Exploring satire with Shrek
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=810
A lesson plan for grade 11 English Language Arts
This lesson introduces the satirical techniques of exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody through the study of fairy tales. Students brainstorm common characteristics of the literary genre and then identify these elements in the movie, Shrek. After evaluating the degree to which these scenes represent satire, students make inferences about how modern society is being satirized. After analysis of several fairy tales, students are challenged to write their own satirical narrative that illustrates the characteristics of the genre.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 11
- Goal 4: The learner will critically analyze text to gain meaning, develop thematic connections, and synthesize ideas.
- Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
- examining the functions and the effects of narrative strategies such as plot, conflict, suspense, point of view, characterization, and dialogue.
- interpreting the effect of figures of speech (e.g., personification, oxymoron) and the effect of devices of sound (e.g., alliteration, onomatopoeia).
- analyzing stylistic features such as word choice and links between sense and sound.
- identifying ambiguity, contradiction, irony, parody, and satire.
- demonstrating how literary works reflect the culture that shaped them.
- Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
