Teach your students about the Aristotelian appeals, ethos, pathos and logos. When appealing to ethos, a text or speech is attempting to persuade the reader or audience on the basis of the speaker's authority. Appeals to pathos attempt to make the audience feel emotionally supportive of the speaker's claims, while appeals to logos use logical reasoning to persuade the audience of the claim's validity. Provide texts and photographs asking students to identify what is being "appealed" to. Teach them about ethos, pathos and logos early in the course, since it is easy for students to grasp and you can then have them identify these rhetorical strategies in all the course readings.
Teach students about deductive and inductive reasoning. Many course textbooks for AP Language and Composition include a chapter on this subject. Explain to students the differences between the two types of reasoning, their respective advantages and disadvantages, and what a syllogism is. Give them many examples of syllogisms. For homework, this would be a good time to assign the Declaration of Independence, which sets up a classic syllogism: a major premise (people have the right to overthrow governments that are not fulfilling their responsibilities), a minor premise (King George is not fulfilling his responsibilities to us), and a conclusion (Therefore, we have the right to disengage politically from King George's government).
Teach students about Toulmin and Rogerian arguments. Many course textbooks for AP Language and Composition include a chapter on this subject. Rogerian argumentation is useful because it focuses on finding areas of agreement and persuading parties to act together in areas where their interests align. Toulmin argumentation, which includes a claim, evidence, warrant, counterargument and rebuttal, is the type that students will encounter most often and that they will be expected to use on their essays in the Advanced Placement exam for this course. Assign Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which both assumes an area of agreement (that the writer and his audience both support equal rights for black Americans), and uses classic Toulmin argumentation methods.
Teach your students to recognize logical fallacies. Student must be able to evaluate arguments for their efficacy. Many course textbooks for AP Language and Composition include a chapter on logical fallacies such as ad hominem attacks, post hoc ergo propter hoc, red herrings, begging the question, and attacking a strawman. You can reinforce students' knowledge by having them read many examples of each type of fallacy and creating their own; having them play a "memory" game in which half the cards have names of logical fallacies and the other half have examples; and by pointing out logical fallacies in their own papers throughout the course.
Assign students to read examples of argument that were written before 1900, since many students have trouble understanding older texts. Examples include Abraham Lincoln's first and second inaugural addresses, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Declaration of Sentiment and Resolutions," Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress," Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," and Thomas Paine's "Common Sense." In class, discuss the works' respective rhetorical strategies, including their methods of argumentation and other devices such as anaphora, periodic sentences, metaphors, and biblical allusions.
Assign contemporary readings so that students can see how argument is performed effectively today. Have them read op-ed pieces from local and international newspapers and evaluate the writing and logic in those pieces. Also assign, and discuss in class, well-known persuasive texts from the 20th and 21st centuries, such as John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," and essays by Susan Sontag, Langston Hughes and other prominent writers.
Have students evaluate the readings on their own as well as in class. You could, for example, have students submit a one- or two-page analysis on the day a reading is due, identifying and explaining the methods of argumentation used, as well as other rhetorical devices such as polysyndeton, apostrophe and understatement.
Give your students assignments in which they support arguments. For example, give them practice "argument" essays from old AP exams, or have them write their own opinion pieces on current events or controversies. In the style of AP exams, give them controversial statements to defend, challenge, or qualify.
Give copious feedback on their work. When marking students' essays, evaluate not only for grammar and organization, but for the efficacy of the argument itself. Discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of the points students make in their writing and the order in which they make them. Discuss in class the merits of including qualifiers, acknowledging weak points in an argument, or changing the order of evidence.
Have students evaluate arguments in writing. Students should be able to evaluate an argument's methods not just verbally in class, but also in writing. Assign short essays in which students identify and evaluate the rhetorical strategies used in the readings you assign.