The Giver - Middle School Unit Lessons and Activities

Anticipation Guide:

1. Ignorance is bliss.
2. Memories can be transferred from one person to another.
3. It is best to forget painful memories.
4. Pain must exist in order for creativity and imagination to exist.
5. Without memories, knowledge is meaningless.
6. Good memories can only be enjoyed if they are shared with someone else.
7. It is better to have the option to make a wrong choice than not to have any choices at all.
8. It is better to have security than freedom.

Additional texts:
"Lois Lowry's Newberry Acceptance Speech, June 1994"

• Select one of the memories Lois Lowry shares in her acceptance speech. Summarize how the memory is portrayed in The Giver. Then explain how Lois Lowry uses and alters her memories to create a section of The Giver. Provide details from both texts to support your response.

Chapter 1

• Identify the multiple locations the word "released" is used. It is repeated, but the meaning of the word changes over the course of the text. Determine the meaning of the word at each point in the text. Compare/Contrast definitions.
• Have students compare Jonas' community to their own.

Chapters 2-8

• Identify various references to "eyes" and "seeing" (chapter 3).
• What patterns are developing?

Chapters 9-11

• Hunger Games film clip - "the reaping" scene..... Discuss the elimination of personal choice.
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