The Giver - Lois Lowry

As you can imagine, there are many free educational resources online for The Giver.  A simple google search will yield many good ideas - I listed my top 3 resources here:

University of Missouri features a large collection of speeches, worksheets, and activities to engage your students in this classic.

Read Write Think offers several online tools to introduce descriptive writing. Seven 50 minute lessons are included here.

15 days worth of lessons here, including downloads of the test, worksheets, activities, etc.

How do you connect your students to The Giver? What was your favorite assignment?

Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak shed's light on many serious issues facing adolescents.  If you want to take this novel as an opportunity to address sexual harassment, this lesson plan  provides a host of resources as well as activities that enable students to gain a deeper insight of how sexual harassment affects both boys and girls.


If you prefer to keep it more academic/literary focused, this detailed lesson plan is great - abundant with objectives, activities, vocabulary, journal topics, interdisciplinary connections, and much more. 


15 days worth of lessons/activities for Speak can be found here. Don't let the text at the top intimidate you - scroll down for the lesson plan, which is very neatly organized per day. 


Have you taught this book in your class? How did it go? What engaged your students? 

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

You know Hunger Games is good when there is a blog dedicated entirely for teaching this book. Lots of inspirational ideas on how to go above and beyond with this book, including free downloads as well as the opportunity to purchase a comprehensive lesson plan.

If you just need some essay prompts or creative project ideas, visit Novel Novice.

Enjoy a Literary Smackdown between the Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies. Have the students read both books (or choose one) and compare.  This could be a great segway into debate and persuasive writing.  

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Perth International Arts Festival provides many great pre-reading ideas as well as interactive activities that engage the senses.

Ed Helper features a multitude of worksheets pertaining to the book, including vocabulary building, discussion questions, etc.

This 6th grade literature unit on the Book Thief includes some ideas for engaging the book across the curriculum.  I especially like the "Science Activity" - have students choose recipes and create a meal out of Jewish recipes from the era of the book and invite student's family to share the meal.  Also includes a day by day guide.

Whirligig - Paul Fleischman

The Heroic Journey - ten day detailed lesson plan with movie, short story, poem and news articles to further engage concepts in Whirligig.

This lesson plan walks carefully through every chapter with a lot of room for students to get into the shoes of the various characters and see the story through their perspectives.  Final project includes designing a whirligig with many links to examples. 

Randon House's Teacher's Guide gives ideas on how to engage this book across disciplines and suggests other books dealing with similar themes of belonging, guilt, forgiveness, and self discovery/coming of age. 

Seedfolks

Paul Fleischman's Seedfolks provides a solid introduction to community and the content lends well to introduce students to service learning. 


Guide to Teaching Fleischman's Seedfolks is a great general resource, including discussion questions and activities across the curriculum.


I like Scholastic's Lesson Extension, but I think it would be ideal to pair the discussion with hands on experience. Are there any community garden's nearby that you could visit, learn about its origin/life, and help out at?  Are there any community projects happening that your class could participate in?  Find local volunteer opportunities at Hands on Portland or Volunteer Match.  After volunteering, discuss the origins of the project and the role their actions have in the greater picture.  


Or take a holistic approach to the book and let the student create their own Seedfolks story by researching their family history, writing their own chapter and creating a class community garden. This is definitely my favorite!