Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your family comes home to a basement under ten centimeters of water. One person says, 'Well, that went well.' Another says, 'It's a bit damp down here.' What did each person say, and what did each mean? How did you know?"

   Take answers and write two columns on the board: Stated and Meant. Students usually hear the first remark as sarcasm (saying the opposite) and the second as understatement (saying far less). Ask what told them: the situation, the tone, the mismatch between words and facts. Tell students that today's texts never announce that they are joking, and that finding those clues is the whole skill.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Four terms, one question. For each, the question is the same: what is stated, and what is meant?

   • Satire: a work that exposes folly or wrongdoing through ridicule, often by seeming to support it.
   • Sarcasm: a remark that says one thing, often praise or a neutral fact, in order to mock or wound.
   • Irony: a gap between words and meaning (verbal irony) or between what is expected and what happens (situational irony).
   • Understatement: describing something as much smaller or milder than it is.
   • Persona: a speaker the author invents. In satire, the persona's stated views may be the target.

   Background, briefly. Swift (1667-1745) was Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and the author of Gulliver's Travels. In the late 1720s Ireland suffered poor harvests and widespread hunger, many of its landlords lived in England and collected rents from a distance, and English laws limited Irish trade. "The Pretender" is James Stuart, the Catholic claimant to the British throne; "the Barbadoes" refers to poor people who sold themselves into labor in the West Indies. Read the excerpt aloud in a flat, reasonable voice.

   1It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin-doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling, to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear Native Country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

   2I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

   3But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars, it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.

   [...]

   4I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

   5I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.

   [...]

   6I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to 28 pounds.

   7I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

   • Satire: stated vs. meant

     Paragraph 5: "a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food." What is stated, and what is meant?

     Result: Stated: the children of the poor should be sold and eaten. Meant: Ireland's rulers already treat the poor as goods to be used up, and Swift states that logic openly so readers feel how monstrous it is. The target is the reasoning, not the poor.

   • Verbal irony

     Paragraph 4: "I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection." Where is the irony?

     Result: The speaker expects no objection to a plan that every reader will object to. The gap between his calm confidence and the reader's horror is verbal irony, and it signals that Swift's view is the opposite of his speaker's.

   • Persona vs. author

     Paragraph 2: whoever finds "a fair, cheap and easy method" of making these children useful "would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation." What does this show about the speaker?

     Result: The projector wants public honor before he has said what his plan is. Swift gives him vanity so readers distrust his reasoning early, which creates two points of view: the projector's, stated, and Swift's, implied.

   • Tone as a clue

     Paragraph 6: "a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to 28 pounds." What does the tone reveal?

     Result: The exact weights, written like a report on livestock, are applied to babies. The flat tone is the clue: Swift mocks policy writing that counts the poor without seeing them as people.

   Model the ledger. Students divide a page into three columns: Stated, Meant, Clue. Fill one row together from paragraph 4 and name the clue type (a mismatch between tone and content). Leave paragraph 7 of this excerpt for the quiz.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914), an American journalist, began his mock dictionary in a weekly paper in 1881. Every entry looks like a neutral definition and means something sharper. Read the entries aloud, then decode three together before pairs take the rest.

   1ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.

   2ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.

   [...]

   3ADMIRATION, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.

   [...]

   4APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence.

   [...]

   5BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.

   [...]

   6CONGRATULATION, n. The civility of envy.

   [...]

   7DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

   [...]

   8DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and keep.

   9DISTRESS, n. A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of a friend.

   [...]

   10EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

   [...]

   11FRIENDLESS, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

   [...]

   12HAPPINESS, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

   [...]

   13PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

   [...]

   14POLITENESS, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy.

   15POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

   1. ADMIRATION (entry 3): "Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves." Teacher note: stated, admiration is recognition of worth; meant, we admire only people who remind us of ourselves, so admiration is disguised vanity. The word "polite" is the sting.
   2. APOLOGIZE (entry 4): "To lay the foundation for a future offence." Teacher note: stated, a definition of a verb; meant, people apologize to clear the way to offend again. The building image ("lay the foundation") makes a moral act sound like planning.
   3. BORE (entry 5): "A person who talks when you wish him to listen." Teacher note: the definition turns on the reader. A bore is not someone dull but someone who keeps you from talking, so the entry mocks the listener as much as the talker.

   Pairs add these three to their ledgers, then choose two more entries not covered in class and fill the Stated, Meant and Clue columns. Ask two pairs to read a row aloud and let the class test whether the Meant column follows from the words.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read the end of "A Modest Proposal" on their own. Glosses: "expedients" are remedies; "absentees" are landlords who live in England on Irish rents; "disobliging" means offending. On the ledger, students fill at least four rows from this excerpt and circle the one row where the speaker's stated view and Swift's real view are furthest apart. The quiz questions on this passage work as a check once they finish.

   1I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and was indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: [...] Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy toward their tenants. Lastly of putting a spirit of honesty, industry and skill into our shopkeepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

   2Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glimpse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them in practice.

   3But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expense and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging ENGLAND. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

   [...]

   4I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, say what Swift's speaker wants and what Swift wants. (2) Copy one line from today's texts that is sarcasm and one that is understatement, and explain in a phrase how they differ.

   Teacher note on content and language: "A Modest Proposal" describes cooking and eating children in deliberately shocking detail; tell students in advance that the shock is the point of the satire. The excerpts leave out, and mark with [...], a paragraph that calls the Irish poor "our savages" and a comparison to the Jews of besieged Jerusalem; other paragraphs of the full essay, not printed here, attack Catholics in the sectarian terms of Swift's time. Swift's "very knowing American" plays on European tales of cannibalism in the Americas; treat it as part of the speaker's corrupt reasoning. The list of "expedients" includes a jab at women's "gaming" and "vanity" that reflects the period. Twain's prayer uses violent images of war on purpose, and its last line reports the congregation's judgment that the stranger was "a lunatic", a dated and dismissive word that Twain turns against the listeners.

   For homework: students read the opening and ending of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" below. Twain dictated it in 1904-05, and it was published in 1923, after his death. In the omitted middle, a stranger interrupts a church service before soldiers leave for war and says that every prayer for victory holds a second, unspoken prayer, which he then speaks aloud.

   1It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

   [...]

   2“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle--be Thou near them! With them--in spirit--we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

   3(After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits.”

   4It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "A Modest Proposal" opens with mothers "followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags" (paragraph 1 of the first excerpt). Why does the essay begin with this sincere-sounding picture?

   AIt shows a real crisis, so the later remedy exposes how coldly the poor are treated. BIt shows that Swift blames the mothers for choosing to beg rather than to work honestly. CIt shows that the speaker is himself a poor beggar describing his own ragged family. DIt signals that the whole essay will be a plain, sincere report with no irony in it.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 7 of the first excerpt begins, "I grant this food will be somewhat dear." Which device does "somewhat dear" mainly use, and why?

   AHyperbole, because the speaker exaggerates how expensive the new food will be. BUnderstatement, because mild words describe a price paid in children's lives. CA simile, because the food is compared with something known to be expensive. DSituational irony, because the price turns out lower than the speaker expected.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The same sentence calls the food "very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children." What does Swift really mean?

   ALandlords are the only people in Ireland rich enough to afford to buy meat. BLandlords hold a legal title to the children of the families who rent from them. CLandlords already ruin poor families through rents, so the plan only finishes their work. DLandlords are generous men who have looked after their tenants for many years.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 3 of the first excerpt, the speaker says his plan "shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them" as beggars. What does this widening reveal?

   AThe speaker is carefully limiting his plan to a few children of known beggars. BThe speaker wants to help wealthy families feed their own children more cheaply. CThe speaker admits that the plan will fail because too few children exist in Ireland. DSo many families are beggars "in effect" that the plan reaches nearly all the poor.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 1 of the second excerpt lists "other expedients" the speaker refuses to hear about, such as "taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound" and "teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy toward their tenants." How do these lines work in the satire?

   AThey are the real reforms Swift wants; the speaker's refusal points readers to them. BThey are foolish ideas that Swift, like his speaker, wants readers to laugh at and reject. CThey are laws that the Irish Parliament had already passed and was strictly enforcing. DThey are a list of crimes that the speaker blames on the poor families of Ireland.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The speaker says, "I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth." What does this claim really suggest?

   AThat the plan would work equally well in England and in every other kingdom. BThat Ireland is so badly governed that only there could such a plan seem to fit. CThat the speaker has never heard of any country in the world other than Ireland. DThat Ireland is the richest kingdom on earth and can easily afford the plan.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 3 of the second excerpt ends, "although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it." Which country is meant, and what is the charge?

   AFrance, which the speaker fears is planning an invasion of Ireland very soon. BSpain, where many poor Irishmen had gone to fight for the Pretender's cause. CEngland, whose rule is already consuming Ireland, even without any salt. DAmerica, the home of the "knowing American" who first suggested the plan.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The essay ends: "I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing." What does the last clause reveal?

   AThe speaker has no children at all and so cannot judge whether the plan is fair. BThe speaker intends to sell his own children as soon as the plan is approved. CThe speaker is too poor to raise his children and needs the plan himself. DHis claim of no interest rests only on his children being too old to sell.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the last paragraph, the speaker lists the plan's aims: "advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich." What does ending the list this way expose?

   AThe plan serves the rich: their pleasure is listed as calmly as relief for the poor. BThe speaker cares only about trade and has no interest in the rich at all. CThe rich will pay higher taxes so that the poor can be relieved under the plan. DThe poor will gain as much pleasure from the plan as the rich will gain.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country" (entry 7). What does the entry really claim?

    ADiplomats are loyal patriots who never need to lie for their country. BDiplomacy is dishonesty that patriotism is used to excuse and dress up. CLying is always wrong except when a country is at war with another. DEvery citizen ought to practice diplomacy to help the country succeed.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and keep" (entry 8). Which reading best captures the sarcasm?

    AThe rich generously share their land and property with the poor. BThe poor prefer to live far away from the rich parts of the city. CThe rich give the poor nothing, except to be kept at a distance. DDistance is a kind of property that only the poor may own by law.

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue" (entry 13). What makes this sarcasm rather than a sincere definition?

    AIt praises patience as the highest and most useful of all the virtues. BIt defines patience by its ordinary dictionary meaning, without comment. CIt uses a simile to compare patience to a disease or a kind of illness. DIt recasts a quality people praise as quiet hopelessness in a disguise.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles" (entry 15). What point of view does the definer take?

    AThat politicians argue honestly and openly about principles. BThat political debate is a fight over self-interest dressed up as ideals. CThat politics is a harmless sport that the public mostly enjoys. DThat principles matter more than interests in every public debate.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which reading of "A Modest Proposal" misses the point of view that RL.11-12.6 asks students to grasp?

    A"The speaker's calm arithmetic is itself one of the essay's targets." B"The reader's horror at the plan is part of what the essay sets out to produce." C"Swift sincerely wanted the children of the Irish poor to be sold as food." D"The speaker and the author hold opposite views of how to treat the poor."

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    "HAPPINESS, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another" (entry 12). Explain what the entry states, what it really means, and whether it is aimed at the reader, at people in general, or both.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    "EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me" (entry 10). Explain the irony in the last two words and what it shows about the definer's point of view.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Entries 1 and 2 define ACADEME ("An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught") and ACADEMY ("A modern school where football is taught"). Explain how placing them side by side creates satire, and what Bierce really means about modern schools.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    In paragraph 3 of the second excerpt, the speaker says he was "wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts" before he "fortunately fell upon this proposal." What is stated here, and what does it really mean, given paragraphs 1-2?

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Among the expedients in paragraph 1 of the second excerpt are "being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing" and "teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy." Explain how understatement works in these phrases.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare how a reader grasps point of view in "A Modest Proposal" and in The Devil's Dictionary. Is the speaker's stated view the author's in each? Quote each text once.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RL.11-12.6: 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.