Learner Description:

This page has been prepared for high school English Language Arts students as part of a post graduate program at Boise State University.

Note: All links in this page open in a new browser.

Overview:

Professional writers use irony to add to the complexity of their work as they seek to interact with the human condition / the human experience. Why do we do what we do? What are our motivations? Why do bad things happen to good people? What is the source of evil? One such writer who had a strong sense of the ironic was Southern writer Flannery O'Connor. Throughout her stories, she uses irony to explore human behavior and the extent to which man will go to ensure self-preservation, no matter the cost.

Directions:

I will assign each student a number between 1-3. You will then separate by those Expert Groups throughout the room to complete the following:

1. Review each of the three types of irony you learned last year found in the table below: situational, verbal, and dramatic;
2. Read the full text silently in your groups, annotating as you go. You may also follow along as the story is read aloud using the provided links;
3. Together, read one of the assigned O'Connor short stories to identify:
   • The type/s of irony used
   • Provide examples from the text, and then
   • Examine how the use of irony contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole

Upon completion of your research, you will then reconvene in new groups which have one member of each of the Expert Groups to share your findings.

Expert Groups:

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