HUMOR Trish McCoy Room 203 MMS

 Incongruity (Oxymorons are examples of incongruity or inconsistency: jumbo shrimp, act natural, working vacation.)  An unexpected future or result  Pleasant surprise (When a reader is mildly surprised or tricked, it can be perceived as humorous.)  Emotional chaos remembered in tranquility (It wasn’t funny at the time.)  The reaction to humor may be physiological (laughter), cognitive (internalization, appreciation), emotional (gladness), or a combination of these. What is humor? (Not all stories will have all these characteristics.) It is the presence of one or more of the universal characteristics of humor that make events more likely to be perceived as funny by the observer.

A literature circle is a group of students reading the same book. All groups in the class will be reading the same genre. The groups will meet to read and understand sections, to review for presentations, to discuss the book, to encourage and motivate. Groups are NOT to enable a student to NOT read the book and just gather information from others in the group. This helps no one and will reflect in everyone’s grade! At the end of the section, groups will work together to prepare and present a PowerPoint on their book. The grades for the students will be recorded from the PowerPoint presentation, student participation in the group exercises, and various worksheets and assignments given by the teacher. You MUST read the book in order to achieve passing scores on these assignments. Once you choose a book, it is yours. There will be no switching groups! Only five students per group. Do NOT choose a group simply because your friends are in it. You will be stuck with this book for five to six weeks, and you will have to read it; choose a group by book. What is a literature circle?

Nobody understands Wallace Wallace. This reluctant school football hero has been suspended from the team for writing an unfavorable book report of Old Shep, My Pal. But Wallace won't tell a lie-he hated every minute of the book! Why does the dog in every classic novel have to croak at the end? After refusing to do a rewrite, his English teacher, who happens to be directing the school play Old Shep, My Pal, forces him go to the rehearsals as punishment. Although Wallace doesn't change his mind, he does end up changing the play into a rock-and-roll rendition, complete with Rollerblades and a moped!

Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school. But Natalie has autism, and when she's denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose's family has used for dealing with her disorder. When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble. But she's also strangely irresistible. All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents' expectations, and stay out of trouble. But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away.

Roy Eberhardt is the new kid--again. This time around it's Trace Middle School in humid Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same old routine: table by himself at lunch, no real friends, and thick-headed bullies like Dana Matherson pushing him around. But if it wasn't for Dana Matherson mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the tow-headed running boy. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met tall, tough, bully-beating Beatrice. And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in the lot on the corner of East Oriole Avenue. And if he had never discovered the owls, he probably would have missed out on the adventure of a lifetime. Apparently, bullies do serve a greater purpose in the scope of the universe. Because if it wasn't for Dana Matherson... Carl Hiaasen reads from Hoot

The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant. None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale — the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating — has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.