Thank you to a member of the Bespoke ELA High School ELA Teachers Facebook Group for this awesome idea! Click here to head over to the Bespoke ELA Facebook page and check it out!
In their pure sense, PowerPoint Parties started becoming popular due to COVID, and friends/ family members would get together (albeit virtually) to present a PowerPoint on a topic of interest. This eventually morphed into a fun game for high school and college-age students (is it ok for me to add “drinking game” in here?). Currently, PowerPoint Parties have become popular on TikTok, which provided the inspiration for this post. Head over to TikTok and search for “PowerPoint Parties” to find ideas… be forewarned that some of these ideas will not be “school appropriate” but still humorous.
The teacher that posted on the Bespoke ELA Facebook group about these parties posed the question about how we could use this concept in the ELA classroom to target argumentative and rhetorical skills.
So, here is what I came up with!
General Directions… and a FREEBIE
To keep it simple and to get students started, I came up with the following basic directions. I provide some variations on these directions further down, but in general, this setup should work for most classes and most levels of students.
First
Students break into groups and review sample questions from this FREE RESOURCE!
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Second
Groups can either select a topical question from the samples, or they can generate a topic of their own. This is where I have changed the way the typical PowerPoint Party works in that all students in the group present on the same idea instead of separate ideas. However, in the variations below, I do give instructions on how different strategies can work. The reason students select the same topic is so that they can practice their persuasive speaking skills and sort of compete against each other to see who is the most persuasive.
Third
Once groups have selected a topic, they can breakout to work alone (or in pairs) to create their own PowerPoints in response to the topic. Note here that topics with specific numbers of reasons might be helpful for differentiation. This means that instead of having the topic “Reasons this Book is the Best,” it might be easier for students to have a specific number of reasons such as “Three Reasons this Book is the Best,” etc.
Fourth
After students are finished creating their own PowerPoints, they come back together with their groups and present to each other. Groups can then decide on which person they think had the most persuasive presentation and discuss the criteria that made this person’s presentation persuasive.
Fifth
Optional whole class share: After groups select the most persuasive presentation, that student can present to the entire class. This will allow for varied topics and a more pure PowerPoint Party activity.
Variations on this Idea
Genius Hour Tie-in
Instead of requiring for each group to present on the same topic, students can partake in a genius hour in which they research a topic of interest and then find a persuasive angle to it to present to a small group or to the entire class.
This means that instead of sharing facts, they share their opinions about the topic. I think this would make for an effective way to begin a persuasive essay unit in which students are allowed to select a topic of choice. It would allow for students to conduct initial research as well as outline initial reasons to support an opinion.
Advanced Differentiation
For more advanced ELA students, you can require them to use rhetorical devices in their presentations such as parallel structure, anaphora, or allusion. Students can also be challenged with arguing a specific opinion about a text or unit of study. Questions to guide this type of targeted presentation could include:
Who or what is the true victim of the story?
Which character would you want by your side during a zombie apocalypse?
What is the most important theme, or message, of the text?
Which character would you NOT want to be stranded on island with? (or vice versa)
Which character would you want as your friend?
Topic Brainstorming
The entire class can get involved with brainstorming ideas and topics for a PowerPoint Party. Students can share ideas with the whole class as the teacher types them up on a document and projects it to the room (this is a strategy I use all the time but is technology dependent). Alternatively, the teacher can write them on the board.
Students can also write ideas on sticky notes and leave them around the room under topical heading such as books, animals, life, famous people, etc. In fact, students can brainstorm the categories and the topics. Again, this would be an effective strategy for starting a persuasive essay even without the PowerPoint Party aspect.
Students LOVE to argue—we know that. Here is another argument game I created called “Devil’s Advocate” that students can play in the English Language Arts classroom to practice rhetoric.
If you are looking for even more argument games, check out the Bespoke ELA Argument Games bundle by clicking here. It contains SEVEN unique games that target the skills of argumentation in a fun and high-interest format.
These games and strategies will get your students excited about a persuasive non-fiction unit. What other argument games do you like to use with your students?
Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
About the Author
Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA. She has taught high school English for 14+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas. Meredith enjoys life with her sweet daughter , Yorkie, and Persian Cat.