So are you a fan of The Oatmeal? No, not oatmeal that you eat, but THE Oatmeal? He’s my favorite web comic. I own his book, which he autographed! What can I say, he just speaks to me. He’s ridiculous!

He has this great post entitled Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling. The words are:

1. Lose/Loose
2. Weird
3. Their/They’re/There
4. Your/You’re
5. It’s/Its
6. Definitely
7. Effect/Affect
8. Weather/Whether
9. A lot
10. Then/Than

It’s true – people DO need to stop misspelling these words. It’s pretty very annoying.

Here’s a sample:

I know my 8th graders would find this absolutely stinking hilarious.

You can purchase the poster for $20, which he says is perfect for the classroom. So here’s my question: Would you post this in an 8th grade classroom?

There is a reference to alcohol, an alien that keeps ‘crapping,’ the word ‘crap,’ referring to misspellers as ‘a-hole,’ and hemorrhoids (but that’s just funny, right?).  I mean, good common sense says NO. Maybe this would pass as appropriate in a high school classroom, but 8th grade is just skirting the line?

I wonder if he would ever consider making a few revisions for our younger adolescents. I could see this having a really big impact on my students who would identify with the humor and forget that they were supposed to be learning something. This kind of humor is right up their alley.

He has some other great grammar tools including:
* How to use a semicolon – I see no problems with this one for the classroom
* The Three Most Common Uses of Irony – reference to smoking crack, virginity, ‘sh*t’  🙁
* When to use i.e. in a sentence – No problems with this one either
* How To Use An Apostrophe – No problems

What are your thoughts on using these webcomics as learning tools for adolescents? Please post in the comments below.