Students write a description of a parenting problem Juvenal would be unhappy about today and come up with three concrete examples that illustrate the problem. Then the whole class shares and comments on the examples.

Students continue to look at “Once Upon a Time.” They’ll consider what makes the story so powerful and what makes it a Juvenalian satire.

In this lesson, students will finish and share their cartoon characters and spend some time analyzing each other’s creations. They’ll look specifically at whether their classmates took a more Juvenalian or Horatian approach.

In this lesson, students will continue to study Swift’s famous essay “A Modest Proposal.” Why did Swift write the essay as he did?

Students read and discuss “The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse”—a gentler type of satire, known as Horatian. Then they create concrete details to modernize the story.

In this lesson, students will study voice in the comedy of a contemporary satirist, this time in the comic’s writing. Then students will look at their own voice in a piece of writing.

In this lesson, students will start to think about the satirical videos they will create to end this unit. Students will sort through all the satirical pieces and videos they have considered and use them as a springboard for their own ideas.

In this lesson, students will continue to look at Seinfeld’s use of the word really and how its use is satirical. Students will also begin to create a basic plotline for their groups’ satirical video.

In this lesson, students finalize their storyboards with some peer advice from classmates. Students can also ask the teacher for help to revise their plans to sharpen their satire. Students begin to video-record their satires.

In our lives, we are constantly telling stories to ourselves and to others in an attempt to both understand our experiences and present our best selves to others.  But how do we tell a story about ourselves that is both true and positive? How do we hold ourselves up in the best possible light, while still being honest about our struggles and our flaws? Students will explore ways of interpreting and portraying personal experiences.  They'll read Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart , analyzing the text through the eyes of one character. They'll get to know that character's flaws and strengths, and they'll tell part of the story from that character's perspective, doing their best to tell an honest tale that presents their character's best side. Then they'll explore their own stories, crafting a personal narrative about an important moment of learning in his or her life.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and analyze Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , viewing the events and conflicts of the novel through the eyes of one of the central characters.
Students write a two-part narrative project: one narrative told through their character’s perspective and one personal narrative about an incident in their own life.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How do our conflicts shape and show our character?
How can we tell a story about ourselves that’s both honest and positive?
How do definitions of justice change depending on the culture you live in?
What are ways individuals can react to a changing world? To a community that doesn’t accept us?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will take the time to share their strongest work and to celebrate the writing of themselves and their classmates.

In this lesson, students will work to finish the revision of their personal narrative.

This is a list of fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits. These websites are categorized with the number 1 next to them. Some websites on this list may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information, and they are marked with a 2. Other websites on this list sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions, and they are marked with a 3. Other sources on this list are purposefully fake with the intent of satire/comedy, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news. They are marked with a 4.

This introduction to satire includes an EdPuzzle that introduces the definition of satire, examples, explanations of four satirical techniques (incongruity, hyperbole, reversal, and parody), and practice questions. A second activity asks students to locate an example of satire online, analyze the satirical techniques used, and explain the criticism or comment expressed in the example.

This edition is derived from the Project Gutenberg edition of A Modest Proposal.

This free video series provides definitions of literary terms in English literature to students and teachers. It also offers examples of how these literary devices can be applied to poems, plays, novels, and short stories. We are in the process of translating the videos into Spanish and many of them now contain these subtitles.

Simple and compound machines are designed to make work easier. When we encounter a machine that does not fit this understanding, the so-called machine seems absurd. In this lesson, the cartoons of Rube Goldberg are introduced and engage the students in critical thinking about the way his inventions make a simple task even harder to complete. As the final lesson in the simple machines unit, the study of Rube Goldberg machines can help students evaluate the importance and usefulness of the many machines around them.

Jonathan Swift's 1729 pamphlet "A Modest Proposal" is a model for satirizing social problems. In this lesson, students complete multiple readings of Swift's essay: a guided reading with the teacher, a collaborative reading with a peer, and an independent reading. The online Notetaker tool helps students restate key ideas from Swift's essay as they read and elaborate upon these ideas postreading. After independent reading, pairs of students develop a mock television newscast or editorial script, like those found on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update," The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, or The Colbert Report, including appropriate visual images in PowerPoint.

This lesson begins with students viewing a Colbert Report program about his Super PAC. Then students read and discuss a profile of Colbert's political satire. A second reading examines some of the responses to it, positive and negative, and encourages students to discuss their own views. Readings include embedded links to Colbert's Super PAC ads. A homework assignment asks students to read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," view additional clips of Stephen Colbert's program, and then compare and contrast these forms of satire.

The activities, assignments, and lessons included here are designed to help students read and write like artists who constantly take apart old ideas and texts in order to repackage them for the sake of contemporary humor, wisdom, and relevance. The activities introduce new vocabulary for discussing how texts work and play, as well as synthesis, analysis, and creativity.