The Tier 2 capstone. Students take one real influence attempt — an ad campaign, a sales funnel, a persuasive video, a recruiting pitch — and map its moves in order, showing how each sets up the next. Not "name the trick," but "trace the blueprint."
A single tactic is easy to name; a real campaign chains many together so that no one move looks manipulative on its own. This synthesis moves students from spotting tricks to reading structure — the habit that makes the whole tier durable.
It reviews rather than teaches, so there's no new concept. Run it after any three or more Tier 2 components.
| Segment | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Choose | homework or 10 min | Each student picks one real, multi-step influence attempt. |
| Map | 25–30 min | Students sequence the moves and how each sets up the next (Student pp. 2–3). |
| Present | 15–20 min | Students walk the class through one architecture. |
The 3 Student pages per student. Optional: project one artifact and model the first two moves together.
These blocks are timed so you can build a lesson from them: a single period, or a full unit day. Run the activity with an opener before and a debrief after — pick what fits.
| Block | Time | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Opener (before) | 5–8 min | Pick one, below. |
| Activity | 25–30 min (mapping) | The student pages. |
| Debrief (after) | ~5 min each | Pick 1–4 prompts. |
| Close | 3 min | The takeaway. |
Single period: opener + activity + one debrief + close. Full lesson: opener + activity + two or three debriefs + an extension.
Format: think-pair-share or a quick hands-up. Goal: surface what students already notice and pose the question. End result: every student has committed to a prediction or named a real example you can return to in the debrief.
Concrete goal — students can: map a real influence attempt move-by-move and show how each step sets up the next.
Format: whole-class; call on the examples students generated in the opener and activity. End result: students can state the takeaway in their own words and back it with one concrete example from their own life or the activity.
Have a few students state the takeaway in their own words: Persuasion at scale isn't one trick — it's a sequence. See the blueprint and it loses its spell.
The previous page is the plan; this page is for running it. Budget the period from the total below, and keep the redirect moves handy — most discussions falter in one of these four ways.
One period (~45–50 min): opener 6 + activity 25–30 + one debrief 5 + close 3 = 39–44 min. Block (~90 min): add two more debriefs and a differentiation extension from the facilitation page.
| If… | Move |
|---|---|
| Silence, or “I don't know” | Shrink the question: “Just name the first thing you noticed.” Give 30 seconds of silent think-time, then call on a pair, not an individual. |
| One or two voices dominate | “Let's hear from someone who hasn't gone yet.” Run it as think-pair-share first, so every student has an answer ready to offer. |
| It turns personal or heated | Move the trial from the person to the message: “What in the text makes you say that?” Keep the claim on trial, never the classmate. |
| Answers stay on the surface | Push for evidence: “Where exactly — quote the line.” Then “What would change your mind?” to surface the reasoning underneath. |
Interchangeable with the opener on the previous page. Vary them across a unit so the hook stays fresh.
Support: give the "first / then / then" scaffold and a word bank of Tier 2 moves. Stretch: students compare two campaigns for the same product, or redesign one artifact to be more honest and assess what it loses. Cross-curricular: rhetorical analysis in ELA; funnel design in media/marketing.
| Item | Sample response |
|---|---|
| Ordering | Moves placed in a defensible sequence, with causation between them. |
| Naming | Each move named with evidence from the artifact, not just labels. |
| Strongest/weakest | Identifies the load-bearing move and a real point of resistance. |
| (No single key) | Students analyze self-chosen artifacts; assess the reasoning, treat ordering disputes as discussion. |
You can now name the moves from Tier 2 — framing, authority, social proof, identity, reciprocity and escalation. This capstone asks for something harder and more useful: to take one real influence attempt and trace how its moves are built together, in order, each one setting up the next. Persuasion at scale is rarely a single trick. It's a sequence, an architecture — and once you can see the blueprint, it loses most of its power.
Think about how a good sales funnel or campaign actually runs. It doesn't open by asking for the big commitment. It opens with a frame that makes the whole topic tilt a certain way. Then maybe an authority signal so you lower your guard, then social proof so it feels safe to join, then an identity hook so agreeing feels like belonging, then a small first yes that escalates. No single step looks like manipulation. The manipulation is in the order — each move is placed exactly where it makes the next one land.
Three questions do the work. What's the first move? Find where the setup begins, before any ask. How does each move set up the next? For every step, ask what it makes possible that wasn't possible before it. Where is it strongest, and where could you step off? Every architecture has a load-bearing move and a weakest joint — the point where someone paying attention could walk away. Name both.
On the next pages, pick one real attempt you can examine closely and map it. You're not just listing what's there — you're showing how it was engineered to move someone from "not interested" to "yes."
Name the artifact, where it's from, and what it's trying to get people to do.
List each move as it happens. For each: what is it, and how does it set up the next one?
| Move (in order) | What it is · how it sets up the next |
|---|---|
| First | |
| Then | |
| Then | |
| Then |
Which single move was doing the most work? What made it land?
Where was the architecture weakest — the step where someone paying attention could step off? What would stepping off take?
Sum up the whole blueprint: what was it trying to get you to do, and how was it built to get there?