Ethos, pathos, logos — mentor argument texts (Thunberg, Reynolds, Smith, Kelly)

Imagine you're trying to convince a school administrator vs. your peers vs. an online forum to support your argument. Which mode would you lean on most for each?

• Hear 3-4 responses; affirm AUDIENCE-AWARE choice
• Surface tension: pathos for emotional appeal can work — but for administrator, logos likely dominant
• Frame the lesson: arguers balance all 3

Aristotle's 3 modes (MG-6) — adapted for middle school. ETHOS (blue) — the SPEAKER'S CREDIBILITY: 'Why should the audience trust YOU?' Your training, sources, tone. PATHOS (red) — the APPEAL TO EMOTION: how do you connect to what the audience cares about? Story, image, urgency. LOGOS (green) — the LOGICAL REASONING: what evidence do you bring and how do you explain its connection to claim? Every argument balances all 3. Let's read 3 mentors. (1) GRETA THUNBERG, 'How Dare You' UN speech 2019 — PATHOS dominant (moral urgency, accusation), with LOGOS support (climate statistics), and ETHOS through her youth and direct testimony. (2) JASON REYNOLDS, 'Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You' 2020 — LOGOS dominant (accumulated evidence, historical chronology) with embedded PATHOS through narrative moments and ETHOS through Reynolds's accessible voice. (3) CYNTHIA LEITICH SMITH essay on Native representation — ETHOS dominant (her Muscogee Creek authority) with LOGOS through publishing-industry data and PATHOS through specific reader-experience stories. Your essay: which mode dominates? Is that right for your audience?

• Pathos is most powerful when it pivots from emotion to evidence — Thunberg follows with statistics.

  model 'How dare you' is direct moral accusation — pathos peak. 'You have stolen my dreams and my childhood' makes the abstract climate threat personal.

  prompt Identify Thunberg's PATHOS move.
• Logos doesn't have to be statistics-heavy. Accumulated specific evidence is logos.

  model Stamped builds the claim through ACCUMULATED EVIDENCE — chronological history of racist ideas, with each chapter adding pieces. The accumulation IS the argument.

  prompt Identify Reynolds's LOGOS move.
• Ethos can be biographical (your authority) or tonal (your reasoned voice). Both work.

  model Smith opens by naming her Muscogee Creek heritage and her 20+ years of writing for Native young readers. That positions her as authoritative voice on Native representation BEFORE she presents claims.

  prompt Identify Smith's ETHOS move.

• Your essay — which mode dominates?
• Your audience — does dominant-mode fit?
• Pair-share: name one move you'll borrow from a mentor (a pathos move, a logos move, or an ethos move)

M-6-F-WR-10-A Chart

MG-6 enlarged to 18x24. 3-band card: ETHOS (blue) with Stevenson + Smith examples; PATHOS (red) with Thunberg + Yousafzai examples; LOGOS (green) with Reynolds + Stevenson examples. Each example has 1-sentence quote from mentor + label of why it counts. Bottom: 'Every strong argument balances all three. Identify your dominant mode; check fit for audience.' Dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-6 Chart

Ethos / Pathos / Logos anchor (Aristotle adapted): 3-band card. ETHOS (blue) — the SPEAKER'S CREDIBILITY: 'Why should the audience trust you? Your training, your experience, your sources, your tone.' Mentor example: Malala — her authority as a survivor. PATHOS (red) — the APPEAL TO EMOTION: 'How do you connect to what the audience cares about? Story, image, urgency.' Mentor example: Thunberg — 'How dare you' — moral urgency. LOGOS (green) — the LOGICAL REASONING: 'What evidence do you bring, and how do you explain its connection to your claim?' Mentor example: Stevenson — statistics on incarceration + individual case studies. Below: 'Every strong argument balances all three. For your audience: which mode dominates, and is that right?' Print-ready 11x17.

M-6-F-WR-10-B Video Physical / non-image

2-minute excerpt from UN Climate Action Summit September 2019. Caption track on. Pause-and-discuss at 0:30 (pathos: 'How dare you'), 1:00 (logos: climate statistics), 1:45 (ethos: youth as moral authority). Annotation worksheet provided. Volume calibrated for classroom playback.

• Annotate one mentor passage (Thunberg, Reynolds, or Smith) for ethos/pathos/logos moves.

  scaffold MG-6 anchor open; color-code by mode (blue ethos, red pathos, green logos)
• Audit your own draft (paragraphs 1-2) for ethos/pathos/logos balance. Note dominant mode.

  scaffold Audit sheet with 3 columns for each mode

• Name your dominant mode and explain why it fits (or doesn't fit) your audience.

• Restate: Aristotle's 3 modes are ___, ___, ___
• Preview tomorrow's counterclaim work

• Identify 3 sentences in your draft — one ETHOS, one PATHOS, one LOGOS. Strengthen the weakest of the three.