Interesting bit of synchronicity here. Let me explain, and then make some comments on the chicken bone assignment.
In English classes, in addition to the expected grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary studies, there is a good amount of reading and discussing of high quality literature. It should without saying that the greater a person's empathetic capacity is, the more likely that that person will be able to understand literary artistic excellence, such as characterization and even irony. If students occasionally go through exercises in which they empathize with either a character or a real life person in an unusual way, the student will begin--with encouragement and direction from a well-meaning teacher--to look at life through other people' eyes, whether fictional or otherwise.
OK. End of mini-lecture and on to assignments to increase empathetic ability:
For example, my kids this fall interviewed each other, took notes, went home, examined their notes, and returned to class to deliver a speech in which they presented themselves as the person they interviewed. This is an example of a basic exercise in developing empathetic awareness. Ninth grade boys presented themselves as girls and vice versa. At first, the speeches were chuckled over--the first couple of speeches. But that initial laughter died down quickly as the audience began to listen to the interesting tales their classmates told about each other--but delivered in first person. Their next public speech, due first class after Thanksgiving, will be a second first person narrative speech, but this time they will present themselves as a character in a book they've read for an oral report. Bonus points given for dressing as the character and having a prop or two.
Now on to the chicken bone. I, too, as assuming this assignment came out of the English class--and, because I like to write, if I were a student, I could have a good time imagining being a chicken bone in a baggie for several days. It could be a very depressing narrative because I might end up in the city dump--or perhaps it could end positively as someone tosses me into the woods, freeing me to become one with the land as I disintegrate. If the assignment was to show in this narrative diary how I was like a mummy, well, I suppose plastic baggies preserve to some extent. I suppose I could do a little research and find out how long I would be preserved in that baggie. Might be interesting to contact a baggie company and talk to a rep.
The value of the assignment would be to imagine origins, development, personal history (of the bone), prospects, potential climax, and denouement. At least, the assignment could be an early attempt at first person narrative--and without having to worry very much about character development. The writer could focus on sequence of the narration and various crises for the bone, and it would probably be fun to decide whether this was a serious or comical bone--a bone of great angst or a Dave Berry bone.
If the assignment is simply as you've stated it: write a diary of a chicken bone in a baggie--well, that's an easy narrative to attack and one in which the writers could use their imaginations scientifically, tragically, or humorously.
Ethically, this assignment would cause some students to consider the lives of chickens--and, who knows, you might consequently end up with a few more vegetarians.
Here's the synchronicity I promised way up top:
When I was talking to my ninth graders today about their first person narrative book report, I said, "You do not have to be the main character. You could choose to speak through one of the main character's relatives or friends. You could speak through the voice of a minor character who observed what was going on. In fact, you could choose to speak through an inianimate object that was present during one of the critical scenes, but..." (I warned them) "...you would have to be very creative in order to pull off a book report told in the voice of a table or a gun or even a room."
And tonight! I read a parent complaining about an assignment in which a student must write the diary of a chicken bone! I'll mention this assignment to my students to let them know that students in a GT program had to write through the voice of a bone.
Remember that method acting in which actors had to be bacon frying on stage?
Anyway, I like the chicken bone assignment although I wouldn't give it to my own students because I would want them to be able to choose their own character--or inanimate object--to narrate through a diary. But I might offer the chicken bone assignment as a bonus assignment out of curiosity what the kids would create.
