Presidential Rhetoric PBL

This mini-PBL capitalized on the 2016 Presidential race, requiring AP Language and Composition students to evaluate how candidates use tools of rhetoric to appeal to constituents. Students worked in teams to evaluate candidates' rhetorical strategies on a political issue of choice and then consulted how the candidates were appealing to voters, and predicting who the target audience was based on the content of their speeches and political advertisements. They were answering the driving question: "How do politicians use rhetoric to sway constituents?"

Ultimately, students had to identify and explain the overarching and specific rhetorical strategies candidates used, while identifying and explaining the intended audience through rhetorical analysis. Students were challenged to explain, without personal bias, what was rhetorically successful and why. In non-election years, this project could work well by having students pick a popular or infamous election year to analyze or even a campaign of existing public service announcements. If I did this again, I would also have students include a comparison of how various media platforms portray and contribute to constituents' understanding of the election process, candidates, and the big-ticket issues. I would have also better-scaffolded the process of eliminating bias from your research and presentations.

For this assignment, many students chose to create graphic heavy, dynamic presentations that relied on Adobe Spark, Microsoft Sway, Google Slides, and online infographic creators like Piktochart.com and Canva.com. Students shared their findings to a collection of their peers through a gallery-walk presentation.