Message from syamada

[Anonymous]

I read the engaging comic strip stories about filial devotion in our seminar materials. My heart bled for the couple willing to bury their son alive so there would be one less mouth to feed and the grandmother could be saved from dying of starvation. Their reasoning: "We can have another child but not another mother." I may be able to use a similar format to give my Strategic Literacy students a lesson on Chinese philosophy, word meaning and structure of a short story. These stories all had characters, conflict, plot, a climax, and a resolution. Students can be asked to learn the parts of a short story and create dialogue reflecting their understanding of the phrase "filial devotion." (Related lessons could include journal topics about family loyalty and sacrifice, parts of speech, root words, and suffixes.)