Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.
Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z
participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop
by.
I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets,
golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.
Yes, you read that right -
Dead Dogs
Spoiler alert: if you haven't read the books below - this post constitutes a four legged mortality zone.
I've been teaching in the 5th and 6th grade trenches for over a decade and deceased canines are a reoccurring theme in our grade level kid lit.
You've all heard of -
Grab the tissue - right? I checked to see if my dog was foaming at the mouth for months after I read the book.
Just when I thought it was safe to get attached to my pooch, here comes -
Double dog death here.
My first experience with "Red Fern" was reading it aloud to my class before I'd read it myself. I did some serious "booger crying" when I hit the sad part of that one.
Really - must we subject the kids to offing man's best friend even if the books are beautifully written? So says grade level core literature lists and excerpts appearing in reading texts.
I guess such a theme falls under the "life lesson" category.
Just when I'd vowed to NEVER read a book involving dogs of any kind to my class again, along came redemption -
Gordon Korman is my hero! Wallace Wallace the MC in this book challenges the rampant doggie disasters in the classics. It's a hilarious read and did wonders to bring my students back from the brink of serious DDD - dog death depression.
TAKE AWAY -
Blast an accepted theme to smithereens. I'd love to see Pollyanna or Anne of Green Gables start spewing gloom and doom. Twist a trope and see where it takes you.
Was there a book you read in grammar school that bummed you out?
