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Positive Education Through Conversation

Welcome back to my blog! This post is for the class Rhetoric in GCE's Humanities course. In this class we have been studying rhetoric and how it is used in politics and speeches. To analyze these speeches rhetorically we learned about the rhetorical situation which includes a speaker, audience, purpose, context, genre, and occasion. We have also observed the appeals a speaker should make to their audience such as logos meaning logic, pathos meaning emotions, and ethos meaning credibility. Lastly, we studied rhetorical devices which are literary devices that can be used to persuade or convince the audience. Using all of these tools we watched and analyzed many debates such as the Nixon versus Kennedy 1960 Presidential debate, the James Baldwin versus William Buckley debate, and compared the 2016 campaign advertisements for Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. For our Field Experience this unit, we were visited by Julia Kline from ILVote, where she talked about her organization and their work on registering people to vote in Illinois. This Action Project is asking me to create a response to a question as if I were running for student council president. This AP could also be used if we were actually running for GCE's student council but I am not running. In this response or speech, I have to appeal to my targeted audience by using rhetorical devices and establishing logos, pathos, and ethos. This is being presented in a video which I have attached below and can be read with the attached speech. I hope you enjoy.

GS, Rhetoric Campaign



If elected, what do you as a leader bring to this position that will help to promote academic growth in the students around you?


I believe that growth is very important for the students to advance academically and socially in order to create a positive high school environment. As student council president, I would be encouraging the students to have this experience by creating a time for all students to talk with myself or anyone else about their progress at GCE if needed. What could this space achieve? This space would allow the students to talk about any worries they have and change a fixed mindset into a growth mindset. I have been a student at GCE for two full years and even though I have not been on student council, I feel like I am able to grasp the mission of the school and identify what can be changed. In freshman year I participated in the design team for a more sustainable learning environment that would result in planning the new building. The planning of a sustainable school space was important because the changes in, “accessibility, usability, and comfortability of a classroom can affect a student’s learning,” according to Alastair Blyth. With a team of architects from multiple firms, we investigated how these changes can enhance a student’s education. Additionally, I have been a member of the student ambassadors and helped with high school fairs, open houses, and prospective students. Using my experience with GCE, I understand how some students, new or fresh to in-person high school, may need time to adjust to the school environment and curriculum. Having the opportunity to talk with someone else about anything troubling them with school can help them gain more confidence in their academic skills. My goal is to reshape fixed mindsets and establish a growth mindset in students so they can feel motivated to learn and discover. A student with a fixed mindset may, “tend to avoid situations in which they might fail or might have to work hard,” according to MindsetKit. However, a growth mindset changes that into focusing on improvement and seeing failure as a natural part of the learning process. The growth mindset empowers students to build on mistakes, faults, and failures to expand their knowledge and achieve more academically. In an article about student growth, Mark El Hagar says it, “is when learners can increase their intelligence levels, discover and grow their talents, and learn new skills and abilities consistently. Student growth also means instilling a growth mindset in a given student so that they start believing in their abilities, rather than doubting their chances of developing over time.” A student is a sponge, soaking up knowledge and draining it out to show what it can do. This space will provide students with strong academic growth and development that can push them through high school and beyond.

I hope you enjoyed watching the video and/or reading the speech. This Action Project proved to be a little difficult from time to time because writing as yourself can be difficult if you have to establish a certain identity. Despite the difficulties, I thought the AP was fun. After spending some time with my classmates and hearing what they were focusing on, they provided some small feedback and encouragement which helped me push forward. It will be interesting to see my classmate's finished projects and I hope mine turned out well. Thank you for watching and reading and I hope to see you in the next post.

Sources:

Blyth, Alastair. "What is a sustainable learning environment?" Re-Imagine a Space for Learning, 4 Nov. 2014, https://alastair-blyth.com/2014/11/04/what-are-the-indicators-for-a-sustainable-school/. Accessed 28 Sep. 2021

Cox, Janelle. "How to Promote Student Growth." ThoughtCO., 26 Jan. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/promoting-student-growth-2081952. Accessed 27 Sep. 2021

Hagar, Mark. "How to aid Student Growth In and Outside the Classroom." Learning Outside the Classroom, 12 Oct. 2020, https://learningoutsidetheclassroomblog.org/2020/10/12/how-to-aid-student-growth-in-and-outside-the-classroom/. Accessed 27 Sep. 2021

"Promote a growth mindset." Eberly Center, https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/classroomclimate/strategies/growthmindset.html. Accessed 27 Sep. 2021

"Read about the research: How mindset affects learning." MindsetKit, https://www.mindsetkit.org/growth-mindset-parents/learn-about-growth-mindset/research-how-mindset-affects-learning. Accessed 28 Sep. 2021
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