11 Activities for The Giver

Whether you substitute teach or have your own classes, you can never have too many quick activities and assignments on hand to fill the gaps that sometimes arise. Here are 11 good ones that will fit well with The Giver, but can also be used with any novel, play, or short story. And if you really want to save time and reduce your workload, download this full unit plan for The Giver and enjoy stress-free teaching for weeks. 1. Create a Quiz Students create a quiz for the novel, short story, or play being studied. They can use an online quiz-making site like quizyourfriends.com, or do it the old-fashioned way with pen and paper. 2. Character Horoscope Students write a Read More …

Theme Lesson Plan

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 …