Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice10-15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your friend spills a whole tray of lunch on the cafeteria floor. Another student says, 'Smooth move.' What do the words mean, and what does the student mean? Now describe the same friend two ways: once as someone who never gives up, once as someone who never listens. Which words did you choose?"

   Collect answers to both parts. For the first, students see at once that "smooth" means the opposite here: the move was clumsy, and the tone is teasing. Name it: this is verbal irony, saying one thing and meaning another, and the spilled tray is the clue. For the second, list the words on the board in two columns (for example, determined and dedicated; stubborn and pigheaded). Point out that both columns describe the same behavior. What changed is the judgment the words carry, their connotation. Today students work with irony, puns, the relationships between words, and connotation.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Part 1: Verbal irony and puns (standard a). Verbal irony is saying something different from, often the opposite of, what you mean. Sarcasm is verbal irony meant to mock or hurt. Understatement, saying much less than the truth (calling a hurricane "a bit of wind"), is a quiet kind of verbal irony. To interpret it, ask three questions (Diagram 2): what do the words say, what does the situation show, and what does the speaker really mean? A pun uses a word with two meanings, or two words that sound alike (homophones, such as whole and hole), so that both meanings are heard at once. To explain a pun, name both meanings and the part of the context that calls up each.

   Part 2: Word relationships (standard b). Words make sense in pairs and groups. Synonyms have nearly the same meaning, antonyms opposite meanings. Words can differ by degree (warm, hot, scorching), or be linked as cause and effect (drought, famine), part and whole (page, book) or item and category (oak, tree). An analogy sets two pairs with the same relationship side by side: warm : scorching :: cool : frozen, read "warm is to scorching as cool is to frozen." If you know one word in a related pair, the relationship tells you something about the other.

   Part 3: Connotation (standard c). Words with similar denotations (dictionary meanings) can carry very different connotations (associations and judgments). Choosing among them lets a writer praise or blame without saying so. Context note for T1: O. Henry's narrator, Sam, is one of two small-time crooks who plan to kidnap a rich man's son in a small Alabama town, around 1900. Sam tells the story after it is over, and he likes long, fancy words.

   1It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South, in Alabama—Bill Driscoll and myself—when this kidnapping idea struck us. It was, as Bill afterward expressed it, “during a moment of temporary mental apparition”; but we didn’t find that out till later.

   2There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course. It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class of peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.

   3Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with. We talked it over on the front steps of the hotel. Philoprogenitiveness, says we, is strong in semi-rural communities; therefore and for other reasons, a kidnapping project ought to do better there than in the radius of newspapers that send reporters out in plain clothes to stir up talk about such things. We knew that Summit couldn’t get after us with anything stronger than constables and maybe some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers’ Budget. So, it looked good.

   4We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser. The kid was a boy of ten, with bas-relief freckles, and hair the colour of the cover of the magazine you buy at the news-stand when you want to catch a train. Bill and me figured that Ebenezer would melt down for a ransom of two thousand dollars to a cent. But wait till I tell you.

   5About two miles from Summit was a little mountain, covered with a dense cedar brake. On the rear elevation of this mountain was a cave. There we stored provisions. One evening after sundown, we drove in a buggy past old Dorset’s house. The kid was in the street, throwing rocks at a kitten on the opposite fence.

   6“Hey, little boy!” says Bill, “would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?”

   7The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick.

   8“That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars,” says Bill, climbing over the wheel.

   • Verbal irony in context

     Paragraph 2: "There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course."

     Result: Said: the town is called Summit (a summit is the top of a mountain), "of course." Context: the town is "as flat as a flannel-cake" (a pancake). Meant: the name is the opposite of the truth, and "of course" mocks small towns that give themselves grand names. Compare the story's first words, "It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you" (paragraph 1). That sentence is not irony, since the plan really did look good at first, but "wait till I tell you" warns the reader that it went wrong, so every boast that follows can be read against the outcome.

   • A play on words

     Paragraph 1: the idea came, "as Bill afterward expressed it, 'during a moment of temporary mental apparition.'"

     Result: Bill means aberration, a moment when the mind goes wrong. He says apparition, a ghost, because the two words sound alike. The mix-up is funny in context: the plan came from a mind so confused that even the word for confusion came out wrong. Pointing out that Bill "expressed it" that way lets the narrator laugh at his partner. A word misused for a sound-alike word is called a malapropism; like a pun, it works by sound.

   • Word relationships: item and category

     Paragraph 4: the boy's father was "respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser." What does tight mean here?

     Result: Tight has several meanings (firmly fixed, closely fitting), but the words around it belong to one category: money. A "mortgage fancier" likes lending money on houses, and a "forecloser" takes the house when a payment is missed. So tight means stingy, unwilling to let go of money. The category also changes respectable: next to "forecloser," it sounds less like praise and more like a polite cover for being hard.

   • A pun on two meanings

     "Faithless Sally Brown," stanza 2 (lines 5-8): a press-gang (a crew that forced men to join the navy) seizes Ben: "And Sally she did faint away, / While Ben he was brought to."

     Result: To be brought to means to be revived after fainting, which is what should happen to Sally. But Ben is the one "brought to," in a sailor's sense: stopped and seized, as a ship is "brought to" when it is forced to halt. The pun sets the two meanings side by side: Sally faints away while Ben is carried off to sea.

   • Connotation: the official example words

     bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute

     Result: All five describe someone who holds to a course and will not give it up. Bullheaded criticizes: stubborn in a foolish way, like a bull that charges ahead. Willful also criticizes: insisting on one's own way against advice or rules, often said of children. Firm is close to neutral: steady, not easily moved, as a firm rule or a firm handshake. Persistent is usually positive: keeping on after setbacks. Resolute praises: admirably determined, often in the face of danger. A coach who will not change the lineup is firm to a fan and bullheaded to a critic (Diagram 1).

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Hood's ballad is a chain of puns. Read it aloud once for the story: Ben, a carpenter, is seized by a press-gang and taken to sea; Sally weeps; two years later Ben comes home and finds she has married another man. Words to know: a boatswain (said "BOH-sun") is a ship's officer in charge of the crew; a swain is an old word for a young man in love; a tender is a small boat that serves a larger ship. In pairs, students explain the puns in stanzas 3-6 in the middle column of the table; the teacher key is in the right column. Stanzas 7-9 are left for homework, and the rest of the ballad for the quiz.

   1Young Ben he was a nice young man,
   A carpenter by trade;
   And he fell in love with Sally Brown,
   That was a lady’s maid.

   5But as they fetch’d a walk one day,
   They met a press-gang crew;
   And Sally she did faint away,
   While Ben he was brought to.

   The Boatswain swore with wicked words,
   10Enough to shock a saint,
   That though she did seem in a fit,
   ’Twas nothing but a feint.

   “Come, girl,” said he, “hold up your head,
   He’ll be as good as me;
   15For when your swain is in our boat,
   A boatswain he will be.”

   So when they’d made their game of her,
   And taken off her elf,
   She rous’d, and found she only was
   20A coming to herself.

   “And is he gone, and is he gone?”
   She cried, and wept outright:
   “Then I will to the water side,
   And see him out of sight.”

   25A waterman came up to her,--
   “Now, young woman,” said he,
   “If you weep on so, you will make
   Eye-water in the sea.”

   “Alas! they’ve taken my beau Ben
   30To sail with old Benbow;”
   And her woe began to run afresh,
   As if she’d said, Gee woe!

   Says he, “They’ve only taken him
   To the Tender-ship, you see;”
   35“The Tender-ship,” cried Sally Brown,
   “What a hard-ship that must be!

   “Oh! would I were a mermaid now,
   For then I’d follow him;
   But oh!--I’m not a fish-woman,
   40And so I cannot swim.

   “Alas! I was not born beneath
   The virgin and the scales,
   So I must curse my cruel stars,
   And walk about in Wales.”

   45Now Ben had sail’d to many a place
   That’s underneath the world;
   But in two years the ship came home
   And all her sails were furl’d.

   But when he call’d on Sally Brown,
   50To see how she got on,
   He found she’d got another Ben,
   Whose Christian-name was John.

   “O Sally Brown, O Sally Brown,
   How could you serve me so?
   55I’ve met with many a breeze before,
   But never such a blow!”

   Then reading on his ‘bacco box,
   He heav’d a bitter sigh,
   And then began to eye his pipe,
   60And then to pipe his eye.

   And then he tried to sing “All’s Well,”
   But could not though he tried;
   His head was turn’d and so he chew’d
   His pigtail till he died.

   65His death, which happen’d in his birth,
   At forty-odd befell:
   They went and told the sexton, and
   The sexton toll’d the bell.

   Puns in stanzas 3-6 (teacher key in the last column)

   Lines	What are the two meanings?	Teacher key
   "she did seem in a fit, / 'Twas nothing but a feint" (11-12)	Which sound carries two meanings?	Feint (a fake move, a pretense) sounds like faint. The boatswain says her faint was only a feint: she was pretending.
   "when your swain is in our boat, / A boatswain he will be" (15-16)	How does the boatswain turn one word into another?	Put a swain (her young man) in a boat and he becomes a boat-swain. The joke is built from the parts of the word.
   "She rous'd, and found she only was / A coming to herself" (19-20)	What are the two meanings of "coming to herself"?	Coming to means waking from a faint; to herself also means alone, because Ben is gone and she has only herself.
   "And is he gone, and is he gone?" (21)	Is there a pun here? How can you tell?	No: this line means just what it says, and it is sad. Not every line of a comic poem is a pun; readers check each one against its context.

   Discuss: why does a ballad about a man kidnapped by the navy and a broken engagement make readers laugh? (The puns keep pulling attention from the sad events to the words themselves.) Which pun was easiest to hear read aloud, and which was easiest to see on the page?

4. Independent Practice10-15 minutes

   Students read each sentence, name the relationship between the two bold words, and use it to explain the harder word. Then they turn two rows into analogies of their own. Students fill in the middle and right columns; the teacher key follows.

   Word relationships (teacher key in the last column)

   Sentence	Relationship	Meaning of the harder word (teacher key)
   The first speech was brief, but the second was interminable; half the audience fell asleep.	Antonyms (signal but)	Interminable: seeming to have no end
   The coach was not just annoyed but livid, and she threw her clipboard.	Degree (the second is much stronger)	Livid: extremely angry
   Months of drought left the fields cracked, and the famine that followed lasted two years.	Cause and effect	Famine: a severe shortage of food
   The storm tore the mast from the ship, leaving the whole vessel drifting.	Part and whole	Vessel: a ship or large boat
   Our guide was cheerful at the start of the ten-mile hike and just as jovial at the end.	Synonyms (signal just as)	Jovial: cheerful and friendly
   A sparrow is a common kind of songbird.	Item and category	Songbird: a bird with a musical call, a category that includes sparrows

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Write one sentence of verbal irony about school and, in parentheses, what it really means. (2) Put persistent, bullheaded and resolute in order from most negative to most positive, and write a sentence that uses one of them.

   Teacher note on the texts: "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a comedy about a kidnapping, and the boy spends much of the story "playing Indian," with the stereotyped language of the Wild West shows of the time; one sentence in a part of the story not printed here also uses a racial slur. The excerpts here avoid those passages; preview the whole story before assigning it. Hood's ballad makes jokes about the press-gangs that forced men into the British navy, and it ends with Ben's comic death from grief. All published passages are quoted exactly as printed.

   For the quiz: between T1 and T2, the boy turns out to be a terror. He calls himself Red Chief, pelts Bill with rocks, tries to scalp him in his sleep and makes him play horse for ninety miles. The kidnappers lower their demand to fifteen hundred dollars and leave a letter for the father, signed "Two Desperate Men." T2 begins with the father's answer. Questions 1-5 and 20 use T2, Questions 6-9 and 18 use "Faithless Sally Brown" in Guided Practice, and Questions 10-14 and 17 use the story below, "The Science Fair Standoff."

   1Two Desperate Men.

   2Gentlemen: I received your letter to-day by post, in regard to the ransom you ask for the return of my son. I think you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. You had better come at night, for the neighbours believe he is lost, and I couldn’t be responsible for what they would do to anybody they saw bringing him back.

   3Very respectfully, EBENEZER DORSET.

   4“Great pirates of Penzance!” says I; “of all the impudent—”

   5But I glanced at Bill, and hesitated. He had the most appealing look in his eyes I ever saw on the face of a dumb or a talking brute.

   6“Sam,” says he, “what’s two hundred and fifty dollars, after all? We’ve got the money. One more night of this kid will send me to a bed in Bedlam. Besides being a thorough gentleman, I think Mr. Dorset is a spendthrift for making us such a liberal offer. You ain’t going to let the chance go, are you?”

   7“Tell you the truth, Bill,” says I, “this little he ewe lamb has somewhat got on my nerves too. We’ll take him home, pay the ransom and make our get-away.”

   8We took him home that night. We got him to go by telling him that his father had bought a silver-mounted rifle and a pair of moccasins for him, and we were going to hunt bears the next day.

   9It was just twelve o’clock when we knocked at Ebenezer’s front door. Just at the moment when I should have been abstracting the fifteen hundred dollars from the box under the tree, according to the original proposition, Bill was counting out two hundred and fifty dollars into Dorset’s hand.

   10When the kid found out we were going to leave him at home he started up a howl like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill’s leg. His father peeled him away gradually, like a porous plaster.

   11“How long can you hold him?” asks Bill.

   12“I’m not as strong as I used to be,” says old Dorset, “but I think I can promise you ten minutes.”

   13“Enough,” says Bill. “In ten minutes I shall cross the Central, Southern and Middle Western States, and be legging it trippingly for the Canadian border.”

   1Dani's water filter clogged for the third time on Tuesday, four days before the science fair. Sand had packed into the bottom layer like wet cement, and the water that finally dripped out was the color of weak tea.

   2"Oh, wonderful," said Marcus, holding the cloudy cup up to the window. "Exactly what I wanted to drink."

   3Our teacher, Ms. Reyes, suggested that Dani switch to a simpler project: a poster about how cities clean their water. Dani said no. She was polite about it, but she did not change her mind.

   4"She's so bullheaded," Marcus muttered to me. "She'd rather fail than admit the design is wrong."

   5My grandmother had a different word when I told her about it that afternoon. "Your mother was willful at that age too," she said, shaking her head. "She never listened to anybody."

   6But Dani did listen, just not to the advice to quit. She read three articles about filters and learned that fine sand packs down under its own weight. So she moved the fine sand to the top and put coarse gravel on the bottom, where the big stones left gaps for the water to pass. The next test came out cloudy, but less cloudy. She tested it nine more times, changing one layer at a time. By Thursday the water ran clear.

   7Ms. Reyes had been firm all week: the filter had to work by Friday, or Dani would present the poster instead. When she saw the clear cup, she smiled. "You are persistent," she said. Marcus held the cup up to the window again. "Well," he said, "that cleared up."

   8At the fair, one of the judges wrote on Dani's score sheet: "A resolute young scientist. Her notebook shows every failure and every fix." Marcus read it over her shoulder. "Resolute," he said. "That's a nicer word for what I called you."

   9"I know," said Dani. "I looked it up."

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Dorset writes, "I think you are a little high in your demands" (T2, paragraph 2). What does he really mean?

   AHe will pay the ransom if the kidnappers lower it by a small amount BHe will not pay anything; the demand is not worth a single cent to him CHe is afraid of the kidnappers and wants to bargain politely with them DHe cannot find fifteen hundred dollars in cash before midnight

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Why is Dorset's phrase "I agree to take him off your hands" (T2, paragraph 2) ironic?

   AIt shows that Dorset plans to call the constables as soon as the boy is safe BIt is a pun, because "hands" means both the men's hands and farm workers CIt reverses a ransom: he speaks as if he is doing the kidnappers a favor DIt is meant literally, because the boy has been tied up with rope all day

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In T1, the narrator calls Dorset "tight" (paragraph 4). In T2, Bill calls him "a spendthrift for making us such a liberal offer" (paragraph 6). How does the relationship between tight and spendthrift help a reader?

   AThey are synonyms, so both passages agree that Dorset is a man who spends money freely BThey are antonyms, so Bill's praise of a man known to be tight must be ironic CThey are part and whole, since spending money is one part of being tight DThey have no relationship, because they describe two different people

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Sam calls the boy "this little he ewe lamb" (T2, paragraph 7). What figure of speech is this, and what does it mean in context?

   AVerbal irony: a lamb is gentle, but the boy is a terror BA literal description: the boy is small and has curly hair CA pun: "ewe" sounds like "you," so Sam is talking to Bill DAn insult meant seriously: Sam thinks the boy is a coward at heart

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Bill asks how long Dorset can hold the boy, and Dorset says, "I'm not as strong as I used to be," and adds, "but I think I can promise you ten minutes" (T2, paragraph 12). What does the reply show?

   ADorset is ill and too weak now to lift his own son BDorset is sorry to see the two kidnappers leave so soon CDorset does not care whether the boy runs away DDorset admits in a dry, joking way how wild the boy is

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Ben says, "I've met with many a breeze before, / But never such a blow!" (T3, lines 55-56). Which two meanings does blow carry?

   AA strong wind, and a hard hit or shock BA light wind, and a musical note on a pipe CA sailor's bed, and a long sea journey DA loud cry, and the sound of a ship's bell

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Then reading on his 'bacco box, / He heav'd a bitter sigh, / And then began to eye his pipe, / And then to pipe his eye" (T3, lines 57-60). "To pipe one's eye" is old sailors' slang. Using the context, what does it mean?

   ATo light a tobacco pipe BTo whistle a sailor's tune CTo cry DTo look out to sea

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "His death, which happen'd in his birth, / At forty-odd befell" (T3, lines 65-66). A man cannot die at his birth at the age of forty. What makes the line make sense?

   ABirth is a mistake for breath: he died in one breath BBirth means his birthday: he died on the day he turned forty CBirth is meant literally, and the line is a mistake DBirth sounds like berth, a sailor's bed: he died in his bunk

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "They went and told the sexton, and / The sexton toll'd the bell" (T3, lines 67-68). A sexton looks after a church and rings its bell for a funeral. How does the last line play on sound?

   ATold and toll'd sound the same but mean "said" and "rang slowly" BSexton and six sound alike, so the sexton rang the bell six times CBell and belle sound alike, so the last line is secretly about Sally DWent and went repeat, so the line has no pun

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Marcus says, "Oh, wonderful," and then, "Exactly what I wanted to drink" (T4, paragraph 2). What is he doing?

    APraising the filter, because the water is finally clean BUsing verbal irony: the water is far from wonderful CMaking a pun, because "wonderful" has two meanings here DTelling Dani honestly that he is thirsty and wants water

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Marcus calls Dani "bullheaded" (T4, paragraph 4). What does his word choice show about his view of her?

    AHe admires her for holding steady under pressure BHe is describing her in neutral, factual terms CHe thinks she is stubborn in a foolish way DHe thinks she is a gifted scientist who will win

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The grandmother says, "Your mother was willful at that age too [...] She never listened to anybody" (T4, paragraph 5). How is willful different from persistent, the word Ms. Reyes uses in paragraph 7?

    AWillful criticizes a refusal to listen; persistent praises keeping on BWillful is the positive word, and persistent the negative one CThey have different denotations, so they cannot be compared DThey mean exactly the same thing, and both carry the same feeling of praise

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Dani "moved the fine sand to the top and put coarse gravel on the bottom, where the big stones left gaps for the water to pass" (T4, paragraph 6). How do the words around coarse help a reader understand it?

    ACoarse is a synonym of fine, so the gravel is small and smooth BCoarse and gravel are part and whole, so coarse means a single stone CCoarse and clear are cause and effect, so it means the clean water that results DCoarse is set against fine, and "big stones" shows it means large-grained

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    When the water runs clear, Marcus says, "Well," and adds, "that cleared up" (T4, paragraph 7). Why is this a pun?

    ABecause Marcus is being sarcastic and means the water is still dirty BBecause "cleared up" fits both the water and Dani's problem CBecause "cleared up" sounds like another word with a different meaning DBecause Marcus uses the phrase literally to describe the weather outside

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which word best completes the analogy? bullheaded : resolute :: cheap : ____

    Aexpensive Bstingy Cthrifty Dwasteful

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    An editorial criticizes a mayor who keeps pushing a plan that the city council has voted down three times, and who refuses even to read the council's report. Which word best fits the editorial's purpose?

    Aresolute Bfirm Cpersistent Dbullheaded

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Marcus says the judge's word is "a nicer word for what I called you" (T4, paragraph 8). Explain what bullheaded and resolute have in common and how they differ. Then use two details from paragraph 6 to argue which word fits what Dani actually did.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    "Alas! I was not born beneath / The virgin and the scales, / So I must curse my cruel stars, / And walk about in Wales" (T3, lines 41-44). The Virgin (Virgo) and the Scales (Libra) are two signs of the zodiac, which some people believe rule a person's life by the stars at their birth. Explain the two puns in the stanza.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write two sentences about the same action, a friend who refuses to leave a basketball court until she makes ten free throws in a row. In the first, use firm or persistent; in the second, use bullheaded or willful. Then explain in one or two sentences how the connotation changes the reader's view of the friend.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In T2, paragraph 9, Sam says he should have been taking the fifteen hundred dollars "according to the original proposition," and in paragraph 2 Dorset makes "a counter-proposition." Explain the relationship between the two words, and use it to explain what Dorset's letter does to the kidnappers' plan.

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These standards connect to L.8.5: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.