How to Write a Funny Essay About a Teacher

Seriously – stories both y'all and your students will laugh out loud reading. Sense of humour varies from person to person, so I have two very different essays in the hopes that you and your students will at least be able to connect to one.

To make certain this is actually useful for everyone, I'm merely including essays that, at the time of posting this, are available for complimentary online. And I'll include a little bit most what I focus on with each to give you a jumping-off indicate.

To be honest, I'yard posting this today as a scrap of a reminder for myself that schoolhouse tin be fun and funny. Another pandemic year is underway. It won't be easy, but maybe a little bit of humour tin can aid us through it.

What to do with said hilarious short stories and essays? I tend to work with students who struggle with reading and writing. Virtually of my classes are remediation ELA where I have two goals: help them pass the country test and help them learn to love reading again. The humor helps get them through to the practice country test questions I have to give them. I know, I know. Teaching to the test. I hate it, too. But here we are and I know I'm not solitary. The least I can do is requite them engaging material. And maybe, even with the examination questions subsequently, they can rediscover how fun (and funny) stories can be.

A Super-Swish Admirer's Guide to Being a Swish Fellow by Paul Feig

Recognize the name? He's been directing and writing some of my favorites for decades: Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, and the 2016 version of Ghostbusters. His essay reminds me of Freaks and Geeks, one of my favorite shows when I was in high school. It's a personal essay near how he took a chance on one of the most popular girls at school and succeeded in landing his first kiss – just then swiftly did something mortifying that ruined any future kisses from said popular girl. Ouch. Click Here to read his cringe-worthy essay.

Pros:

• curt personal essay
• well-written and relatable
• depression lexile but high engagement

Cons:

• he uses the give-and-take "blooper" 3 times (know your audition and district if you use this)

What to practise with it

Land testing questions, of class. Booooo. Yup. Agreed. I only requite one-half-a-dozen multiple selection questions that are heavily modeled afterwards the PA Keystones test they'll soon be taking.

Now for the fun part: have your students use this as a model for their own personal essays. Point out some of Feig'due south style techniques and have your students do like paragraphs or unabridged essays. Maybe they don't desire to write about their virtually embarrassing love-life experiences. Understandable. But there'south a solid paragraph here (or three) where Feig is unsure about something and he sprinkles in questions he'south asking himself as he weighs his options. Give students a prompt about an important determination they had to brand (or unimportant like what to swallow for dejeuner) and challenge them to lucifer his humor with their internal questions peppered in the paragraph(s).

Big Boy by David Sedaris

Please notation that I will NEVER talk about funny authors without including David Sedaris. And then here I am, defiling my nice listing of memoir-style narratives with an essay about a behemothic poop referred to as "big male child," "the biggest slice of work I've always seen," "beast," "monster," and "homo-made object." In fact, I'm the lowly writer here using the term poop while Sedaris never does in his slice. He'due south classy like that. Click Hither to read this fabulously classy piece.

Pros

• relatable slice
• extremely funny
• super brusque
• lots of figurative language

Cons

• information technology'due south an essay about poop
• David reading is own work is always preferable since he has killer delivery, but I don't see this with the same wording anywhere. Not really a con, more of a bummer.

What to do with it?

Definitely dive into all the figurative language he's woven through the piece. Have the students read only the first few lines near the lovely Easter dinner he's almost to have and then approximate what will come next based on the title and mood of the setting. Talk about how ironic the rest of the story is in comparing.

Like to Feig he includes his thoughts which add together to the humor in the slice. Have students depict a seemingly pocket-sized problem and so include dramatic thoughts and statements. The climax in this story is impressive given its topic. The reader is practically sweating forth with Sedaris even though the actual situation is not life-or-death. Examples of times people get really panicky? In a dressing room with something too tight that may never come off your torso without you Hulking out of it. Wearable malfunction like ripped pants or a well-placed stain while you're at a wedding or some other formal matter. There merely needs to be a state of affairs where ane person is having a underground melt-down in a very public setting while no one around them notices information technology.

Want More?

Me, too! But I'thou having the worst time finding anything appropriate and available, for gratuitous (not breaking copyright laws). So I'd love to hear suggestions if you have whatsoever.

I'll go on updating this mail service as your suggestions come in and I'grand hoping to eventually accept some worksheets to go with these that are worthy of posting online.

Love bringing laughter into the classroom? Me, besides! Bank check out these other posts on humorous lessons:

David Sedaris's reading of his Santaland Diaries

Hilarious Ted Talks

Using Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the classroom

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Source: https://engagingandeffective.com/seriously-funny-essays-for-high-school-students/

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