The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

Students will consider the different ways that humor can be used by a writer to criticize people, practices, and institutions that he or she thinks are in need of serious reform. Students will read satirists ranging from classical Rome to modern day to examine how wit can be used to make important points about culture.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students research an aspect of modern life that they would like to lampoon.
Students read from satirists across history to absorb the style and forms of humor and institutions satirized.
Students write their own satire, drawing on techniques of famous satirists to criticize their targets.

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.

What is satire, and when is it too harsh?
How can humor and irony make you more persuasive?
What do you think is funny? How far would you go to satirize it?
Who gets more reaction—satirists or protestors?

In this lesson, students continue to prepare their presentations for the next lesson. You can assign what’s left to do for homework.

In this lesson, students will begin to study Swift’s famous essay “A Modest Proposal,” and answer the question, what is Swift really arguing?

In this lesson, students will look at how a writer discusses poverty. Everyone knows poverty is devastating, but how can a writer most effectively create a response from his or her audience so people want to take action? And what kinds of evidence are most persuasive?

In this lesson, students will examine stereotypical figures in three pieces of classic literature that often emerge in settings that serve as microcosms for the society at large. They will determine the intent of the satirical nature of each piece as well as the means of achieving it.

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.

Jonathan Swift's 1729 pamphlet "A Modest Proposal€" is a model for satirizing social problems. In this lesson, students complete multiple readings of Swiftĺĺ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.