iCivics
Mini-Lesson B: Satire
Hey, what's so funny? Explore the use of satire in a variety of media with a hands-on instructional activity. Fourth in a five-part journalism series from iCivics, the activity introduces satirical language in print and online. Pupils...
Curated OER
Greek To Us - Comedy, Tragedy, and Satire
The history of Greek drama is the focus of this multiple-choice quiz. Ten questions ask about historical figures and the roots of tragedy and comedy in Greek religious festivals. While studying Greek drama, use this quiz to test your...
Curated OER
Comedy Across the Curriculum
The New York Times Learning Network provides the resources that permit pupils to examine and then write and perform a fake news broadcast in the vein of “The Daily Show” or “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update. The generated reports...
Curated OER
Literary Newspaper: Candide
Prejudice? Religious intolerance? Political sedition? Class distinction? Plight of women? Voltaire satire, anyone? A literary newspaper offers an opportunity for readers of Candide to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections as...
Curated OER
Creating Civic Awareness Through Artistic and Literary Forms
Interpret current events using editorial cartoons and other print media. Middle schoolers explore the meanings of literary and artistic terms such as satire, irony, and caricature. They visit internet sites to develop an understanding of...
Curated OER
Candide Cubing Strategy
Candide is a dense text. To assist in analyzing Voltaire's satire, groups employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy. Complete directions for the strategy, a template for the cube, a worksheet, and a topic list are included.
Curated OER
Mark Twain: Straddling the Civil War
Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain...
Curated OER
Picture Collage Book Report: Voltaire's Candide
Here's an alternative to a traditional book report for your class to demonstrate that they understand and can articulate the main character's evolution and the social themes presented in Voltaire's satirical novel Candide. Your young...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Literary Humor
Young scholars examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's style of humor and compare it to other humorists. They discuss the purpose of literary humor and determine how it develops characters and plots in stories. They analyze the use of different...
Curated OER
Literacy Lesson: Guided Reading
Here is a wonderful lesson plan designed for students with special needs. This well-thought-out lesson plan uses Big Books, familiar stories, and has a lot of review learning built into it. The book, The Keeping Quilt is used in the main...
Curated OER
Personal Narrative Paragraphs: Class Quilt
Begin this activity by asking third graders to bring from home pieces of cloth that represent something important to them. (Have extras for students who need them.) They reflect on important events in their lives, compose narrative...
Curated OER
How to Write an Essay: Secondary ed.
Whether introducing the structure of expository essays or reviewing the format with your high schoolers, take the time to check out this resource. Examples of seven common forms of introductory paragraphs and six types of conclusions, as...
Curated OER
Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
Curated OER
The Crucible
Twelfth graders use an Internet scavenger hunt, vocabulary, sample essay questions, and short answer questions suitable for study and review of the play, The Crucible.
Curated OER
Mark Twain- Teaching About American Authors
Mark Twain lesson plans can shed light on his famous works, like "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
Library of Congress
Loc: Lesson Plans: Political Cartoons: Finding Point of View
Lesson plan on analyzing a political cartoon that satirizes the Stamp Act.
Syracuse University
Draw Your Own Conclusions: Political Cartooning Then & ?
Take a look at how wars and politics from the 1860s through the 1960s were drawn by some of the nation's most influential humorists and cartoonists.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
U.s. Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk
Internationally known artist Arthur Szyk detailed illustrations of Jewish themes. During WWII, he drew numerous cartoons and cariacatures of Nazi Germany.
Library of Congress
Loc: Editorial Cartoons by Ann Telnaes
An exhibit at the Library of Congress tracing the career of Pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Cartoon Prints
A gateway to a collection of more than 500 prints, from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America, which encompasses several forms of political editorializing. A wonderfully curated collection, with images, a summary of the historical...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Neoclassism: Epic, Mock Epic and Satire
Unfortunately, "literary" writing was not as simple and direct as political writing. When trying to write poetry, most educated authors stumbled into the pitfall of elegant neoclassicism. The epic, in particular, exercised a fatal...
Indiana University
America in Caricature: 1765 1865
A collection of political cartoons from 1765-1875 arranged by time period.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Black History: Wole Soyinka
This entry from Encyclopedia Brittanica's Guide to Black History features Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a...