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English lesson plan · 11th grade (Year 12 in England) · 60 minutes

Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.11-12.6CCSS L.11-12.3.AEngland: AP LanguageEngland: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q3England: A-level English Language

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton….

  • 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: The effect of sentence forms: short sentences, fragments, lists, questions; Ethos, pathos or logos?; Euphemism, oxymoron, paradox and understatement

Leads to: the next skill in this area.

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 · 6 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (The effect of sentence forms: short sentences, fragments, lists, questions; Ethos, pathos or logos?; Euphemism, oxymoron, paradox and understatement). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. Is the proposed answer correct? "Silence. Then footsteps." What kind of sentence form is used and why? → fragments, to focus sharply on single moments (yes, it is correct / no, it is not correct) → yes, it is correctPrompt: How does the length or shape of the sentence affect the pace?
  2. Which figure of speech matches this description? A statement that seems to contradict itself but reveals a deeper truth. (understatement / paradox / oxymoron / euphemism) → paradoxPrompt: Ask: does it soften, combine opposites in two words, seem self-contradictory as a whole idea, or downplay?
  3. Read the question and choose. "She ran. She didn't look back. She couldn't." What is the effect of the short sentences? (they add lots of descriptive detail / they create urgency and tension / they slow the pace to relax the reader / they introduce a list) → they create urgency and tensionPrompt: How does the length or shape of the sentence affect the pace?

Hook · 6 min

  • Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
  • Share the objective: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 12 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Which rhetorical device matches this description? Repeating the same word or phrase at the START of successive clauses.
  • Step 1: Speakers and writers shape sentences for effect: repetition (anaphora, epistrophe), balance and contrast (antithesis, chiasmus), pace (asyndeton, polysyndeton) and understatement (litotes).
  • Step 2: anaphora: Repeating the same word or phrase at the START of successive clauses.
  • Step 3: So the answer is: anaphora
  • Answer: anaphora
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 12 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 rhetorical device matches this description? Repeating the same word or phrase at the START of successive clauses. (antithesis / anaphora / chiasmus / asyndeton) → anaphoraPrompt: Is it about repetition (where?), contrast, reversed order, conjunctions, or denying the opposite?
  2. Which rhetorical device is used here? Her first novel was not a small achievement. (litotes / polysyndeton / chiasmus / asyndeton) → litotesPrompt: Look for repeated words: at the start, at the end, or reversed?

You do: independent practice · 17 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 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 7 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Type the rhetorical device (in English) that matches this description. Repeating the same word or phrase at the END of successive clauses. → epistrophePrompt: Is it about repetition (where?), contrast, reversed order, conjunctions, or denying the opposite?
  2. Which rhetorical device matches this description? Using many conjunctions in a row, to slow down or pile up items. (chiasmus / asyndeton / epistrophe / polysyndeton) → polysyndetonPrompt: Is it about repetition (where?), contrast, reversed order, conjunctions, or denying the opposite?

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: The effect of sentence forms: short sentences, fragments, lists, questions.
  • 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

  • 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-11.

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

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Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…

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Date

Score/ 8

  1. Question 1

    Which rhetorical device is used here? When the river rose, we stood together. When the power failed, we stood together. When the town was rebuilt, we stood together.

    • A. chiasmus
    • B. antithesis
    • C. polysyndeton
    • D. epistrophe

  2. Question 2

    Which rhetorical device matches this description? Placing contrasting ideas side by side in balanced phrases.

    • A. polysyndeton
    • B. litotes
    • C. antithesis
    • D. asyndeton

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 3

    Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Which device sets 'what we say' against 'what they did'?

    • A. antithesis
    • B. onomatopoeia
    • C. metonymy
    • D. anaphora

  2. Question 4

    Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". "We can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground" repeats 'we can not' at the start of each phrase. What is this device called?

    • A. chiasmus
    • B. anaphora
    • C. asyndeton
    • D. litotes

  1. Question 5

    Type the rhetorical device (in English) that matches this description. Understatement that expresses an idea by denying its opposite.

    Answer

  2. Question 6

    Which rhetorical device is used here? It is easy to make a promise; it is hard to keep one.

    • A. asyndeton
    • B. litotes
    • C. epistrophe
    • D. antithesis

  3. Question 7

    Which rhetorical device matches this description? Repeating ideas in reverse order (A–B, B–A).

    • A. epistrophe
    • B. chiasmus
    • C. polysyndeton
    • D. antithesis

  4. Question 8

    Type the rhetorical device (in English) that matches this description. Using many conjunctions in a row, to slow down or pile up items.

    Answer

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Answer key: Rhetorical devices of syntax: anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, asyndeton…

  1. 1. D. epistrophe

  2. 2. C. antithesis

  3. 3. A. antithesis

  4. 4. B. anaphora

  5. 5. litotes

  6. 6. D. antithesis

  7. 7. B. chiasmus

  8. 8. polysyndeton