Literary parodies: Exploring a writer's style through imitation
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=839
A lesson plan for grades 9 and 11 English Language Arts
By exploring sample poems and their parodies, students focus on the language and style of the original writer and try to emulate the poem. After reading “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams, the class discusses their feelings and questions about the poem. Students also discuss the poetic elements and how the poem recalls memories or connects to any part of their lives by pointing to specific words and lines in the poem. Then, after students read the parody of the poem, they compare and contrast the poems using a Venn diagram and discuss their conclusions about parody. As a homework assignment, students read or play a recording of Guy Noir Episode from November 30, 2002, which parodies Williams’ poetry. Once students have discussed the episode, they compare it to the parody of the Williams poem. After students understand the concept of parody, the teacher challenges them to write their own parody of “This is Just to Say”. When students have written their first drafts, they work in groups to evaluate, revise, and finish their work. This lesson suggests several extension activities, provides links to helpful web resources, and offers opportunities for student reflection. Readwritethink provides links the poems needed for the lesson, the format for parodying a poem, an assessment tool, and links to Venn diagrams.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 9
- Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
- Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
- scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
- vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
- appreciation for the significance of the account.
- a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
- Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (individually and in groups) to a variety of expressive texts (e.g., memoirs, vignettes, narratives, diaries, monologues, personal responses) in a way that offers an audience:
- an understanding of the student's personal reaction to the text.
- a sense of how the reaction results from a careful consideration of the text.
- an awareness of how personal and cultural influences affect the response.
- Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
- Goal 4: The learner will create and use standards to critique communication.
- Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
- examining the use of strategies in a presentation/product.
- applying a set of predetermined standards.
- creating an additional set of standards and applying them to the presentation/product.
- comparing effective strategies used in different presentations/products.
- Objective 4.02: Read and critique various genres by:
- using preparation, engagement, and reflection strategies appropriate for the text.
- identifying and using standards to evaluate aspects of the work or the work as a whole.
- judging the impact of different stylistic and literary devices on the work.
- Objective 4.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print critical texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of critical environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
- Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
- using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
- recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
- interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
- understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
- explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
- explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
- determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
- explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
- making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
- understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
- producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.
- Objective 5.02: Demonstrating increasing comprehension and ability to respond personally to texts by selecting and exploring a wide range of genres.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
- Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:
- uses varying sentence types (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) purposefully, correctly, and for specific effect.
- selects verb tense to show an appropriate sense of time.
- applies parts of speech to clarify and edit language.
- addresses clarity and style through such strategies as parallelism; appropriate coordination and subordination; variety and details; appropriate and exact words; and conciseness.
- analyzes the place and role of dialects and standard/nonstandard English.
- uses vocabulary strategies such as roots and affixes, word maps, and context clues to discern the meanings of words.
- Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in spoken and written English by:
- avoiding fragments, run-ons, and comma splices.
- selecting correct subject-verb agreement, consistent verb tense, and appropriate verbs.
- using and placing modifiers correctly.
- editing for spelling and mechanics (punctuation and capitalization).
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression that:
Grade 11
- Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
- Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
- elaborating upon a significant past episode from the student's current perspective.
- projecting the student's voice in the work through reflective interpretation of relationships to people and events.
-writing for a specific audience and purpose. - Objective 1.02: Reflect and respond expressively to texts so that the audience will:
- discover multiple perspectives.
- investigate connections between life and literature.
- explore how the student's life experiences influence his or her response to the selection.
- recognize how the responses of others may be different.
- articulate insightful connections between life and literature.
-consider cultural or historical significance.
- Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
- 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 4.02: Develop thematic connections among literary works by:
- connecting themes that occur across genres or works from different time periods.
- using specific references to validate connections.
-examining how representative elements such as mood, tone, and style impact the development of a theme.
- Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
- Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.
- Objective 5.02: Analyze the relationships among United States authors and their works by:
- making and supporting valid responses about the text through references to other works and authors.
-comparing texts to show similarities or differences in themes, characters, or ideas.
- Objective 5.02: Analyze the relationships among United States authors and their works by:
- Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
- decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
- discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
- revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
- contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
-analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events. - Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in speaking and writing at a level appropriate to eleventh grade by:
- reviewing and refining purposeful use of varying sentence types with correct punctuation.
- reviewing and refining correct pronoun usage, antecedents, and case.
- refining subject/verb agreement and choice of tense.
- extending effective use of phrases and clauses. - discussing parts of speech as they relate to writing.
-editing for correct spelling and mechanics.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:



