** Literature Unit **

- Reader Response/Free writing
- Group Vocabulary Teaching
- Understanding the Plot
- Group Discussion Questions
- Courtroom Debate on Adultery
- Literary Elements: Irony
- Pop Song: Alanis Morissette's 'Ironic'

An explanation of each activity is explained below.

- After reading and listening to the story you will do a 5 minute free writing response to the story.

* You can write about anything you want that is connected to the story. Write about anything that the story makes you think of.

* Here are some possibilities - But remember that you are free to write about anything you want:

- What does the story make you think of?

- How did the story make you feel?

- What do you think the story is about?

- Is there a message in the story?

- Write about the main character. What do you think of him or her?

- Write about the other characters.

- Do any of the characters make you think of someone you know?

*** Remember to try and write continuously without stopping. Don't worry about grammar or spelling.

1. Read the story silently.

- Underline all the words you know and understand.

- Circle the words you don't understand or are not sure of.

[10-13 min.]

2. After finished, form groups of 3-4.

- Compare your results.

- A student who knows a word not known to the others teaches it to them.

- As a group, try to guess the meaning of the words nobody
understands. One person in the group should write these unkown words and their guesses on a piece of paper.

- Glen asks the groups to say their unknown words and their guesses.
Others listen to see if the guesses are the same with their guesses.

2. Is he a hard worker?

3. Does the wife suspect her husband of adultery? Explain
your answer?

4. What is the husband's state of mind as he sits waiting for
his lover?

5. What happens to the husband at the end when he is with
his lover at the house on the lake?

6. What was the husband's lover concerned about?

7. Is she reassured by his answer to her question?

2. What effect does the dance have on her husband?

3. What does the can-can symbolize in the story?

4. Do you think the husband will continue the affair?

5. Have the husband and wife learned anything from the episode?

6. How is adultery viewed in your country?

2. Glen collects the papers and creates groups according to how you voted.
Students who agree that adultery should be punished by law will work
together and students who disagree will work together.

3. The man in the 'Can-Can' story is going to trial for his adultery.
There are two groups of lawyers:
(1) Prosecution lawyers who want to punish the man.
(2) Defense lawyers who want to defend the man.

4. Prosecution lawyers:
In your group, you must explain why you think the man should be punished.
You must also decide on what kind of punishment the man should receive.
Remember to choose a leader, notekeeper, and speaker in your group.
Make sure everyone in the group has a chance to speak their opinion.
Help the speaker prepare a good presentation.

Defense lawyers:
In your group, you must clearly explain why you think the man should not be
punished. Make a list of reasons.
Remember to choose a leader, notekeeper, and speaker in your group.
Make sure everyone in the group has a chance to speak their opinion.
Help the speaker prepare a good presentation.

5.Speakers in the group make their presentation. Other groups listen/compare

Irony of expression occurs when a person says one thing but really means something else, often the opposite. Consider the following two short dialogues:

Student A: (Showing a photograph of the sun setting behind a beautiful mountain with the sky full of reds, oranges, and purples.) Well, do you like it? What do you think?

Student B: Very pretty!

Student B: Very pretty.

Of course, in the second dialogue, Student B is speaking ironically. He means the opposite of what he says. His tone of voice, and probably the look on his face, is very different form the first "Very pretty!".

Sometimes irony of expression will contain a double meaning, one meaning for the speaker and another different meaning for the listener. For example, a man is having dinner with his enemy and is planning to kill him. But the enemy does not know that the man dislikes him and that he is planning to kill him. The man has secretly put poison in his enemy's glass of wine. The man stands up and proposes a toast: "Let's drink to your health and to your long life!".

Irony of situation occurs when a person expects something to happen but the opposite happens. For example, a woman is going on a blind date and has been told that the man she will meet is tall and handsome. She is very excited to meet him but on meeting him in the coffee shop she discovers that he is actually very short and unattractive.

A car like hers, and yet not like hers -- no luggage rack on it. The smooth hardtop gave him a peculiar pleasure. (lines 45-46)

Here we have an ironic contrast between the husband's earlier excited anticipation of the meeting and his surprising feeling of relief that it is not his lover's car arriving.

Task: Pick out and explain several othe examples of irony in the story.