogy: using one easy to
understand concept to explain
a more difficult concept.
Image: Cover of George Orwell’s
Animal Farm. Pig in a general‘s
uniform.
Alliteration Let’s say them out loud!
The repetition of the initial letter in a string of words.
Example: My mother makes many miraculous mittens.
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds.
I am bound to lie around the ground with the sound.
Consonance: the repetition of consonance sounds.
The pitter patter of the clay entranced the man who made pottery.
Dual Coding 3
Antithesis
Contrast made clear by using contrasting language.
“Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing”
Image: groom and bride.
Dual Coding 4
Parallelism
The use of components that are similar in
structure.
Like father, like son.
I am strong. I am fierce. I am powerful.
Write your own example of parallelism!
Image: silhouette of man and woman.
Anaphora
The repetition of a word or phrase in successive sentences,
phrase, or clauses.
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we
not laugh?”
Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice
Image: finger pointing.
Smartart Graphic
Repetition
Sound Phrases
Alliteration Parallelism
Consonance Assonance Anaphora
Let’s look back at
the speech
You can find almost every device!
Culminating Activity
What are the effect
of these devices?
Which would you like to try to use in an essay?
Culminating Question
