Is That Supposed to Be Funny? Using Humor in the Classroom and Avoiding the Pitfalls - 1 views
busyteacher.org/-classroom-avoid-pitfalls.html
esol english language learning language learning teaching references humor ideas culture society context history classroom education literature entertainment resources
![](/images/link.gif)
-
generational differences are really cultural differences in societies that undergo rapid change
-
humor is so dependent on culture, on a shared context, and why jokes that have to be explained are probably not going to be funny.
- ...18 more annotations...
-
There is the old apology, “You had to be there” when a “funny” story falls flat. Most of the humor of stand-up comedians is on very specific cultural phenomenon.
-
In one of my reading classes, the text had a reading about the lifework of movie actor/writer/director Woody Allen, who, not surprisingly, the students were not familiar with. So to give a sense of Allen and his work, I explained the synopsis of one of his short films, “Oedipus Wrecks,”
-
If the teacher can lighten the mood with humor, some of the tension dissipates, leaving students more ready to learn.
-
A class that laughs together develops a feeling of goodwill toward each other and can work more productively together.
-
When you learn a society’s humor, how it conveys humor and what it finds funny, you’ve learned quite a lot about its culture
-
hilarious in its use of overly polite, inappropriate language, as in the hotel manager knocking and announcing something like, “Pardon me for intruding, but the building is on fire.”
-
humor, especially sarcasm, should never be directed at students. Sarcasm can be hard to understand, even from someone within one’s own culture, and “mean” humor becomes a barrier to, not a tool for, learning. Direct humor at inanimate objects or situations, not people.