Broken Promises

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer is about two friends, Joel and Tony, who decide to go swimming after Joel promised his father he would stay in the park. While they are there Joel dares Tony to swim out to a sandbar in which Tony drowns and dies. This story is an event that I could see many young people encountering. I could see a young person telling their parents they were doing one thing, and then doing something they didn’t mention, in this case swimming, with no intention of anything bad happening. Then when they least expect it, someone gets serious hurt or worse, like in this book dies. I think this book teaches a good lesson to students about the importance of keeping your promises and telling your parents where you are going. I also think it shows them that they would never want feel like they were responsible for hurting or even killing a close friend. Joel has to live with what he did and it will forever haunt him.

Web resources for teachers:

·         Connections, Activities and more!

·         A Guide to On My Honor- Pre-reading, prediction guide by chapter, comprehension check, discussion guide, and projects, you get to all this information by clicking on classroom guide.

Vocabulary: Again for this book the vocabulary wasn’t particularly hard, so I would have the students write down the words they struggle with individually, with a definition and the sentence from the book with the word in it.

Before Reading: I will ask students to tell me what it means if you tell someone “on my honor”? Then I would ask them if they promised their parents’ they wouldn’t do something should they keep their promise and why? Then I would ask what do you think could happen if you don’t keep your promise? After asking these questions, I will tell them that the book we are going to read is about two friends Joel and Tony. Joel promises his dad that he is just going to the park, but he lies. Then I will ask them to write a short paragraph on what they think might happen. Then they may begin reading the book.

During Reading: I will have a class discussion using the discussion questions and comprehension questions from the online guide, but don't forget to click on classroom guide.

After Reading: I will have my students write to me about Tony’s death, telling me if they think it was  it’s Joel’s fault or who they think is responsible. I also think they should tell me what they think they wuld have done if they were in Joel’s situation.