Matt has degrees in Journalism and Business and has taught a variety of courses at high schools and universities around the world.
Perhaps the best way to explain satire to your students is to provide them with a mix of examples. Depending on student age and maturity level, you may be able to share an episode or clip from a satirical TV show or late night monologue. You can also provide them with literary examples of satire.
If you're unable to provide students with video or audio clips of satire examples, political cartoons are another great resource. Before diving into the activities and games, it's important for students to understand that people interpret satire differently and find different levels of humor in satirical resources.
You may want your first activity to involve students identifying different satirical works or even bringing in satire examples to share with the class. Ultimately, satire is often intended to point out hypocrisies, inconsistencies, or other political and societal flaws. With this in mind, encourage your students to use satire that is both informative and appropriate.
Additionally, record the newscasts for students to review and discuss after every group has presented.
This activity works best if all students in your class are reading the same work of literature. Both fiction and non-fiction texts should be appropriate. Once you've selected a suitable text, you have two options.
If you opt for the first choice, you'll be able to compare how each student satirically interprets the same source material. Alternatively, if you choose the sequential option, you'll be able to analyze and assess how the source material develops through the different satirical language and ideas your students choose to employ.
The main educational thrust of this activity lies in being able to compare multiple satirical interpretations and voices, so be sure to follow-up the writing portion of the activity with significant class and small group discussions that include why and how students made specific language choice to turn the content from straightforward to satirical.
You can also vary this activity by providing students with a piece of writing or other content that is already satirical and having them rewrite it in order to remove the satirical elements.
This art and satire game will allow both the artists and the writers in your class to show off their skills. Students can undertake this activity either individually or in pairs. If two students opt to join together, one should focus on the content while the other focuses on the art.
To conclude the activity, you can ask the winners to explain their inspirations and how the captions and visuals are intended to work together to deliver a satirical message to the reader.
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