Teacher Notes: Persuasion Speech

Year 7 English • Persuasion Speech • Teacher guidance

Speaking improves when students rehearse in low-stakes conditions. Build in short paired deliveries before the whole-class performance, and teach listeners how to give useful feedback.

Five-week pacing

• Week 1: two analysis lessons and one sorting game.
• Week 2: one argument-building lesson, one evidence lesson, one counter-argument lesson.
• Week 3: model speech, planning, and a full draft.
• Week 4: two rehearsal lessons with paired feedback.
• Week 5: revision, a feedback circle, and performances.

Differentiation

Support

• Provide a speech frame with opening, two reasons, one counter-argument, and close already labelled.
• Allow a recorded rehearsal instead of a live first performance.
• Reduce the speech to two minutes with one reason and one example.

Core

• Require one source or example that the audience can verify.
• Ask students to name the value behind their argument: fairness, safety, freedom, care, or opportunity.
• Rehearse the first fifteen seconds until they are automatic.

Extension

• Ask students to deliver the same argument to a different audience and explain the changes.
• Invite a rebuttal round in which students answer a challenge without abandoning their claim.
• Ask for a short commentary on the ethical limits of their persuasive choices.

EAL and language support

• Pre-teach claim, reason, evidence, counter-argument, and audience with examples.
• Provide sentence frames for signposting and emphasis.
• Allow extra rehearsal time and a written cue card with key phrases.

Formative feedback routine

• Listeners name one idea they understood and one moment where they lost the thread.
• Feedback focuses on clarity and evidence, not confidence or volume alone.
• Ask speakers to choose one delivery change and one content change for the next rehearsal.

Use the quality guide as the shared language for feedback. It is formative and contains no scores or bands.

Materials and preparation

• Print the planner or checklist pages students need; project the rest to save paper.
• Check every link before the lesson. The packet is static and works offline once cached.
• Have a school-licensed copy of any studied text available. The packet does not host copyrighted texts.
• Decide how students will share drafts. Keep any student work inside the school’s approved system.

Access and inclusion

• All pages use semantic headings, a skip link, and print styles.
• Tables scroll horizontally on narrow screens; key instructions are also written in prose.
• Offer a printed copy or a plain-text outline for students who prefer it.
• Allow drawing, oral rehearsal, or a recorded response where it serves the same learning.