Teaching irony in literature

During chapter 2, the topic of irony was brought up and it got my attention because it provoked a number of different thoughts about irony and how it's perceived and interpreted. First of all, irony can be viewed very subjectively. Some of us may read a text about a pig who's favorite food is bacon and find it very....ironic; however, there are other people that may say, well, what's the big deal if the pig likes bacon. In this way, it's subjective, what may be ironic for one person may be normal for another. I find that as a result, it could be difficult to teach irony to students since they could have differing opinions. As a future language teacher, my classes will likely focus more on grammar than on reading novels, but I can appreciate the challenge that is irony in a reading assignment. I believe it to be easier for older students to understand because irony requires a higher understanding and a more advanced thought process because it requires students to connect two or more things and to find the similarity. This goes back to what was in chapter 2, on page 42, the teacher talks about how workshop students had a hard time identifying irony on their own. On page 43, they discuss teaching irony to two different classes in different age groups and how the students from both classes picked up on the irony through the use of comics and short stories. Irony can completely change the meaning of a text and how we interpret it which is why it's so interesting. It gives us multiple lenses through which we can read. Sometimes the irony is clear, and other times it requires a lot of analysis to pick it out, either way, irony is very interesting as well as potentially challenging for a future English teacher. One other little thing is sometimes people can't differentiate irony and sarcasm, so I have included a link describing the difference.
http://scepticalprophet.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/difference-between-sarcasm-and-irony/