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Institute for Learning

You've Got to Be Kidding: Understanding Satire (Grades 10-11)

You've Got to Be Kidding: Understanding Satire (Grades 10-11)

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In this unit, students expand their understanding of satire as a source of humor and social criticism. Students study and analyze the characteristics and varieties of satire as well as the intended and unintended effects of satire. Students are also asked to engage in “fieldwork” to collect additional examples for independent study and analysis.
  • Three literary texts
  • 4-6 weeks instruction
  • Explanation writing

 

What is this unit about?

Most students are saturated in satire through their immersion in popular culture. It is a part of the television and movies they watch, the music they listen to, websites they visit, and games they play. Satire also underlays the language adolescents use to mock and mimic a world that they are beginning to see with critical eyes. The work in this unit is designed to teach students how to better understand and appreciate this ubiquitous genre and to realize what can happen when satire is misunderstood. In this unit, students will read, write about, and discuss satire in-depth by studying three unit texts and their own collected examples of satire in-depth.

The following overarching questions will guide their work:

  • What makes a satire effective?
  • How does context affect our understanding of satire?

The unit’s texts move students from a podcast about a contemporary issue and context to a written text about the issues and context of 18th century Ireland and back again. As they work to answer the question, “What makes a satire effective?”, students will work across texts to examine satire as an artifact that emerges from the highly contextualized issues of its time, but also as a genre that can capture human folly writ large.

In considering the impact of a particular piece of satire, a lot depends upon whether or not you “get it” and whether you are the target of the joke or an insider. Students will examine the relevance of these factors too as they work to answer the question, “How does context affect our understanding of satire?”

The two-part culminating assignment for the unit has students work both with a team and individually to analyze and evaluate a piece of satire collected during fieldwork. They will collaborate with a team to create a short presentation and then work individually to produce an “on-demand” essay.

What content will students learn?

Students will expand their understanding of

  • satire as a source of humor and social criticism;
  • satirical text as contextualized and universal;
  • the intended and unintended impact of satire; and
  • characteristics and varieties of satire.
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