A Confederacy of Dunces Lesson Plan

John Kennedy Toole and Jonathan Swift

Kind of Activity:

Group Discussion

Objective:

Students will compare two text written in the same tradition and discuss their commonalities and differences.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.6

Structure:

It is clear from its title that A Confederacy of Dunces was inspired by the work of the satirist, Jonathan Swift. In this activity, students will read A Modest Proposal by Swift and discuss where they see Swift's influence in Toole's writing. A copy of the full text with a helpful glossary can be found at readwritethink.org or via this link: A Modest Proposal. (If you wanted to extend this lesson into a more in-depth...