- English 10 Absrtact

This course explores the art and practice of public speaking, oral interpretation, dramatic performance, and written expression as a means to enhance dynamic communication and promote social justice. Students will compose, deliver, and analyze introductory speeches, inspirational speeches, and persuasive speeches. As part of our poetry unit, students read two works of literature: A River Runs Through It, by Norman Mclean and Sold, by Patricia McCormick. Additionally, students are exposed to Great American Speeches and Great American Poets, developing Interpretive and analytical skills through close readings of Speeches and Poems in regards to style, structure, techniques, and devices an author employs in his/her works. We close the semester focusing on drama and dramatic performance. Students engage in Reader's Theater while reading A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. This work offers further historical context to the Civil Rights movement after having viewed and analyzed Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream" Speech, Malcolm X's style and rhetoric, and Bobby Kennedy's impromptu Speech in Memphis, Tennessee as a tribute to the life of Martin Luther King Jr. A final project offers an array of presentation choices for students that may or may not incorporate technology. However, all presentations will demonstrate skills, techniques, and devices employed by the orators, poets, and authors studied throughout the course.