I have been teaching many different lessons, but if I was able to select a learning objective for students to learn that I have not yet taught, nor will I teach during my unit, it would be to have students say “I can identify irony, and by extension satire, in common day situations and current events.”
After identifying where students will be at the end, the next step is to identify the what will be an appropriate measurer of ability. In this case I think it could be giving multiple situations and having students answer true (ironic or satyrical) or false (not ironic or satyrical). However, since irony would be the goal of the day, a quiz might not be the best idea because this wouldn’t be a larger lesson or unit. The quiz could be replaced with formative assessment of asking students to explain, in their own words, what irony is similar to or a definition that makes sense to them.
The final step in backwards design is to identify which activities would be best suited to get students to answer the formative assessment question and be able to define irony and satire. The first step would be to have students read a textbook definition of the words and what they mean. Next, students would draw parallels between definitions of new words and previous knowledge (e.g exaggeration, hyperbole, sarcastic, mockery, or parody). After that, students will undergo multiple activities to help them identify ironic situations or uses of satyrical humor.
