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Situational Irony

Situational Irony
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.22

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    outing, identify, ironic, original, recall, tests, shift, paragraph, opposite, reader, allow, dread, expect, often, shocked, copy
     content words:    Frank Asch, Marcia Brown, Could Always, Margo Zemach, Red Chief

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Situational Irony
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     
        Darcy chattered about the costume party all week. Everyone was invited! Then her mother came home with a costume. Darcy stared at it. Was it a joke? She could never wear something so lame. It was a fuzzy bunny costume!

She went to the party. Darcy's face burned as she stood at the door. Her friends wore cool costumes. They came as rock stars and movie monsters. She felt stupid. They made her compete in the costume contest. She knew everyone was going to laugh at her.

In a surprise twist, the grand prize went to Darcy! Her bunny costume was the most original one at the party!		             

 
2     The story above is an example of irony. More specifically, it is situational irony. This type of irony is common in stories. Can you spot the irony? It is in the last paragraph. Do you see it? It is ironic that Darcy didn't want to dress up as a bunny, but then she won the contest. She thought the costume was bad, but it turned out to be the best in the end. There were too many rock star and movie monster costumes to choose one of them. No one else came as an animal. Darcy ended up having a great time at the party.
 
3     Situational irony is when something happens that is the opposite of what the reader or audience expected. Didn't you expect Darcy to have a terrible time at the party? Didn't you think she might get a different costume? You never thought she would win a prize, but she did.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
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