In a world of sameness, one boy will discover the power of choice.
Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect society—no pain, no war, no choices. Everything is assigned: jobs, families, even emotions are controlled. But when Jonas is chosen as the next Receiver of Memory, he begins to uncover the dark truths behind his community’s flawless facade.
As he trains under the mysterious Giver, Jonas learns about love, loss, and the depth of human experience. Faced with a decision that could change everything, he must choose between safety and freedom, between the world he’s always known and the unknown beyond.
The Giver is a haunting, thought-provoking classic that challenges readers to question the cost of a world without pain—and without true happiness.
At the end of the novel, students are left on a cliff hanger!!! Students have the opportunity to look into Lowry's book Gathering Blue which is the second book to The Giver and read it for fun over the summer. In the last 2 weeks of school, students will have one last creative project to make a new ending for Jonas and Gabriel! They will use narrative structures to create an alternative ending for the 2 young protagonists. This can be in a novel structure, picture book structure, or even a graphic novel!
Unit Overview:
Great stories hinge on pivotal moments—of innovation, struggle, triumph, or defeat. Recognizing these moments helps readers connect texts to their own lives and experiences. This Grade 7 unit explores informational texts that highlight life-changing events. Students will examine how a single moment can spark dramatic change the course of their lives or other's lives. By the unit’s end, students will craft an informative essay, using evidence from three texts to illustrate the transformative power of a single moment.
Unit 4: Stories and Reading Samples
-Hitting Big League Fastballs 'Clearly Impossible'
-The Boy who Harnessed the Wind
-An American Plague
-Fever 1793
-Harrison Bergeron
-The Last Human Light
Students will have a Studysync Final. The skills they are tested on are skills that we dive into throughout the unit. Many skills for this test focus on their understanding of key instructional content as well as their ability to write in response to prompts across a series of genres, and comprehend informational and literary texts.