TEACHING TEACHERS TO TEACH

LAW, EDUCATION, PUBLIC SERVICE

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• I am in the Law, Education, Public Service Academy, and I am focused on the education pathway. The speech I chose is Michael Johnston's Convocation remarks that he delivered at Harvard College in 2014

Who is Michael Johnston?

MICHAEL JOHNSTON IS

• an American Educator (served as a principal, and taught at high school and college levels)
• a father of three
• former legislature of Colorado
• a graduate of Harvard College, and Yale

MAIN IDEAS OF THE SPEECH

success depends on expressing your

• Right to KNOW
• Power to DECIDE
• Will to LOVE

RIGHT TO KNOW

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• The RIGHT TO KNOW is only a first, but and indispensable step to a being a successful student or educator. It's allowing yourself to learn outside of others' perspectives so that you can create your own.

POWER TO DECIDE

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• The POWER TO DECIDE is using the knowledge that you gained to make your own decisions and set goals for yourself.

WILL TO LOVE

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• The WILL TO LOVE emphasizes the passion you need to have to be a good educator, despite your past or what challenges you're going through.

LITERARY DEVICES

repetition

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• Throughout his speech, Johnston uses the repetition of 'RIGHT TO KNOW', 'power to decide', and 'will to LOVE' to keep those phrases in the audiences mind after the speech was finished

PARAlLEL STRUCTURE

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• An example of parallel structure in his speech is 'That shoulder will be leaned on, cried on, snotted on...'. This use of this device shows that all of these actions have equal value.

ACTIVE VERB

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• 'In those small and large decisions you build the work of art that is yourself' contains the active verb 'build'

alliteration

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• 'I have yet to meet a practitioner or parent or policy maker who wants students to fail, no matter their ideology or approach.' this phrase repeats the p syllable at the beginning of practitioner, parent, and policy maker.

allusion

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• Johnston alludes to the civil rights protests and by stating '...and asked if he believed these dangerous and incendiary and sometimes deadly marches actually changed anything. ' without explicitly saying anything about civil rights

ARCHETYPE

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• Johnston referenced 'King' in his speech and i immediately knew that he was referring to the civil rights hero, martin luther king jr.

imagery

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• Johnston describes how he would close faculty meetings with everyone in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and i could picture it in my head.

WHY DO WE NEED TEACHERS?

They CHANGE LIVES

• 83% of students say that a teacher has made them more confident
• 3/4 say that their teacher is a role model
• 54% of students say that a teacher helped them through a difficult time

THEY MAKE SACRIFICES

• the average teacher spends at least $500 out of pocket for school each year
• THE AVERAGE TEACHER WORKS 50 hours a week
• roughly 30% of teachers have a second job
• More than half of teachers have paid for the cost of field trips for children who couldn’t afford them

uses of rhetorical speech

ETHOS

Example

• Whenever I host faculty meetings I close every meeting by standing in a circle and making people stand shoulder to shoulder.We’re not quite set up for that here otherwise I would. When the circle is set and everyone is comfortably spaced apart I then ask them to take one giant step in until their shoulders are touching, and people are uncomfortable with the touch. I want you to feel that shoulder, because this is a human business, it is not done across a desk, or in a courtroom or a boardroom, it is done shoulder to shoulder. That shoulder will be leaned on, cried on, snotted on, but I think the most important reminder is that it is made rich and rewarding and endlessly complicated by the fact that it is a profession with people, by people for people.

analysis

• Johnston wants his audience to know that he has experience in education. He knows how personal education is to educators, and he shares that through that passage by using an example of when he was actually in an educational environment.

LOGOS

example

• The only essential ingredient for power is information. History is testimony to the truth that the most powerful tool of oppression is ignorance. It is why we teach young people to read, so they will no longer be passive recipients of the information we give them, so that they can be scientists not beakers, authors not words, artists not canvas.

analysis

• johnston has studied education for a long time and has been a student and a teacher. He says these things from experience and hopes to persuade his audience through strong statements.
• HE ALSO ensures THAT HE IS MAKING HIS POINT about students becoming a significant role in society, not just another object.

Pathos

EXAMPLE

• It was the simplest, most powerful, and most selfless act of gratitude I have ever seen. I went to see him off the day he went to basic training and he gave me his Livestrong Army bracelet, and said, “You get this bill passed, and I’ll make it through basic training.”

analysis

• JOHNSTON HAD A CLOSE CONNECTION WITH a student named Flavio. he was determined to help flavio accomplish his goal of getting a bill passed so that flavio could go to college and be a legal citizen. when they accomplished that goal, flavio joined the army to honor that american pride. it was obvious in the speech that it touched johnston's heart.