1. Let’s Have Some Pun Using humor and comic visuals to aid in remembering new vocabulary

2. Humor & Memory The old saying goes, “Laughter is the best medicine” – so can it be the best medicine to help remember things like vocabulary? When studying people’s response to advertisements, it was revealed that ads which used humor or jokes were retained in memory longer than serious ads that did not activate laughter or other emotions.

3. The But of the Joke Research hasn’t yet linked humor directly to better memory in students or to higher grades. HOWEVER… Researchers do think that humor activates other brain centers that react strongly to surprise, rehearsal, and absurdity.

4. Element of Surprise If humor doesn’t directly help memory retention, the essential surprise of humor can create a “memorable” moment. The rehearsal of humor also helps memory – like when you’re trying to say the joke perfectly. Also, think of how many times you repeat a joke or something funny that was said. This rehearsal may certainly help you remember the context of the humor.

5. OMG, did she just say that? Humor’s “strangeness” also can have an affect on memory. Teens are sensitive to humor. They’re trying to develop their own sense of it by trying out different ways of being funny. You have to establish trust first before trying out advanced humor (like sarcasm) or puns. While teens won’t always think the teacher is hilarious, just doing something ridiculous or out of character sticks with them. Surprise and suspense are good for them!

6. Engaging the Brain Cognitive and affective sides of humor Cognitive – “understanding the joke” Brain pathways distinguish between the situational context and the surprising outcome Affective – “appreciating the humor” Brain pathways involved in processing and the expression of the effect Moran et al. (2003). Neural correlates of humor detection and appreciation. NeuroImage, 21( 2004), 1055-1060.

7. Left & Right Brain The left hemisphere of the brain may be responsible for organizing information so that the joke is understood (logic). The right hemisphere of the brain may be responsible for the emotional processing of the joke in the surprise context (creative/emotional). Moran et al. (2003). Neural correlates of humor detection and appreciation. NeuroImage, 21( 2004), 1055-1060.

8. Your Brain on Humor

9. Actually… It looks more like this:

10. fMRI of Laughter

11. TedX Talk – The Power of Laughter The Power of Laughter - Steven Mazan “A reset button for your soul.” - Social constructs and sharing - Memorizing the joke - Relieves stress - Forgetting about problems and stressors - Approach problems with a new perspective

12. “Any attempts to prove memory by using humor should integrate the humor as closely as possible within the information to be remembered, so that the memory of the humor will constrain reconstruction of the relevant information.” (Summerfelt et al., 2010, p. 392)

13. Enter the Mighty Pun Puns are a fun play on words which engage humor. Puns cause people to concentrate on the words to understand their double meaning/double entendre.

14. Fear Not the Pun First of all, be prepared for groans and eye rolls. Be prepared for the “I don’t get it” kids. Some of them are still concrete thinkers and don’t understand yet what the other side of the joke is. Help them gently with puns so they gain confidence with them. If they don’t get it, it’ll be a great chance to explain the implications of the words and why it’s actually a pun.

15. A little more science… Even if the use of humor and improved memory are not solidly linked yet by brain research, having students look at visual examples of humor (comics, GIFS, memes, etc.) can stimulate memory through sight. To further cement in a concept, having students create an artistic representation for a lesson (say, vocabulary) will now activate visual and creative impulses. If the image is supposed to be funny, imagine the emotions engaged in a lesson like that!

16. Practical Application As a language arts teacher, I’m in charge of instilling a proper love of English grammar and vocabulary into my (un)willing 7 th grade students. Instead of simply going with the “here’s the list, memorize it” tactic, why not incorporate puns into learning grammar or vocabulary words?

17. Homophones One thing my students struggle with (especially if they are ESL/ELL) are English language homophones – those confusing words that sound alike but are spelled differently and mean different things. Equally evil are homographs – words that are spelled the same but sound different when said and have different meanings. This is one of my first grammar lessons every fall, and homophones are on every vocab test throughout the year. Yet, my students still didn’t use them properly in their writing and confused them until…

18. The Root to Success …I started using puns for brain breaks or morning openers. I thought they were funny, even really ridiculous, with no real application to class. I just wanted to wake them up at 8:00. Until one day, a student brought in this pun:

19. One of my “I don’t get it” students pointed out that “hare” was a homophone for “hair.” He had an “oh” magic bulb moment. He understood both what a homophone was and how puns worked. He laughed – for once. Suddenly, he was bringing in a lot of puns to class and using those to learn proper use of homophones.

20. A New Vocab List Considering how many centers in the brain are activated by humor, I’m now armed with a better way to help students learn integral concepts like homophones and to remember the definitions of vocabulary words. And, even if humor isn’t the reason why they learn the words, the visual image attached to the humor (or, specifically, the pun), will be a good backup strategy.

21. Class Activity Pair students up randomly. Assign each pair a set of homophones. Give them a piece of computer paper. Have them fold it in half hamburger-style. Now, try to create a pun based on the set of words. They should use an image as well – either drawn or from the web, but the pun should be their own. Display them in the classroom.

23. Other Activities with Puns Ask students to correct the homophones that should be used in the pun. Have them look up alternate meanings of a word and create a word tree. Explore more complex words with puns (like pandemonium). Explore alternative meanings of words from the puns. Have students explain why it was used in that context.