Humor Writing: Activities for the English Classroom

by Bruce A. Goebel

In an educational environment of high-stakes tests and school accountability, humor has been virtually banned from the classroom. That’s a shame, and perhaps a mistake, since student success depends on engagement, and young adults seem to be naturally drawn to comic media. How can you take advantage of your students’ interest in humorous material? According to Bruce A. Goebel, incorporating humor writing into the classroom not only reduces student anxiety but also provides them with an opportunity to study and practice the careful and effective use of language. Divided into four chapters―(1) Humorous Words, Phrases, and Sentences, (2) Funny Stories and Essays, (3) Light Verse, and (4) Parody―the book offers more than 150 activities you can use to help students develop writing skills in voice, word choice, style, and organization while exploring a variety of genres. Depending on your purpose and needs, you can either sprinkle brief lessons throughout your instructional units or create an extended humor writing unit. Perhaps most important, these activities offer students the rare opportunity to express their creative, divergent-thinking sides in an increasingly serious classroom space.

151 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book a while ago, when I was interested in expanding the kinds of writing my students were doing in my high school English classroom. Unfortunately, things got busy and I never got around to it. Now that I'm in a school district that, in part, values fictional writing in the required English courses, I thought it was a good time to pick it up.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a serious book this is, despite its cover and subject matter. Goebel does a nice just of synthesizing a variety of sources, not to mention his own writing experience and teaching experience, to break down humor writing for a basic high school classroom. He covers different types of humor, the writer moves that go with each, and suggests activities to do in the classroom for each bit of content he offers. I don't know that I would be as successful as him in drawing students out, but I believe that his suggestions for doing so would help give me confidence in doing so.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas for classrooms. Some of it is just an angle on what teachers might already be doing, but some of it is fresh. And the idea of humor in an English class? Very nice.