Year 11 English

1. Year 11 English Uni Bridges Using Language to Persuade Language Analysis

2. Key learning goals 1. To build upon your existing knowledge about persuasive devices: • Language • Visual features 2. To learn how to use the PGT strategyfor analysing persuasive texts 3. To apply this strategy to construct a written analysis of a persuasive text (Outcome)

3. The issue? Designer babies: Are we playing God?

4. Why? Links to the main UniBridges theme: Preventing and Curing Disease Links back to our prior unit on Gattaca

5. Today • Background to the issue. We will be watching 7 video clips: http://padlet.com/wall/designerbabies • Your task: Complete the note-taking grid for each video

6. What does each video make me… • Think about? (What questions/ issues/ ideas does it raise)? • Feel? (How do I feel about what I’m seeing?)

7. Follow-up ‘Stakeholders’ exercise • Who are the key stakeholders? • Are they likely to support this issue or be against it? • Why (what reasons?) Your task: • Working in groups of 3, you will each be assigned a different stakeholder • Complete the table for your stakeholder • You will need to present your ideas to the class

8. Reading to improve understanding • Start by re-reading the article • Answer Q. 1-11 • Complete the Task and number the paragraphs according to information in the table • We will review answersas a class

9. Designer babies may come with unpredictable consequences For each paragraph, record (in dot point): • What people, groups or thingsdoes the author want us to think about; have an opinion about; respond/react to?

10. Compile a table of all the People, Groups and Things mentioned in the article **Note: “Things” don’t necessarily need to be physical objects. They can be abstract ideas, concepts, etc.

11. Class feedback

12. What do these things have in common? • Advances in science • IVF and other assisted reproductive techniques • Preventing a range of diseases • Names of diseases • Infertility programs • Genetic manipulation ANSWER: They all relate to science or advances in science!

13. People or Groups? • Who are the individuals/people mentioned in the article? • Do they have anything in common? • Can we classify them under one ‘umbrella’? ANSWER: They are both scientists who support or engage in the use of GMB technology.

14. Why? • It’s better to narrow the PGTs down to 4-5 categories, rather than trying to work with 10-15 different PGTs. • Makes your writing/language analysis easier to manage. • Each paragraph will centre around one of these categories.

15. Modelling of highlighting task • Highlight any references to ‘Scientists who support or engage in the use of GMB’ as we go along. Use green: (4)How far are we willing to go? Already, 30 genetically manipulated children have been created in the US by Prof Jacques Cohen as part of an infertility program. Alarm bells should be ringing, because we really don't know long term what the implications are of all of this genetic manipulation.

16. (5) There are already signs that one of the babies created by Prof Cohen has a "developmental disorder", although doctors maintain their technological tinkering wasn't to blame. Already we know babies who are born naturally are healthier than those created via IVF and other assisted reproductive techniques. Doctors from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute have recently linked a rise in the use of infertility treatments, among other things, to an increasing number of premature babies born with a higher risk of lifelong health issues. Such babies have a rate of mortality that is five times higher than children born at term, and a 4 1/2 times higher rate of respiratory distress.

17. (9) I am even against genetic testing for gender selection unless there's a good medical reason for it. But not everyone agrees: a British scientist called Prof Julian Savulescu thinks creating designer babies with selected superior characteristics could be seen as a "moral obligation" as it makes them grow up into "ethically better children". These are not just empty words. Whether we like it or not, procedures that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, are now commonplace.

18. Now it’s your turn… Working together in pairs: • Read carefully through the article again • Locate and highlight (in yellow) any references to genetically modified babies **Note: It may or may not actually say the words ‘Genetically Modified Babies’!

19. The process… **Use yellowhighlighter • Check the heading • Check the subheading • Check the image and caption • Check the rest of the article Do they refer to genetically modified babies either directly or indirectly? What do they suggest about genetically modified babies?

20. Now do the same for… • Science/ scientific advances/ reproductive technology • Use bluehighlighter

21. Now do the same for… • Parents/ society response to the ethical dilemma • Use pinkhighlighter

22. After highlighting your article… • Be prepared to share your results with the rest of the class • We will need to come up with an agreed final version • Make any changes on your blank copy of the article

23. Reader Response approach to language analysis • In language analysis, we try to analyse how a writer (or speaker) attempts to influence the views of their audience • How do they use languageand visual features to do this? • What do they want the audience to think? • How do they want to make the audience feel?

24. Activity • The next few slides contain a topic word or phrase and some images. • For each slide, write a list of words you think of in response to the slide. • Write a sentence about how the images make you feel. • Write one or two sentences about what the images make you think or wonder.

25. Cancerous

26. Security

27. Designer babies

28. Audiences and values • Not everyone who is part of an ‘audience’ will think and feel the same way. • Different people have different values which influence their response. • Our values are the beliefs we have about what’s important to us and why. • Creators of persuasive texts need to consider the possible values of the different members of their audience. • In particular, they need to consider the values of their target audience; the people they most want to influence.

29. Activity: What values are at the forefront for each of these groups? Students should develop a stronger understanding of how other groups of people may view the world differently from themselves.

30. Applying the Reader Response PGT Strategy to the Susie O’Brien article • Let’s go back to the Susie O’Brien article. • By now, you should have: • Read the article several times • Used your learning from earlier activities to have a good understanding of the issue and some of the stakeholders • Identified People, Groups and Things the writer wants us to have a response to • Highlighted language relating to the 4 PGTs we agreed to as a class

31. Now we want to really focus on the language used by Susie O’Brien when she refers to each of the 4 PGTs • Groups • • Scientists who support or engage in the use of GMB technology(Savulescu& Cohen) • • Parents/society • Things • • Genetically Modified Babies (Designer babies) • • Science, scientific advances in reproductive technology

32. Go back to the Susie O’Brien article Underlinewords, phrases or sentences (already highlighted) which seem to be attempting to persuade you to feel or think about the 4 PGTs in particular ways

33. Write each underlined item on a separate piece of paper or in your book. As you do this, try to see if you can organise your notes under sub headings.

34. Now use these notes to fill in a table like this : Include sub-headings to organise these dot point notes. By now you should be starting to become aware of how Susie O’Brien has used language to influence the response of the reader.

35. After all of this you should be ready to complete a ‘Think/Feel’ grid about this article. This is the thinking process you need to work through: What is the writer’s intention? What people, groups and/or things does the writer want to influence my opinions about? What language/techniques does the writer use to influence my thoughts & emotions? What does the writer want me to think? How does the writer want me to feel?

36. You should be able to complete the ‘Think Feel grid’ activity sheet. Copy quotes from the article to use as evidence. Write the technique in red The first column should list the PGTs Write the ideas or questions the quotes make you think. Combine the ideas from the ‘think’ notes to write a sentence about how the use of language tries to make the reader feel.

37. Let’s review your completed ‘Think - Feel’ grids

38. Putting it all together…writing a persuasive language analysis By now, you should have all the tools to write your analysis of the Susie O’Brien article. Structure: your analysis needs to have an introduction, body and conclusion. For this particular article, the body will consist of 4 paragraphs. Body paragraphs should have clear topic sentences. Content: you actually need to write about how the writer has tried to influence the audience about each of the PGTs through the use of language and visual features. You need to explainhowthe writer has tried to make the readerfeeland think. You need to include brief quotes as evidence. You need to explain how the writer has used language and visual features to do this. You need to express your ideas clearly.

39. The outcome: assessment task For the assessment task, you will be required to write a persuasive language analysis of the Susie O’Brien article. You will be given an annotated model of an analysis to assist you . This is what you will be trying to achieve at a high standard next year. The task material will also include the assessment criteria. You are permitted to use your completed Feel – Think grid to help you write your analysis.

40. A final word… • Although this might have seemed quite challenging and time consuming, like anything, the more you do it the better you’ll get at it. • If you practice these strategies and use them to write language analyses it will benefit you greatly in year 12, especially in the exam. • Whenever you read a persuasive piece or watch something on TV or even notice an advertisement, keep asking yourself: • Which people, Groups and Things does the text creator want you to have a specific opinion about? • What opinion do they want you to have? • How do they try to get you to have that opinion?