Theme can be a challenging concept for students. They often confuse it with topics or morals. I find that every year, no matter which grade level I am teaching, I have to go over theme several times to make it stick. For The Giver, I use a three-part lesson plan to teach theme: notes, statements, paragraphs. Notes I start by asking student to make a list of topics from The Giver. After a few minutes, I get them to share their lists, and I write several topics on the board (freedom, individuality, memory, repression, etc.) Once we have a good list to work with, we go through each topic and discuss what the novel says about it. What does The Read More …