KS3 Speeches SOW

A comprehensive KS3 unit exploring the power of speeches, rhetoric and persuasive communication through a wide range of influential real world speeches. Students encounter political, social, environmental and historical speeches while developing the skills needed to understand, analyse and craft their own persuasive writing.

The unit begins by establishing the key features of speeches before progressively developing students’ understanding of the power of speeches and explores how speakers use language and persuasive techniques to influence their audiences.

Speeches include: an extract from Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I A Woman?, extracts from Winston Churchill’s We Shall Fight on the Beaches and Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat, Keir Starmer’s First Address as Prime Minister, Sir David Attenborough’s The Garden of Eden is No More and Address to the UN Security Council, Greta Thunberg’s World Economic Forum Address, an extract from Tony Blair’s 2003 House of Commons Iraq Debate, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Emma Watson’s UN HeForShe Speech, Jameela Jamil’s GLAMOUR Women of the Year Awards Speech, an extract from Frederick Douglass’s What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, and an extract from Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial Statement.

Students have the opportunity to apply the techniques they have explored, with two creative writing lessons inspired by Sir David Attenborough’s and Greta Thunberg’s environmental activism.

Students develop their ability to:
Understand the purpose and conventions of speeches
Identify and consider different audiences
Explore how form influences a speaker’s choices
Analyse the structure and organisation of speeches
Recognise and analyse rhetorical techniques
Identify and summarise key ideas
Analyse language choices and their effects
Explore perspective and how speakers present ideas
Understand how speakers influence, persuade and engage audiences
Compare the perspectives and methods of different speakers
Apply techniques from real world speeches to their own writing
Write effectively for different purposes and audiences
Develop persuasive and creative writing skills

What’s Included?
A comprehensive sequence of ready to teach lessons
A wide range of influential real world speeches
Contextual information for each speech
Reading and comprehension questions
Retrieval and recall activities
Language analysis activities
Rhetorical technique activities
Perspective and comparison tasks
Annotated quotations
Model answers and model paragraphs
Worksheets
Creative and persuasive writing activities
Assessment preparation and assessment tasks
Reflection and plenary activities
A speeches homework sheet of 24 homework tasks of varying difficulties. Pupils are to choose one task each week to complete that matches their confidence and ability.

The SOW also includes 2 assessment activities: one reading assessment and two creative writing lessons that could be used as a creative writing assessment.

Please note that four speeches have not been included due to copyright, however a link to each is provided in the notes on the first slide of the lessons where these speeches are required.