Nailed It! Right before winter break, I went to Walmart to buy graham crackers, icing, candies, and more. Dollar Tree also has a great selection of inexpensive candy. Students had to create a gingerbread masterpiece and then use ethos, logos, and pathos to justify why their house was the best. This took some time to prep and of course there was the cost factor. All in all, I spent around $60 to make over 110 gingerbread houses. To cut costs, you can have kids work in groups instead of independently. The kids had a lot of fun, and it was a nice activity to end our calendar year with. Below, you will see the handout that I used and some creations from out time.

You can see more pictures here: Instagram Post

You can access the FREE handout here: Free Drive

Shark Tank is another favorite of mine! I’ve used various versions of this handout over the years as well as different clips from Shark Tank. I snagged this picture from Google for my slides, had the theme song playing from the show when kids walked in, and then gave them this handout with a literal “shark bite” in the top corner. They totally believed me when I said I had no idea how that got there 😉 Simply YouTube some episodes that you think would work with your kids, watch the clips, and identify the persuasive appeals! The videos for Scrub Daddy and Vade Nutrition have been hits with my kids.

The latest version of this was done with my Just Mercy unit, which you can find here: Free Drive

Ice Cream Shoppe! I wanted my kids to learn two things from this lesson: how to write an email and the different persuasive appeals. I was the owner of the ice cream shoppe, Mrs. Sherbet, and they had to email me, using the persuasive appeals, to convince me why I should add their creation to my menu. Tasty, engaging, and lots of learning!

QVC! I had my kids work in small groups, and I gave them a random item, like this Britney Spears Greatest Hits CD haha. They first Googled the item to learn more about it, and then they worked together to come up with a sales pitch because they had to go live on QVC. I had the PowerPoint template up in the background while they sat in the center and delivered their sales pitch. They could also pretend to be other people during the sales delivery, but they had to include their credibility.

Stations! Around the room, I hung various advertisements with ethos, logos, and pathos. Students went out around the room in small groups and stopped to discuss the purpose of each advertisement as well as the persuasive appeals. For an exit ticket, I had them use their Chromebooks to find their own examples for each and explain HOW the advertisement used the persuasive appeals.

Matching! This year, we used the icons to the left to remember heart (pathos), head (logos), and cred (ethos). Students had to match the strips on the right to the icon that it matched on the left. This was a hands-on, low-prep way to review the information.

Foldables! If you need an easy printable, this is my go-to resource. Students can fold and cut to create an easy-to-use reference with definitions and examples. You can get the ethos, logos, pathos foldable here, or you can get my entire bundle of foldables here!

Which was is your favorite? How else do you teach and review ethos, logos, and pathos? Let me know in the comments 🙂