Resource Builder: Rhetorical Devices, Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Convention

Learning Goals: Students will be able to learn about rhetorical devices by studying how they are used within a speech.

These materials can be used to introduce rhetorical devices or be used as a review.

As an introduction

1. Show the video/students can see the video on their own in a flipped classroom.
2. Select a version of the speech to distribute to the students if necessary and read and discuss.  Annotate with the class, scaffold as needed to address the needs of your students.
3. Download the slide show and distribute to your students through a platform such as Google Classroom.  Students can practice identifying the rhetorical devices used to review.  An answer key is provided on the last slide for students to check their work.

As a review of the concepts:

1. Students view the video on their own.
2. Students can complete the slide review if assigned on Google Classroom.

Core standards covered:

• Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text (RI.11.6)
• Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U. S. documents of historical and literary significance for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features (RI.11.9)