The Giver & This Week's Articles

THE GIVER

A world without pain, a world without loss, a world without hunger, a world without evil...

A world without color, a world without love, a world without happiness, a world without memory...

This book is a classic. I read it for the fist time in seventh grade, and I just completed it my second time. Though I loved it when I first read, I think I fell even more in love with Lowry's complex themes, characters, and symbols that she uses throughout the book. While reading, I couldn't help but be reminded of The Hunger Games series as well as The City of Ember series. I feel as though both have certain elements of fate and assignment, as The Giver. I would most certainly use this book in my classroom- I think it opens up a multitude of deeper questions and potential discussions that can have great impact on the way my future students see life- their own lives and life in general. 

I think the most important idea that The Giver introduces is the power and implications that memories bring upon an individual, a group, and a society. It is not often that we think of memories as being powerful. They are simply facts of life- we are able to remember certain things more than others, we wish we could forget somethings, we wish we could remember others... As I was reading this book, I tried to think about a world without memory. At first, I thought how sad it would be. I wouldn't remember what it felt like to love. I wouldn't remember my best friends from childhood or my best vacations. Then, I did some research on Lowry and her reasons for writing about such a filed Utopia. After barely scratching the surface, I found out that Lowry came up with such a society without memory after experiencing her father's loss of long term memory, as an elderly man. Then I thought about what it would be like to have a world without memories a bit deeper. A world without memory would also mean a world without pain. This is something I pondered for a while: Is a world without pain better than a world with memory and joy? Does the severity of pain outweigh the happiness that memories can bring? In the book, the members of the community choose to live a sort of Utopian life style- free of war and hunger... But they take it one step further- they design a world free of pain and hurt and regret. In order to do so, bad memories had to be released. Through the hardships and struggles, Jonas is able to see the importance of the memories with which he has been bestowed. Though some of them are painful, he relies on the happier, joyous ones to make his family's life easier by consoling Gabriel. I have experienced a lot of pain in my life, as most others have, and I would LOVE to forget some of the memories... but, as the book, implies... memories are necessary. They are imperative to life. Without them, we are certain to live a boring life without errors or stress. Without mistakes, we can never learn. 

I am certainly excited to use this book in my future classroom. I hope it will inspire students to question their individuality and who they wish to become in the world, in addition to questioning the idea of a Utopian society. 

"The Challenge of Challenging Tasks"

I loved this article. It really speaks to language arts teachers who wish to inspire a love for reading in all of their students, even those who have difficulty reading challenging books. We so often discuss that fact that kids are choosing NOT to read- but we sometimes forget about answering the "why" question... Why aren't students reading? Sometimes, it is easy to overlook that some books might simply be too challenging. I think that sometimes we rely to heavily on students' perceived reading levels. First of all, I find assigning reading levels students to be extremely arbitrary and almost unfair. One book might be perceived to be more difficult than other based on opinion. I don't think there's truly a legitimate way to quantify a book or a students reading ability. I definitely like that the article highlighted the importance of vocabulary. In 8th grade, I had biweekly vocabulary tests- and I am SO thankful for them. Without them, I wouldn't know words like, "concise", "mundane", or "meticulous". Students can certainly benefit from a wide range of knowledge in the English language.

"Text Complexity"

We talked about Lexile Scores in Rhett's class week, and I'm still not entriely convinced. I don't know if that makes me stupid or jaded... but I really don't think Lexile scores can determine whether or not students can or cannot read a given book. 

Aside from that little note, I find it very perplexing that textbooks are written below grade level. Obviously, that's detrimental to students going to college. I remember taking college Biology here at UGA and being completely awestruck at the wording. It was so much more advanced than my high school textbooks. I think, as a future teacher, I will not heavily rely on Lexile scores. To the best of my ability, I will make reading decisions based upon the INDIVIDUALS in my classroom. 

"Reversing Readicide"

As a student in the middle grades education program, we talk a great deal about authenticity in the classroom. We want to make lesson plans and activities that are relevant to students' lives. The mindset of "Is that going to be on the test?" is no good. Rather, students should be interested in making classroom material important lessons in their everyday lives. In order to do this, teachers must be diligent in selecting texts that are interesting to students and that matter to them. For example, students could certainly read online news articles and compare and contrast them to a given historical excerpt from a historical fiction book that is assigned for class reading.