Powerful pieces of writing don’t have to come from published authors or canonical texts. Students can connect with real-world narratives just as effectively as they would with classic literature. And sometimes the most impactful messages come from unexpected sources. In this case, it’s former Philadelphia Eagles center, Jason Kelce. Kelce might not be taking the field this football season, but his words can still serve as a source of inspiration in your classroom and a perfect text for rhetorical analysis.
Why You Should Use Jason Kelce’s Retirement Speech in Your Classroom
- Real-World Application: The speech will prompt discussions on resilience, teamwork, and personal growth that students can relate to and apply in their own lives.
- Engaging Content: Kelce’s personal anecdotes and emotional reflections provide an engaging and relatable narrative that can capture students’ interest more effectively than traditional texts.
- Rhetorical Analysis: The speech is rich in rhetorical devices, offering a valuable opportunity for students to analyze and discuss techniques such as imagery, emotional appeals, and storytelling.
- Inspiration and Motivation: Kelce’s journey and insights can inspire students to pursue their goals with dedication and embrace challenges with a positive mindset.
- Connection to Pop Culture: Using a contemporary figure like Jason Kelce helps bridge the gap between academic content and students’ interests, making literature and analysis more relevant and engaging.
Analyzing Jason Kelce’s Retirement Speech: A Breakdown of the Assignment
In this assignment, students will analyze an excerpt from Kelce’s retirement speech to reflect on themes like perseverance and personal growth. Kelce’s heartfelt reflection on football offers rich material for analysis. Kelce uses rhetorical strategies such as sensory details, imagery, and personal anecdotes to create an emotional and empowering narrative. His passion for the sport is evident in every word, serving as a motivation for not just tackling challenges, but embracing them. A love letter and thank you letter wrapped up in one, Kelce takes readers back to his adolescence, as he credits football for giving him the ultimate freedom he craved on and off the field.
Students will receive an excerpt of Kelce’s retirement speech from last year. After the initial reading, students will show their understanding by answering ten multiple-choice questions that cover different aspects of the text including Kelce’s use of figurative language, underlying themes, and vocabulary.
Example of Multiple Choice Question
Students will then have a chance to connect and reflect with close reading questions that prompt them to analyze the text’s deeper meanings, draw personal connections, and evaluate the speaker’s use of language and rhetorical devices.
Example of Close Reading Question
After diving into the text, students will have a chance to get creative by designing their own “playbooks for life.” A play (literally) on the football theme of the speech, students will borrow the structure and strategy of a football playbook to outline how they’d tackle challenges and achieve personal goals.
Student examples can range from asking parents for a later curfew to earning a scholarship from their dream college. Drawing inspiration from Kelce’s approach to life on the football field, students will apply the same determination, spark, and resilience he speaks of to their own ambitions, taking time to reflect on the steps and strategies they’ll use to succeed.
