Planning a speech and building your counter-argument
I can structure my speech around a central message and use a counter-argument to strengthen my overarching argument.
Planning a speech and building your counter-argument
I can structure my speech around a central message and use a counter-argument to strengthen my overarching argument.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Take a clear stance for or against the statement - alternative arguments should be refuted at least once in the piece.
- Contrast creates a robust sense of a writer's perspective, by demonstrating feeling towards all angles of an argument.
- Use rhetorical questions, direct address and hyperbole to expose the flaws of the opposition in an emotive way.
- Carefully sequence and vary subtle and dramatic shifts in tone, to draw reactions from the reader.
Keywords
Authorial voice - the language a writer uses to communicate their perspective- this could be serious, hopeful or fun etc.
Rhetorical question - questions posed for effect, not requiring an answer, to emphasise a point
Refute - to prove something wrong or untrue
Hyperbole - exaggerated claims not meant to be taken literally, used for emphasis
Direct address - speaking directly to the audience using 'you' to engage and involve them in the message
Common misconception
Refuting counter-arguments is enough to create an impact.
Although it is good practice to refute counter-arguments, we can also use language devices when we do so to make them even more powerful.
To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: Planning a speech and building your counter-argument, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: Planning a speech and building your counter-argument, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 english lessons from the Non-fiction: changing views unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.