ELA Lesson: Rhetorical Appeals and Tourism
Lesson Plan
1 hour 40 minutesGrades11, 12English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Written by Kara Hisatake
About this lesson
In this lesson, students use tourism ads to learn about rhetorical appeals and explore how tourism contributes to a larger carbon footprint.
Step 1 - Inquire: Students discuss perspective and persuasion using images of Hawai‘i.
Step 2 - Investigate: Students analyze rhetorical appeals through oil company advertisements and activist artwork on the carbon footprint of travel.
Step 3 - Inspire: Students design a postcard from the future that uses rhetorical appeals to sway audiences about how climate change will impact Hawai‘i if tourism remains the same.
Preview the lesson plan
Better on a bigger screen? Open it in its own tab.View Lesson Plan
Everything you need to teach it
How to edit these materials (video)Teaching tips
Positives
- This lesson aligns with Hawai’i’s Nā Hopena A'o HĀ-BREATH Framework.
- This lesson gives students a voice and empowers students to have a say in how tourism affects their lives.
- This lesson gives students a method for convincing others of the impact of climate change in a powerful way.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should know that fossil fuels cause climate change. If they need to review the topic, they can watch the video What Are Fossil Fuels?
- Teacher should preview the advertisements and articles, as well as the Teacher Answer Key, before the lesson.
Differentiation
- This lesson can be paired with a rhetorical analysis lesson, like the lesson Logical Fallacies in Reef-Safe Sunscreen.
- The lesson can be extended to become an entire language arts or science unit on carbon footprints. Students can calculate their carbon footprint using the Nature Conservancy Footprint Calculator.
- If time permits, students can write a first draft of their postcards and complete peer reviews before creating their finished product.
- Students can read the articles for homework and then discuss them the following day in class.
From the scientist review
Tourism and climate change are directly related, and this lesson teaches students to spot rhetorical assertions in articles or other written content. They can then use these techniques to craft persuasive arguments about how air travel contributes to climate change and how to reduce Hawaii's tourism industry's carbon footprint while still protecting the environment. After carefully fact-checking all the instructional materials, this lesson has passed our science review process.
Want this to fit your class?
Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.
About the teacher writer
Kara Hisatake
Teacher
Kara Hisatake holds a PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has more than six years of experience teaching high school English Language Arts for grades 9–12. Her expertise is in literature and English language arts education.
