Persuasive speaking is a great way to introduce your students to logic, persuasive appeals, and logical fallacies. These are all ideas that are crucial to an excellent language arts education!
Finding good topics is one of the struggles when teaching persuasive speeches. You want to find topics that students will be passionate about, but also want to avoid unnecessary controversy and issues so there's no distraction from what they are supposed to be learning.
You can give your students complete autonomy over their topic, but there might be some reasons you could also choose to have them pick from an approved list. You may not want your students to argue moral things, but instead to choose topics that someone could legitimately argue either side of. “Murder should be illegal” isn’t a good proposition, because the audience already agrees! (And it's not a policy change, but the status quo!) You want your students to pick topics that their audience will have mixed reactions to. You may want to consider avoiding over-politicized topics as well, not because we shouldn’t be able to discuss them, but in this type of exercise, the attention could be pulled from what they are learning to a specific political topic.
I've compiled a list of topics that I used with my own students. I also opened it up to my students that if they had a topic they were passionate about, they could bring it to me and I could give permission if it fit my criteria.
Here are some great ideas for persuasive speeches for high school students. Just a reminder, these are not propositions, but topics. A student should still write a persuasive proposition for their speech after picking a topic.
-Should states require seatbelts by law?
-Should students take a gap year between high school and college?
-Should the voting age should be lowered/raised?-Should the legal driving age should be lower/higher?
-Should sugary drinks and candy be taxed at a higher rate?
-Do social media apps like Instagram and TikTok do more harm than good?
-Should the USA convert to the metric system?
-Should college athletes get paid to play?
-Should the NFL redefine the catch rule?
-Should cyberbullying result in expulsion?
-Should high schools be required to offer a “Life Skills” class?
-Should it be illegal to use a cell phone while driving?
-Should cities be allowed to pass specific dog breed restrictions?
-Should the minimum wage be increased?
-Should the Electoral College be replaced by popular vote?
-Should it be mandatory to vote in all national elections?
Want more information on persuasive speeches? Check out my Persuasive Speech Unit!
What do you think of these ideas? Are there any you think need to be added? If so, tell me in the comments below!
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