The Giver by Lois Lowry

“The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. [from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]” ― Lois Lowry

Grade Level: 6

Objective:  Student will begin reading The Giver, reflecting on character development, setting, symbolism, and writer intent.

So far we've:
-Read Chapters 1-4 of The Giver out loud, pausing to reflect on setting, foreshadowing, and charecter development
-Compiled a list of memories, the sensory details associated with those memorys, and the emotions they evoke
-Defined "utopia" and "dystopia" and reflected on those definitions
-Wrote a piece of creative nonfiction in the style of Lois Lowry
-Discussed symbolism and the role of symbols in The Giver

K's reflection on his idea of utopia:
"My vision of utopia would be a place where the government is not all greedy and listens to the needs of the people and does something about what is wrong--a place where everyone is treated equally and everyone is giving to those in need."


Washington State Standards Covered:

Reading:

-Students are able to build and integrate new vocabulary

-Students are able to apply word recognition skills to gain fluency.  Students are able to read grade level texts aloud smoothly and expressively.

-Students are able to demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension through their understanding of theme, main, and supporting ideas. 

-Students are able to apply prior knowledge to a reading, connecting the text to current or cultural events.

-Students are able to predict and infer, citing textual examples to support their inferences.

-Students are able to use comprehension monitoring strategies, including generating and answering questions and creating a graphic organizer 

-Students are able to summarize of the main ideas in a text.

-Students are able to understand time and sequence in a text (for example, explaining foreshadowing in a work of fiction or steps in nonfiction)

-Students are able to identify the point of view used (first, third, or omniscient point of view) in a story and identify themes in the story.  Students are familiar with story elements (character, setting, conflict)

-Students understand the functions of literary devices, recognizing previously taught literary devices (simile, personification, humor, metaphor, idiom, imagery, exaggeration, irony, sarcasm, and dialogue)

-Students are able to analyze how an author’s style of writing, including language choice, achieves the author’s purpose and influences the author's target audience.

-Students are able to think critically and analyze author’s use of language, style, purpose, and perspective in informational and literary text, verifying facts for bias and accuracy.

Writing:

-Students know how to write in a variety of modes including writing to analyze, writing to learn, and writing to entertain.
-Students can write in many genres, tracking the genres they've used in a writing log.

-Students analyze ideas, selects a manageable topic, and elaborates using specific, relevant details and/or examples.

-Students chose appropriate voice and tone for their writing genre and audience
-Students display a rich vocabulary and uses both literary and poetic devices to enrich their writing
-Students vary sentence structure, length, and cadence.
-Students apply capitalization, spelling, and usage conventions, using references to verify the correctness of their work