Leah's Pony update

A week or so ago I blogged about a story in my reader called "Leah's Pony".  I just had to share this. The story is all about a girl during the Dust Bowl who had to sell her beloved pony to help out her family's farm.  We talked about the girl, her family, the neighbors who come to the family's aid, etc...but one day I told my students that we didn't think about someone else in the story...the pony.  I had a wonderful lesson about point of view and perspective.  Then my students had to pretend they were the pony and had to write how it felt about being sold.  They had to site information from the text in their response.  Here are two examples:

This student said:  "I will feel sad and happy.  I will feel happy because she's doing it for a good cause and I will feel sad because she is leaving me and give it to Mr. B.  I don't want to leave my owner but at least I'm getting a new owner."

 

This student wrote:  "I would be sad if Leah sold me to Mr. B.  I would kind of be happy because she is helping her family.  She is helping her family by selling me and getting money.  She uses the money to buy papa's tractor.  Then everyone buys stuff and fives it to their family and I got my owner back."

 

 

They were so cute writing about this.  They said they never thought about what the pony would feel like when she was sold and then when she was given back to Leah.  What a fantastic discussion on point of view and perspective!  I was so proud of my third graders!