Why not bring humor into the English class?

 

    "But why do I have to go? School is not fun!” That quote could be from a child, asking his mom why he has to go every single day to this place that he was told was going to be a lot of fun, and it’s not. We know that teachers are not selected or trained to be comedians. However, we know that a positive climate for learning, and enjoyment, is correlated with retention of information.

    Doing some activity this way, could be interesting. How and why? Let's talk about it.  Humor reduces stress and tension in the classroom and promotes creative understanding. But most of all, it brings a sense of pleasure and appreciation and creates a common, positive emotional experience that the students share with each other and the teacher.

How would this activity work?

•Only "no hurt" humor is acceptable.

•Have joke time, we can ask students to bring in jokes to share, either to start the day, to make a transition between break and the following class, or at the end of the day.
•Have a funny dress-up time.
•Build creative and humorous thinking by showing pictures without captions and asking students to create them  individually, in pair-shares, or small groups.

    There is a wide range of activities that can be done; however, we are focusing now on creating a comic strip. To start with it, children should be divided into groups in which they will work together. Once divided, the teacher could revise some jokes before they start working. Then, the groups would draw their comic strip and, here's the main point, they would try to present it to the rest of the class.

 

    Let's add some more enjoyment to class. We need a smile and a little levity in class. It's time for us educators to take humor more seriously.


-Teacher: Where are you from?

-Pupil: Spain

-Teacher: Which part?
-Pupil: All of me!

 
-Teacher: Why were you late this morning?

-Pupil: I squeezed the toothpaste too hard and it took me half an hour to get it all back into the tube again!

 -Teacher: Did you find the exam questions easy?
 -Pupil: Oh yes, I found the questions all right, it’s the answers I couldn’t find!