Mariah's Teach This #2

Which text: The Giver by Lois Lowry

            In the novel The Giver, we are introduced to Jonas, an eleven-year-old who lives in this Utopian community. Within this community, Jonas and the other individuals who inhabit it experience no sadness, hunger, or war. However, there are no differences between all the individuals; the people who live there are controlled by “The Elders” in every aspect imaginable. The only way out of this community (they call it being released) is if you’re very sick or if you somehow break the rules.

            The Elders assign each individual a profession when they turn twelve. Jonas goes to the ceremony and is given the honorable job as The Receiver, in which Jonas will gain all the memories—both good and bad—from the old Receiver, who is now called The Giver. These memories go back from when the community experienced pain and sadness, but also fun and diverse memories. This makes Jonas mad and he decides he is going to escape so everyone in the community will be able to have access to these memories (which is made possible if The Receiver leaves the community and goes to The Elsewhere).

            Jonas’ plan does not go as smoothly as he hopes. He bikes away to reach Elsewhere but is beginning to starve to death. He continues on and it starts to snow. Once he finally reaches the top of a hill, he is presented with one of the first memories The Giver has allowed him to experience. He gets over the hill, only to hope at the bottom is Elsewhere and there will be people there to help him and save his community.

Why this text:

            Science fiction is a genre that is so neglected in the school systems in my opinion. I don’t remember once a teacher assigning a text like The Giver as a mandatory read for a class, but instead offering it to my classmates and myself as an option. Butcher and Hinton state “many literature critics dismiss science fiction as a literary genre and consider it unworthy of any serious reader’s time” (189). I find this absurd, for novels like The Giver are very complex in its themes, symbols, and structure of the setting. Science fiction opens up students’ imagination. It allows them to make predictions not only about the storyline but indeed the society they currently live in. Butcher and Hinton break down science fiction books into distinct categories, and I believe The Giver falls perfectly into the Utopia category. This perfect society is “not too far removed from present-day reality” (Butcher & Hinton 192) but indeed poses many problems that Jonas must dig through and the readers will contemplate with.

            The Giver works really well in a classroom because of its literary genius. The complexities of what a Utopian society entails helps the students think twice before they wish all the negatives away in the world which are tolerable. Teachers would be able to show the ugliness of a Utopian society if indeed run like Jonas’ community, however the students would be able to push back using their own knowledge and evidence from the book. The novel possesses qualities of strong themes and symbolism. Students could spend weeks really dissecting what the importance of memory and the differences between pain and pleasure really mean in collaboration with this novel. I could also see students really finding the connections with the symbols presented in this novel. It would require them to not only use their imagination, but be practical.

            With Common Core Standards looming over all our heads, the push for teaching content across the curriculum is encouraged. With novels in the Sci-Fi genre, English teachers could really use their Science teachers for resources. These complex, “otherworldly” ideas can go hand in hand with some science lessons that students might find interesting and connections with the novels they are reading. Though The Giver is not as otherworldly as one might believe when they hear of science fiction, it does contain aspects of historically appropriate material. The ceremonies they perform every year might be challenging for students to understand. Maybe it crosses over with another culture or religion from the past or present (history teachers, I am looking at you!)

            Finally, I believe The Giver should be taught in classrooms because it holds a complex power structure that students will find interesting given the popular series The Hunger Games. While The Giver does not have the same amount of violence—because The Elders do not allow it—it does have a hierarchy structure that should be analyzed deeply and closely. Students can figure out why poor children still exist in a novel when everyone is supposed to be the same. They can look at The Elders and question why they are able to make a set of rules and stipulations about each individual without knowing the personal interests they might have. The amount of political controversy can lead to some great classroom discussion and enlighten other students in the classroom to reconsider their own original thoughts and ideas about the Utopian structure when it is actually in effect.

How to teach this text:

1. Birthday Ceremony

In groups, I would have the students talk about the ceremony that takes place each December in the novel. I would want students to discuss why the ceremony takes place, how the gifts are picked for each child, and what the gift is for the child (this varies depending on the social status of the child’s family). Aside from the December ceremony, the community does not experience birthdays in the same way we do today. I would have students in groups of four write does what do our birthday values say about our society. They will answer this question and compare it to the birthday values listed in The Giver. From there, I would have the students create a new Birthday Ceremony for the students in the school they attend. This activity would not be to separate social classes, but instead be used to pass on POSITIVE traditions of our birthday ceremony onto the “next generation” (aka grade). Students will pick what kind of gifts would be given for the different grade levels, the positive or negative reactions students might experience once given the gift, the setting of where this ceremony would take place, and what would happen once student’s reached their last birthday celebration in the school. Students will present their ceremony to the class the following day.

2. Create your perfect world

This activity will be done individually. Students will write an essay (500-750 words) in which they describe to me their Utopian society they would create. The essay will not have any particular structure, but students will need to address the following criteria:

            -What would you name your society

            -How big would it be? How many people?

            -Who would be in charge of your society?

            -Describe some of the traditions of your society

            -Describe what the landscape and houses would look like in your society

They will also be required to compare or contrast their ideas in relation to The Giver to ensure they read the book and fully understood the concepts of Jonas’ community and the regulations that were placed on it.

3. Half Jonas/Half Giver

Students will draw out what Jonas looks like, his qualities, and his interests on one half of a body. On the other half, students will draw out what the Giver looks like, his qualities, and interests. This will be done on a piece of computer paper that is folded in half. This idea came to me from The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I thought how cool would this be to use for characters to show comparisons and contrasting qualities. This is essentially a fancier and fun way to do a Character Venn Diagram. Students will be given paper, crayons/colored pencils, and have their copy of The Giver to reference back to.

References:

Bucher, Katherina and KaaVonia Hinton. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and            Appreciation. 3^rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. United States: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.