Grade 8 Does Speech Matter Lesson Seed 1 President Obama Speech (MDK12 Remix)

Day 1 Task 1

  • Quickwrite: How can taking a stand develop a person’s belief system?
  • We will identify names of people who took a stand for something that they believed in: President Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Hilary Clinton, friends, family.
  • We will brainstorm a list of ideas or topics that people might take a stand for or against.  
  • We will brainstorm what we know about speeches and the people that delivered them.  
  • We will work in groups to pick a topic of interest: uniforms, lunch lines, homework, recess, cell phones.
  • We will list the claims and counterclaims about the topic in our groups. .
  • Let's discuss, did each group presented a clear argument with claims and counterclaims?