“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is a frequent flyer on classroom curriculums around the country. And for good reason! It’s funny, rigorous, and checks the box for World Literature courses. Its complexity, however, can make it exceptionally challenging to teach–especially if your students are not on grade level. In this blog post, I’ll share some tips for teaching “A Modest Proposal.”
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Essential Teaching Tips for “A Modest Proposal” #1: Give Yourself Plenty of Time
“A Modest Proposal” was always appealing to me for one reason: it’s short.
It seems like the perfect text for the end of a quarter or to fill a few days between major units.
However, trying to squeeze “A Modest Proposal” into two or three days never worked for me. Invariably, it takes students much longer to understand satire, deconstruct the text, and get the joke than I think it will.
Instead, give yourself and your students plenty of time to dig in and enjoy this text. I recommend about two weeks depending on your class length and students’ abilities.
Essential Teaching Tips for “A Modest Proposal” #2: Teach Satire in Depth
Here’s another mistake I’ve made teaching “A Modest Proposal”–rushing through satire.
You’d think with the amount of Family Guy, SNL, and parody videos on YouTube that students would “get” satire pretty quickly.
Well, you’d be wrong.
Make sure you give students plenty of time to dig into satire as both a genre and technique.
I recommend explicitly teaching satirical techniques too. This will give students tangible examples to look for as they explore satire.
As you cover satire, remember that there’s no such thing as too many examples. Expose students to video clips, political cartoons, newspaper articles, and more. The more examples the better.
If you need a lesson for introducing satire, check out my Satire Lesson. It has everything you need: an editable slideshow, exit ticket, lesson plan, guided notes, and graphic organizer for analyzing any satirical work. It also includes some suggested links for satirical clips to watch and analyze with your students.
Essential Teaching Tips for “A Modest Proposal” #3: Build Background Knowledge
Once students have a foundational understanding of satire, they need to build a foundation for “A Modest Proposal.”
There are so many funny jokes in the essay–but only if you’re “in” on the jokes. Students will need plenty of historical context to find Swift’s humor.
I recommend covering the history of England and Ireland’s relationship, class dynamics in Ireland as well as the tension between Catholics and Protestants, and, of course, some background on Jonathan Swift himself.
You can save yourself some time and grab my background-building lesson for “A Modest Proposal” here. It’s editable, so you can add your own insights or make tweaks as you see fit.
Essential Teaching Tips for “A Modest Proposal” #4: Read Slowly
If you have advanced students, you can have them read independently. However, even with students who are grade levels ahead, I think “A Modest Proposal” is best done together as a class.
The old-fashioned syntax and vocabulary will be difficult for many students to parse out. Add to that the layers of Swift’s sarcasm, and it’s easy for students to get lost in the text.
Instead, read the essay together and stop regularly to summarize and discuss. You may need to stop after every paragraph or two to provide context and make sure students comprehend Swift’s argument.
It won’t be a quick read, I’m sorry to say. I know the short length is one of the most appealing parts of “A Modest Proposal,” but it may take you longer to get through than you think.
Depending on your class length, I would save at least two days to read through the whole essay. You’ll probably also want to reserve another day or two to really dig into Swift’s use of satirical techniques.
One method to make sure students stop to understand the text is to use reading questions.
Essential Teaching Tips for “A Modest Proposal” #5: Dig Into Satirical Techniques
Once students understand the general gist of “A Modest Proposal,” it’s time to make sure they read between the lines.
Now is the time for students to combine their new knowledge of satire, “A Modest Proposal”’s historical context, and Swift’s essay to actually analyze the text.
I recommend having students work together to find examples of satirical techniques throughout the essay. If they can find, identify, and explain Swift’s meaning for different examples of satire throughout the essay, they’ve done a great job understanding the text.
You can have them use a graphic organizer (like the one provided in my Satire Lesson), discuss with groups, make a poster, or even write their own “Modest Proposal” about an issue we face today.
Conclusion
My biggest tip for teaching “A Modest Proposal” is to give you and your students enough time.
It’s so tempting to rush the process when the text is so short, and there are so many other things to get done. However, if you take the time to really dig into the many layers of “A Modest Proposal,” I think you and your students will have a great time!
Ready to dive in? Grab my “A Modest Proposal” Mini-unit right here!
