Persuasion Detectives
🎯 Today's mission briefing
We are learning to identify the purpose of a text and to tell the objective language of fact from the subjective language of opinion.
You'll know you've got it when:
- I can say whether a text's main purpose is to inform, entertain or persuade — and point to the language that proves it
- I can tell a fact (checkable) from an opinion (someone's view) using the checkable test
- I can spot an opinion dressed up as a fact, and name the disguise it's wearing
The sign that couldn't prove it
Connects to what your guest already knows and makes them curious. Activating prior knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of new learning.
Picture a bakery window on your street. The sign shouts: 'THE BEST VANILLA SLICE IN QUEENSLAND — EVERYONE LOVES IT!' Hang on. Says who? Did somebody actually taste every vanilla slice from Coolangatta to Cairns? Did they survey EVERYONE? Of course not. That sign isn't informing you — it's working on you. And once you can see a text working on you, you've caught it in the act. Today you become a persuasion detective, and detectives don't get fooled.