Rhetorical Devices in American Speeches Task Cards: Quizzes, Bell-Ringers

Help your students make sense of how and why speakers use of rhetorical and stylistic devices to inform meaning with this set of 24 task cards. Each card features a different passage from a famous American speech, along with a prompt asking students to identify the device being used and explain its effect. These cards are a great way to incorporate nonfiction into your classroom and could make for a fun activity for the upcoming election.

The cards cover elements such as:
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Anaphora
• Passive voice
• Hyperbole
• Antimetabole
• Antithesis
• Alliteration
• Asyndeton
• Epistrophe
• Rhetorical question

Students can keep track of their work on the recording sheet. An answer key is provided.

These cards work well as an individual, paired, or group activity. You could also use them as bell-ringers or as quizzes. I've used these in my AP English Language class with great success.

The task cards include speeches from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr, and others.

Get this task card set in my bundle and save:
English Task Card Bundle: Rhetorical Devices, Figurative Language

Check out my other task card sets:
Diction Boot Camp: Analyzing Diction Task Cards
Analyzing Syntax in Literature Task Cards -- 32 Cards with Answer Key
Figurative Language Task Cards for Grades 7-12
Poetry Task Cards -- 32 Cards Poetic Terms and Prompts