Lesson video

Hello, Ms. Howard here.

And welcome to your second lesson in the rhetoric and change unit.

Now, last lesson we explored Michelle Obama's letter to her younger self, which we're going to be revisiting today and looking at far more detail the use of rhetoric within her writing.

We'll be exploring the different language throughout the entire letter as a whole, and then closing to think about what advice we might give our younger selves now that we're older and wiser.

And that includes you, not just me.

So close down any distractions, or apps, or conversations that you might have running in the background.

You'll need a pen and something to write on, as well.

Find yourself a quiet space where you know that you won't be disturbed in any way through the lesson, and then we'll get started.

Now, as you may remember, I shared my excitement talking you through Michelle Obama's Note to Self, her letter to her younger self.

She's an iconic role model who's done so much work as a lawyer, author, and her time as First Lady at the White House to really raise awareness or work on key issues around higher education, healthy families, and rights for women and girls in education as well.

So it's really interesting to read this letter that she wrote to her younger self, that we started to look at last lesson.

In this lesson today, we'll revisit rhetoric and change and see why rhetoric is so useful when we're encouraging change, either on an individual level or wider and giving advice to others.

We'll look in detail at the language that's used within that letter to encourage change.

And then we'll close the lesson with thinking about what we would say to our own younger selves.

And I know I hinted at this last lesson, but we're going to look later on in the unit at what advice we'd give to our younger selves.

So keep that in the back of your mind as you're reading through in detail the language that Obama uses so that we can start to think about how this might apply to ourselves.

Now, as ever, we're always going to come back to this underpinning triad that's used when exploring rhetoric.

So when we're looking at Obama's letter, really consider to what extent these three aspects have been used within the letter to be persuasive of her younger self when she's giving this advice.

So ethos, how trustworthy and how much the audience, the reader of the letter would feel that Obama genuinely cared for her younger self's wellbeing when she's giving that advice.

Logos, so to what extent her argument is knowledgeable and rationable and reasonable, and it would make her younger self want to take on that advice.

And last but not least, pathos.

And that's to what extent she's evoked an emotional response from her audience, from her reader.

And I think that's really evident through this letter.

If we think about the anecdotes that are used throughout, and the choices over the particular anecdotes, because I can only imagine Michelle Obama has had an incredible life, and so the few examples that she pours out of her experiences, of the things that have happened to her, maybe why she's chosen those ones and how actually her selections of those particular anecdotes really help to evoke an emotional response from both her younger self, but from us as her, also, reading audience as well.

Now using rhetoric to evoke change is nothing new.

Great speakers throughout history and writers have been using rhetorical language in this way to demonstrate transformational change or to encourage transformational change.

And we'll been looking at a similar way that it's been used through a letter, but in a very different way to encourage social change later on in the unit.

So we don't necessarily need to just think about individual change, but also how using rhetoric can encourage social change or what for a wider audience.

As a reminder, the word transformation means a significant change.

It's taken from the Latin of transformer from trans, which means across.

So we're moving across from one point to another point.

If we think about the idea of Michelle Obama's letter, we're moving through time, we're moving from my younger self to her older self.

So this lesson, we're going to look more at how Michelle Obama uses language to give advice to herself.

And she works through a series of anecdotes to create this chronological set of advice.

And I'm going to keep asking you this question so that you can keep it in the back of your mind.

And I'd like you to pause the video here, just to make a note about one or two things that you might say to your younger self.

So have a think about, and we'll be returning to this at the end of the lesson, have a think about what advice would you give to your younger self if you were looking back? So think about your, you know, your three year old self, your five-year-old self, and think about the memories that you may have.

What advice would you give to your younger self If you could go back in time and give them some advice? Now, if you need to listen again to remind yourself of the letter, absolutely fine.

As you're listening again, I'd like you to make note of the different ways that Michelle Obama describes the challenges she faced.

So I want you to think about how she describes how the particular anecdote, the particular experience was challenging.

As an extra challenge to your making notes about challenges, can you pick out the top three most significant challenges? Did I use the word challenges enough in that little instruction? Let me do that again for you.

So you're making notes as you listen to me read the letter again, making notes of the different ways that Michelle describes the challenges she faced.

So how do we know that it was challenging for her? Where does the language show you that? Okay? And as an extra challenge to your challenges notes, can you pick the top three most significant challenges? I'm going to read through the letter for you, and then we'll revisit what you wrote down at the end.

Dear Miche, there you are in your jean jacket and braids a long way from that little apartment on the South side of Chicago.

You're at one of the finest universities in the world.

You're smiling, and you should be, you worked hard for this.

But even now, after you reached your goal, you're still not quite sure if you belong, and can't get one question out of your mind, am I good enough? There aren't many kids here who look like you.

Some arrived on campus in limousines.

One of your classmates is a bonafide movie star, and another is rumoured to be a real life princess.

Meanwhile, you got dropped off by your father in the family sedan.

Years from now, you'll learn that your parents had to take out new credit cards to pay your tuition.

But Michelle, what you'll come to realise one day is that you're only seeing what you lack, not everything that your story has given you.

You grew up surrounded by soul and jazz and a deep, anchoring love.

Your parents taught you to keep your word and treat people with respect.

They encouraged you to develop your own voice and use it.

Those lessons are more valuable than anything material.

They'll come in handy in the future, in settings I won't spoil for you right now.

Your father's final lesson will come far too soon.

He'll teach you that life is fleeting.

So laugh with him until your side hurts.

Savour the grip of his hugs, the softness in his eyes.

A day will come when those memories are all you have.

His absence will hit you like a rock.

It will cause you to rethink everything about yourself and your future.

But don't worry, you won't have to go through any of this alone.

You'll open your heart to someone whose upbringing was nothing and everything like yours, all at the same time.

He's driven by a hopeful set of ideals.

He's grounded and kind and absolutely brilliant.

And he's pretty good looking, too.

I thought you'd appreciate that.

His certainty about his path will feel like a challenge to yours.

You'll learn that even the best relationships take work, but that's okay, that's normal and it's what gives your partnership its strength.

Together, you'll be blessed with two perfect little girls who fill you with so much joy you can barely process it.

Yet, you'll still struggle to find a balance between your family, your husband's rising career, and your own sense of self.

Be patient.

You'll get there.

And just when you think you've done it, the four of you will be shot out of a cannon into the unknown.

Everything you've fought for so long, stability, balance, confidence, will feel like it's at risk.

You'll be attacked by people who've never met you and don't really care to.

They'll try to harm you for their own gain.

Don't stoop to their level, no matter how gratifying it might feel in the moment.

Hold tight to those values your parents taught you.

Your family will make history, breaking barriers, and filling out a more complete picture of the American story.

You'll meet two popes and the Queen of England.

People will fill stadiums to hear you speak.

It will be easy to think you're something special.

Just remember that there are millions of people who grew up like you did and didn't get this kind of spotlight.

Reflect the light back on them.

There are so many people out there like you, Miche.

Black girls and minorities of all kinds, working class kids from big cities and small towns, people who doubt themselves, who are uncertain about whether they belong, but have so much to offer the world.

Share your story with them, the struggles and the triumphs and everything else.

Show them that there's more beauty inside than they can see right now.

That's how you'll answer that question that's following you around, the one that sometimes keeps you up at night.

You're more than enough, Miche.

You always have and you always will be.

And I can't wait for you to see that.

Now, I think what's really interesting to note within this letter by Michelle Obama, is the way in which she structures each particular section.

So each particular event that she refers to.

She opens each paragraph with a short, interesting story, an anecdote, about a particular person or particular event within her life.

And each anecdote that she refers to she closes that paragraph with an imperative, with a piece of advice through a command or instruction, that language, that imperative language of, don't worry, reflect the light back on them.

Those short imperatives that give a piece of advice to her in relation to what she's learned about that particular anecdote, that particular story.

Chronological means a record of events in the order they occurred.

It's taken from the Greek word khronos, which means time.

So in time order is chronological.

Speaking of time, I've put together these six tasks for you just to see how much you remember from last lesson about this particular letter.

Now, you do score more points for the ones that are slightly more difficult.

Pause the video here and let's see how many points you can get.

Good luck.

How did you get on? There's a total of 16 points sitting here, but some were very tricky.

So I think anything over six or seven points is pretty impressive.

So how does Michelle Obama use language to encourage change? How do we go about analysing this and analysing the language in more detail? Well, let's go back to our idea of tracking things chronologically.

So looking at the opening, the development, the middle and the end of the letter, or later on in the letter.

Because I think that's a really handy way to look at this letter as she so nicely places everything chronologically.

So in the opening of the letter and right from the opening and all the way throughout, we have this direct address where Obama is referring to you and your all the way through.

So it creates a really nice personal tone.

We also have this use of an anecdote right from the start when she refers to her experience of university.

We now move on to see this imperative language that she uses when giving advice, particularly around what must've been really difficult story to tell around the death of her father.

She says, savour the grips of his hugs, the softness in his eyes, which demonstrates to us the things that perhaps she wished that she'd made the most of before he passed away.

And then we've got this really fantastic metaphor that she uses to describe the transformation of her life from where they were before to when her husband is this president.

So she says just when you think you've done it, the four of you will be shot out of a cannon into the unknown.

And I think that's a fantastic metaphor, fantastic use of figurative language.

So here's what the analysis might look like when it's written out in full.

Notice that each point, each idea the person writing to analyse includes the particular device has been used, but more importantly, explains how it's been used.

So using an anecdote to remind her of what it felt like to be proud.

Use of emotive language emphasises Michelle's grief.

The use of the metaphor describes the challenge of being wife to the president of the United States and being in the public eye.

Public eye is if you have a lot of media attention, like being the wife of the president in the United States would have, or any certain celebrity or anything like that.

That every time they pinpoint a device, they identify a device, they explain how it's been used.

They don't just identify that yes, here's an anecdote or yes, here's emotive language.

So let's stop point here for a true or false.

Pause the video and see how you get on with these three statements.

How did you do? The first two are true.

Michelle Obama does include emotive language throughout her letter and she includes chronological anecdotes.

So what I'm going to ask you to do, we're going to read through a section, or a series of sections, and for each bit that we read I want you to spot where's the anecdote, where does she use emotive or figurative language, and what advice does she give using these imperatives? And we'll see this pattern that she uses.

So just to give you a little bit of a hint for the first one, we're looking at them in that order that I've placed them down the right hand side.

So the anecdote will usually come first, then the emotive or the figurative language, usually, but we always end, usually, on the advice.

Remember I say that kind of weaving that she does throughout.

So let's read this first example.

You're at one of the finest universities in the world.

You're smiling, and you should be, you worked hard for this.

But even now, after you reached your goal, you're still not quite sure if you belong and can't get one question out of your mind.

Am I good enough? Oh, see, this is tricky with this one.

This one, she's done a slightly different order.

You're at one of the finest universities in the world.

There's our anecdote.

You're smiling, you should be.

There's our imperative language.

She's saying, you should be smiling, make sure you enjoy this.

And her emmotive or figurative language, you've reached your goal, this idea of working towards something.

Let's have a look at the next one.

Don't forget to pause the video once I finished reading and have a spot to see where the anecdote is, or what's the anecdote, where does she use emotive or figurative language, and what advice does she give using the imperative commands? Your father's final lesson will come far too soon.

He'll teach you that life is fleeting.

So laugh with him until your side hurts.

Savour the grip of his hugs, the softness in his eyes.

A day will come when those memories are all you'll have.

His absence will hit you like a rock.

It will cause you to rethink everything about yourself and your future.

But don't worry, you won't have to go through any of this alone.

Now, I've picked some examples here, but there's so many examples of emotive or figurative language and the imperatives as well.

So let's have a look.

Well, the anecdote is, your father's final lesson will come fall too soon.

You may have heard something else that referred to her father there as the anecdote.

Because she's talking about him passing away, isn't she? Where we're looking at and emotive or figurative language, there's so much here that we could talk about.

Savour the grip of his hugs, the softness of his eyes.

You could also say that that's imperative language.

Imperative command.

Remember what we said before, that the very best rhetoric makes use of two things at once, it's a really clever use of language.

A day will come when those memories are all you'll have.

Really emotive.

His absence will hit you like a rock.

We've got that figurative language there.

Well, I think it's really nice to have a look at the fact that she closes with advice.

Don't worry, you won't have to go through any of this alone.

Let's have a look at this one.

Make sure you have a go at spotting what's the anecdote, where does she use emotive or figurative language, and what advice does she give using imperatives? Everything you fought for so hard, stability, balance, confidence, will feel like it's at risk.

You'll be attacked by people you've never met.

Who have never met you, sorry.

And don't really care to.

They'll try to harm you for their own gain.

Don't stoop to their level, no matter how gratifying it might feel in the moment.

Hold tight to those values your parents taught you.

So the anecdote here is this warning, isn't it? Everything you've fought for for so long, stability balance, confidence, will feel like it's at risk.

So she's talking about that kind of move, that drastic change to their lives, that transformation to living in the White House and being in the public eye and what it was like, and everything felt very, kind of, unstable, and it would always feel, like she says, like everything is at risk.

So there's your anecdote there.

You've also got, your parents taught you.

So she's remembering those values that she was taught as a child and bringing them back to say, actually, this is where I'm going to use these.

This is where they're important.

You've got great deal of emotive language here.

We feel like it's a risk, you'll be attacked.

So figuratively, she'll be attacked.

And then you've got threaded through, this advice.

Don't stoop to their level, hold tight to your values.

And so again, we've got this kind of threading through.

So thinking on all of the different ways that Michelle Obama provides advice to her younger self, I want you to pause the video here and think about what advice might we give to our younger self.

What advice would you give to your younger self? Have a look at your original notes, 'cause I asked you this at the beginning of the lesson, if you can remember.

What advice would be important? Pause the video and press play when you're done.

Well done, you've done absolutely brilliantly today.

Particularly analysing that letter in so much detail.

I'd like you to do two things for me.

Firstly, I'd like you to write down three things you've learned from the lesson today, or it could be over the course of both lessons, looking at that particular letter.

And secondly, I'd like you to complete the exit quiz to see how much you've learned.

Next lesson, we're going to have a look at how we can use Obama as inspiration for giving advice to our younger selves.

But more about that next lesson.

See you then.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging OakNational and the hashtag LearnwithOak.

Excellent work today, so impressed.

See you next time.