Twelve no-prep persuasive writing and speech lessons for Years 7 to 9 that you teach from one screen: a projector, TV or interactive whiteboard. Students build an argument with ethos, pathos and logos, answer the strongest objection and finish by delivering a closing argument as a speech. A Lesson Guide page for every lesson means it also suits a relief day.
Runs in a browser. Nothing to install, no account, and it works offline. Students write in their books: no student devices, no logins.
WHICH EDITION DO I NEED?
- Teacher-Led Edition (this one): 12 lessons you run from one screen. Students write in their books. No student devices, no logins, no prep. A Lesson Guide and an optional student booklet are included.
- Student Game Edition: each student works on their own device, with six skill bays, a capstone, a teleprompter and a teacher console. Choose it if your class has laptops or tablets.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- The lesson app: one HTML file with all 12 lessons, the artwork, music and sound effects built in
- Lesson Guide (PDF, 14 pages): one page per lesson with every step and its minutes, teacher notes, answers and curriculum links
- Cadet Logbook (PDF, 18 pages): an optional printable student booklet, one page per lesson
- A START HERE read-me
HOW A LESSON RUNS
Most lessons follow the same rhythm, so students know what's coming:
- Today: learning intention and success criteria
- Story: a short story beat or a crew member's request
- Warm-up: a timed word game in books
- Learn: explicit teaching of one skill, with weak and strong examples and a quick check
- Model: think aloud through a strong example, and each press of the arrow reveals the next move, so the class can predict it first
- Together: you type the class's ideas on the live board, and in the skill bays the tool beside it responds as you type (a checklist that ticks, words that light up or a meter, depending on the bay)
- Your turn: students write against the timer, with sentence starters for support and stretch tasks for fast finishers
- Check: success criteria, an exit ticket and a share
Some lessons add a matching task, a decoding game or a Choose step, and the planning, drafting and speech lessons at the end leave some steps out. Lessons run 39 to 55 minutes, and the Lesson Guide shows the time for each step and the total for each lesson. In the six skill bay lessons you choose Cadet, Officer or Commander level for the class.
THE 12 LESSONS
- Crash Landing: spotting ethos, pathos and logos
- The Abandoned City: a clear, arguable claim with one strong reason
- The Shoreline and the Signal: reporting verbs that show how someone argued
- Power Word Vault: confident word choices instead of hedging
- Audience Bay: one argument, different audiences
- Rebuttal Transcript Bay: setting out and reporting a debate exchange
- Claim Bay: claim, reasoning and evidence in a paragraph
- The Appeals Wheel: choosing ethos, pathos and logos on purpose
- Drafting Bay: revising, cutting weak claims and tightening the argument
- Build the Case: planning a closing argument that answers the strongest objection
- The Closing Argument: Draft: drafting the full argument
- The Podium: rehearsing and delivering it as a speech
The story runs across the whole unit. Your class are cadets whose ship has crash-landed, and each lesson moves the mission forward, finishing with a closing argument delivered from the podium.
EASY TO RUN
- Keys: arrows or Space to move, T for the timer, R to reveal answers, H for a hint from Nova, F for full screen, M for music, ? for teacher notes
- Works with a presentation clicker
- Music is off when you start, and the sound effects have their own button
- Nothing about students is collected or saved. The browser remembers only the class's progress, on your own computer.
CURRICULUM
Australian Curriculum v9 English, Years 7, 8 and 9, and Common Core W.1, W.4, W.5, SL.1, SL.3 and SL.4 for Years 7 to 10. The codes for each lesson are in the Lesson Guide.
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All four Teacher-Led Editions (narrative, persuasive, informative and analytical writing) come as a bundle in the Star Class Academy store. The Speech Writing Tool + Teleprompter suits a speech day, and the free Persuasive Writing Worksheets practise the same skills on paper. Star Class HQ is free too: a classroom hub with a behaviour tracker, name pickers and reward games, running in a browser.
Licensed for one teacher and their own classes.
Questions? starclassacademy.com/help?ref=sh or hello@starclassacademy.com
