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Diverse Voices

infoWhy this? Diverse Voices examines whose experiences and perspectives are heard, valued, or reduced to a dominant narrative. Through contrasting speeches and poems, pupils analyse how anecdote, form, imagery, symbolism, and rhetoric give force to historically under-represented voices before using those resources to articulate an argument of their own.

scheduleWhy now? After studying public language in war poetry and performing Shakespeare’s rhetoric, pupils are ready to move from interpreting or reproducing established voices to constructing an independent persuasive speech. This strengthens purposeful oracy before Animal Farm asks them to evaluate how similar rhetorical tools can be distorted into propaganda and control.

neurologyYou need to know

  • Diversity refers to representation of a range of identities, cultures and perspectives.
  • A dominant narrative is the single story a culture tells most loudly about a group.
  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist and essayist.
  • 'The Danger of a Single Story' was delivered as a TED talk in 2009.
  • A TED talk is a short delivered speech (~18 minutes) on an idea worth spreading.
  • Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan and lives in Britain.
  • Dharker's 'Blessing' is set in Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai.
  • 'Blessing' responds to the water shortage experienced by Dharavi's residents.
  • Enjambment occurs when a unit of syntax or sense continues across a line break rather than ending there.
  • Juxtaposition places two contrasting ideas or images side by side to create meaning.
  • Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 1977 and took office in January 1978 - he was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.
  • Milk was assassinated in November 1978.
  • 'The Hope Speech' was delivered in 1978 at Gay Freedom Day.
  • Milk's central appeal is HOPE for LGBT people to live openly and publicly.
  • Kamau Brathwaite (1930–2020) was a Barbadian poet and cultural critic.
  • 'Limbo' uses the limbo dance as an extended metaphor for the transatlantic slave trade.
  • Free verse is poetry that does not follow a fixed rhyme scheme or metre.
  • Anaphora is the repetition of an opening phrase for rhetorical effect.
  • Tricolon is a three-part list used for rhetorical impact.
  • Direct address is when a speaker uses 'you' to speak straight to the audience.
  • Ethos, pathos and logos are three forms of persuasive appeal (Y7 Persuasion callback).
  • A tenor is the subject of a metaphor; a vehicle is the image it is compared to.
  • Symbolism uses an object or image to stand for a larger idea.
  • Oracy is the skill of speaking aloud with control of pace, pause, pitch and gesture.
  • A diverse voice is a writer or speaker whose perspective has historically been under-represented in curricula.

rocket_launchYou must be able to

  • Explain what a diverse voice is and why it matters in a curriculum.
  • Identify ethos, pathos and logos in a delivered speech.
  • Analyse Adichie's TED talk structure (anecdote → thesis → evidence → resolution).
  • Analyse the effect of enjambment, metaphor and juxtaposition in a poem.
  • Explain how Dharker makes water sound both holy and scarce simultaneously.
  • Analyse anaphora and tricolon in a delivered speech.
  • Explain how Brathwaite uses extended metaphor to convey the slave-trade experience.
  • Justify why Brathwaite chose free verse as the form of 'Limbo'.
  • Deliver a 3-minute persuasive speech with control of pace, pause and eye contact.
  • Use at least THREE named rhetorical techniques in their own delivered speech.
  • Quote from four different diverse voices accurately.
  • Sustain an argumentative thesis across a delivered speech.
  • Explain the effect of symbolism in a poem using tenor and vehicle vocabulary.
  • Peer-assess a delivered speech using structured stems.
  • Justify a chosen voice's inclusion in the KS3 curriculum.


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