Florida B.E.S.T. ELA.11.R.2.3
The Standard
Analyze an author's choices in establishing and achieving purpose(s) in speeches and essays from the Classical Period.
Florida B.E.S.T. Standards for English Language Arts
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students determine what a Classical speaker or essayist wants the audience to believe, feel, or do. They connect specific language and structural choices to that goal.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify the speaker’s intended effect on a specific audience. They explain how choices such as repetition, word choice, examples, appeals, and organization work together to produce that effect.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may label ethos, pathos, or logos without explaining how the language creates that appeal. They may confuse the speaker’s topic with the speaker’s intended effect on the audience.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short excerpt from Cicero and ask: What does the speaker want the audience to think or do, and which two choices support that goal?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Color-code a printed speech excerpt for repetition, rhetorical questions, emotional language, and claims supported by evidence.
Ask students to write one paragraph explaining why a speaker chose a particular opening for that audience.
Play Rhetorical Choice Match by pairing excerpt cards with purpose cards, then require students to defend each match.
Compare a Roman civic speech with a modern campaign speech, focusing on how each speaker builds trust and urges action.
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Related Standards
- ELA.11.R.2.2
Analyze the central idea(s) of speeches and essays from the Classical Period.
- ELA.9.R.2.3
Analyze how an author establishes and achieves purpose(s) through rhetorical appeals and/or figurative language.
- ELA.10.R.2.3
Analyze an author's choices in establishing and achieving purpose(s) in historical American speeches and essays.
- ELA.12.R.2.3
Evaluate an author's choices in establishing and achieving purpose(s).
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