Movie Speech Rhetorical Analysis, Rhetorical Situation, Close-reading, Essay

Do your kids dread rhetorical analysis? No worries. This assignment will change their minds.

Guide your kids through a rhetorical analysis of famous movie speeches! Kids love movies and you love when they are really invested in their learning. This resource does and has both. Movie speeches are ideal for students challenged by rhetorical analysis due to their short length and student investment in understanding the situation and context that leads to the speech.

Using the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, the movie “Miracle” contains a famous speech given by the late Herb Brooks before they take the ice to play Russia. This resource guides students through a full analysis of the rhetorical situation of the movie illuminating how all of the elements are crucial to understanding the speech.

The “Miracle” movie products can be used as a resource, guided practice, or an independent student assessment. An exemplar analysis assignment is included as a reference for students or to assess the “Miracle” speech if given as a student assessment.

In addition, a separate assignment is included where students choose their own movie speech to analyze (suggestions, links, and some speech texts provided).

This 43-page resource includes the following:

• Blank “Miracle” movie speech

• Teacher annotated “Miracle” movie speech

• Blank Rhetorical Triangle

• Teacher guide Rhetorical Triangle for the “Miracle” movie

• Movie Analysis Assessment Assignment

• Common Core-aligned Rubric

• Orange Slice formatted rubric to use with Chrome add-on (CC standards-based)

• Suggested movie choice summary, text links and YouTube speech excerpts

• Screen casts of teacher think-alouds completing the official assignment document

• Completed sample Movie Analysis Assignment using the movie “Miracle”

Approximate duration: 2-3 weeks if “Miracle” movie is shown with modeling and guided practice with students prior to their individual movie analysis.

All materials provided as pdf and Google docs.

Would love to hear how your students do with this project!