Name That Move Persuasion & Influence · Tier 1: How Persuasion Works · Synthesis

The Tier 1 capstone. Students bring in real messages from their own week and name everything at work — the appeals, the loaded language, the pressure tactics. It pulls the whole tier into one habit: hearing persuasion in the wild.

When to use it

Run this after any three or more Tier 1 components. It reviews rather than teaches, so there's no new concept page — students apply what they've already named.

How to run it

1. Collect (homework or 10 min). Each student finds two or three real messages — an ad, a post, a headline, a text from a friend.
2. Analyze (20–25 min). On the Student pages, students name the appeals (logos / ethos / pathos), any loaded words, and any pressure tactics for each message.
3. Share (15–20 min). Use the Discussion Guide. Students present one message and "name the moves" for the class.

What to listen for

• Naming more than one move per message — real messages stack them.
• Pointing to the specific word or image, not just "it's persuasive."
• The shift from "this made me feel X" to "this is using X on me."

Standards alignment (Common Core)

Name That Move Debrief prompts & a scoring note

Discussion anchor

• Which move showed up most across the class's examples? Why that one?
• Did any message use three or more moves at once? Walk us through it.
• Which was hardest to catch — and what finally gave it away?
• Now that you can name these, does any message from before look different?

One-line takeaway

You can't un-hear it now. That's the whole point.

A note on "scoring"

There's no single right answer key — students analyze their own found messages. Assess the reasoning: did they name a specific move, point to the exact word or image that shows it, and explain what it was trying to make them do? A strong response names more than one move and cites evidence; a weak one just says "it's persuasive." Treat disagreements as discussion fuel, not errors.

Name That Move Name: __________________________________ Date: ______________

Bring the whole toolkit. For each real message you found, name every move you can hear — the appeals, the loaded words, the pressure tactics.

Message 1

Where did you find it, and what does it say?

Name the moves (list every appeal, loaded word, and tactic you spot):

What does it want you to do?

Message 2

Where did you find it, and what does it say?

Name the moves:

What does it want you to do?

Wrap-up

Across your messages, which single move did you see the most — and which one nearly slipped past you?