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Post by Mr. Sharpe on Dec 29, 2022 22:32:15 GMT -5
Greetings all-
I hope the holiday season has been treating you well and you were able to be with the people you love.
In the last few months, I have been extremely busy as a first year middle school English teacher. With my honors students, I decided to assign Poison for Breakfast for their first novel of the year. I had such a wonderful time reading it aloud and discussing it with my students. These kids were born after ASOUE was released and, consequently, few have read the books, though many are familiar with the Netflix series. This meant that PFB was the first Snicket most of them have ever read. I received extreme and wide-ranging reactions to the book from the students, mostly regarding Lemony Snicket's narrative voice.
They would say things like:
"He thinks he is smarter than he is" and "He is creepy." Others found his voice charming, with one student asking to take a class copy home to read in his own time.
I assigned several writing activities to go along with the book including a letter to the author and writing an alternate ending to the story (many students were unsatisfied with the ending and were sincerely hoping Snicket would, in fact, die). One assignment that I am especially proud of creating asked students to come up with a "third rule" to go along with "add an element of surprise" and "leave out certain things". This was challenging for them because it forced them to think deeply about literature and dissect what makes a story really work.
Like I said, this book produced a polarizing reaction from the students but, despite many students hating it, they were mostly happy to be exposed to a book that is something different from what they are used to and gave them an introduction to philosophy.
I wanted to share this as an encouragement to you all that I am doing my best as an educator to help young people discover the world of Snicket even though it doesn't seem to get as much press as it used to.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Dec 30, 2022 5:18:40 GMT -5
Congratulations! That must have been a very interesting experience for you. I think Daniel Handler, when writing for children, manages to create effects that significantly mark a person's life. It's not perfect literature, but the imperfections almost miraculously manage to make the works even more impactful. It's almost like preparing a sole cake, but it turned out to be very tasty. Your friends will forever remember that cake because it was quirky and made with love, even if it was imperfect.
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Post by R. on Dec 30, 2022 9:11:43 GMT -5
My dream of Snicket books being taught in schools has been finally fulfilled. Also, those students who wanted Lemony dead are based.
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