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English lesson plan · 10th grade (Year 11 in England) · 30 minutes

Ethos, pathos or logos?

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.9-10.6CCSS RI.9-10.8England: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q3England: AP LanguageEngland: A-level English Language

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Ethos, pathos or logos?.

  • I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
  • I can explain each step and say why it works.
  • I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes…; Rhetoric and persuasive techniques

Leads to: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes…; Rhetoric and persuasive techniques). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. Which persuasive technique matches this description? A question asked for effect, not to get an answer. (statistics / direct address / rhetorical question / emotive language) → rhetorical questionPrompt: Think of how each technique works on the reader.
  2. Which persuasive technique is used here? Nine out of ten pupils said the library helped their grades. (direct address / rhetorical question / rule of three / statistics) → statisticsPrompt: Is it a question, a number, a story, a quotation from an expert, a list of three, strong feelings, or 'you'?
  3. Type the persuasive technique (in English) that matches this description. Grouping ideas or words in threes to make them memorable. → rule of threePrompt: Think of how each technique works on the reader.

Hook · 3 min

  • Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
  • Share the objective: Ethos, pathos or logos?. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Drivers on phones are four times more likely to crash, according to road-safety research.
  • Step 1: Aristotle's three appeals: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (logic). Strong arguments often combine all three.
  • Step 2: It uses statistics and evidence.
  • Step 3: So the answer is: logos (logic and evidence)
  • Answer: logos (logic and evidence)
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Imagine a child waiting by the window for a parent who will never come home. (ethos (credibility) / pathos (emotion) / logos (logic and evidence)) → pathos (emotion)Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?
  2. Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: logos (logic and evidence)? (As a scientist who has studied coral reefs for a decade, I can tell you they are in serious trouble. / If the library closes, 2,000 people will lose free internet access, and the nearest alternative is twelve miles away. / Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.) → If the library closes, 2,000 people will lose free internet access, and the nearest alternative is twelve miles away.Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

  • Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
  • Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? I've coached this team for ten years and never seen such dedication. (ethos (credibility) / pathos (emotion) / logos (logic and evidence)) → ethos (credibility)Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?
  2. Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: ethos (credibility)? (I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters. / Since the lanes opened, cycling injuries have dropped by 30%, so extending them is the logical next step. / Reef cover in the area has fallen by half since 1990, according to repeated surveys.) → I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.Prompt: Is the writer making you trust THEM, making you FEEL something, or giving facts and reasons?

Watch out for

  • Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
  • Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

  • Review first: Persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions, statistics, anecdotes….
  • Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
  • Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
  • Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

  • Move on to: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…; The Toulmin model: claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal.
  • Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
  • Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-10.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Ethos, pathos or logos?

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Date

Score/ 6

  1. Question 1

    Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Do we really want our grandchildren to know coral only from old photographs?

    • A. ethos (credibility)
    • B. pathos (emotion)
    • C. logos (logic and evidence)

The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

  1. Question 2

    Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". Which appeal is MOST prominent in 'these honored dead… gave the last full measure of devotion'?

    • A. pathos
    • B. logos
    • C. none
    • D. ethos

  1. Question 3

    Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: ethos (credibility)?

    • A. Reef cover in the area has fallen by half since 1990, according to repeated surveys.
    • B. Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.
    • C. As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones.

  2. Question 4

    Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.

    • A. ethos (credibility)
    • B. pathos (emotion)
    • C. logos (logic and evidence)

  3. Question 5

    Which sentence mainly uses this appeal: pathos (emotion)?

    • A. Drivers on phones are four times more likely to crash, according to road-safety research.
    • B. I have taught maths for fifteen years, and I know how much confidence matters.
    • C. Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.

  4. Question 6

    Which appeal does this sentence mainly use? Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.

    • A. ethos (credibility)
    • B. pathos (emotion)
    • C. logos (logic and evidence)

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Answer key: Ethos, pathos or logos?

  1. 1. B. pathos (emotion)

  2. 2. A. pathos

  3. 3. C. As a paramedic for twenty years, I have seen exactly what happens when drivers use their phones.

  4. 4. A. ethos (credibility)

  5. 5. C. Every parent knows the fear of watching a child cycle onto a busy road.

  6. 6. B. pathos (emotion)