Rhetoric. For many it sounds like a negative word. And yes, rhetoric can be used to persuade people to do very bad things. But on the flip side, Mr. Ben Oxford’s 11th grade AP Literature and Composition students are learning that rhetoric can often be deployed in very good and nuanced ways to bring about positive change.

Though Mr. Oxford applies rhetorical analysis to many of his students projects, during Black History Month, he is asking his students to break down some famous works by Martin Luther King Jr. I’ll let him first explain what rhetorical analysis means in this context and then how he is using it to alter the ways in which his students approach both the man and his written and spoken work.