Utopia or Dystopia?
Viewing the World from the Eyes of Those in the Giver
What if You Lost a Memory?
The members of the community in The Giver do not have memories, but the Giver does. The Giver is now giving all of the memories of the past, such as war, love, snow, etc. to Jonas, who is now the receiver. Once he gives the memories away he no longer has them himself. We had the students each give away a memory and journal about how they felt to no longer have it. We then, as pictured, had the students select a random memory from the basket of all the students' memories and journal about how it feels to have the memory and the effects it had on them obtaining it.
The Significance or Insignificance of Color
Around the room we hung up pieces of colored construction paper, a set of questions, and a piece of paper for students to express their responses on. The students had interesting responses to how they related to each color and enjoyed reading what their peers thought of that same color.
Documenting Our Thoughts
We have been journaling quite often as we read The Giver. This book makes one think about whether living in a utopian society would be ideal or actually be a dystopia. We have responded in our journals about what it would be like to only see in black and white, what betrayal feels like, etc.
Minor Change
Mrs. Paterna and Miss Christman's weekly parent newsletter will now be bi-weekly. If at any point you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email us at the addresses provided below.
Mrs. Paterna: fpaterna@wdeptford.k12.nj.us
Miss Christman: achristman@wdeptford.k12.nj.us
Mrs. Paterna: fpaterna@wdeptford.k12.nj.us
Miss Christman: achristman@wdeptford.k12.nj.us
The Giver: Audio
We do allow students to listen to the audio version of The Giver; however, they must also follow along in their own novel as they listen.
Character Education: Seedfolks
Once a month we have a half day on a Friday and school wide we will be conducting character education lessons. As an eighth grade class we read Seedfolks, which can be found at the bottom left of this page. In all subject areas (Math, Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts) our lessons will focus on this novel on these half days for the remainder of the year. This month, in Language Arts, we took the Accelerated Reader quiz on the novel and then decorated a flower with our name and something that makes us unique in order to celebrate our differences on a bulletin board. Be sure to ask your child what they wrote on their flower!
Extra Credit!
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