Andy Seburg

Mira Poncin

Amanda Kissman

A TEACHING UNIT-THE HUNGER GAMES

SUMMARY OF BOOK• Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest

district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change, but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. (Collins)

THE BIGGER THEMES DISCUSSED IN THIS UNIT• Power- government control, big brother concept

• Society and Class

• Sacrifice

• Competition- survival

• Love- for self and others

A SURVEY ADDRESSING ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• Give students a survey with statements revolved around themes from the book. Make sure to give the survey before even introducing the novel.

• They are to rate these statements from 1 to 5 (1 being strong disagree and 5 being strongly agree).

• Allow students to talk with others after completing the survey. Discussions comparing and justifying answers can be very interesting.

• “Naturally students will be asked to read lots of pieces of text to which they can bring no related personal experience. Usually, however, they have personal knowledge from movies, television, or other texts they’ve read. For example, I haven't personally experienced war, but I have a lot of personal knowledge about war. I have seen movies about war, watched documentaries, talked with veterans, and read books. True, my concept of war is not as visceral as that of someone who has lived it. Nevertheless, there is a lot of information I can bring to a piece about war that will help me understand it more deeply,” (Tovani, 67).

THEORY TO PRACTICE

I WONDER• Place a large poster with the words “I Wonder” somewhere

in the room.

• Have students write things that they wonder about the text before, during, and after reading.

• For example, before reading students may wonder the following:

• “I wonder why there is a bird on the cover and what it represents.”

• During reading:

• “I wonder if Katniss will be able to get her hands on a bow and arrows when she is in the arena.”

• After reading:

• “I wonder if the capitol will eventually punish Katniss for her last move in the games.”

• It might be a good idea to color coordinate the “I Wonders” based on whether they were before, during, or after reading

I WONDERI wonder this about that.

I wonder this about that.

I wonder this about that.

I wonder this about that.

I wonder this about that.

THEORY TO PRACTICE

• In I Read it But I Don’t Get it, Tovani encourages students to constantly ask themselves questions about what they are reading.

• “ Each time I ask a question, I put the words ‘I wonder’ in front of it. These two words help to frame their curiosity as a question and lead them toward inferential thinking. At first, students tend to make predictions instead of asking questions. Adding ‘I wonder’ to a statement changes a predictions into a questions and allows the reader to go beyond the text, which in turn makes inferential thinking possible, ” (84).

• Visit the « I Wonder » poster every so often throughout the unit and have the statements facilitate a discussion.

• The poster could also be used as a review of the novel at the end of the unit as well.

SOUNDTRACK• Students create a soundtrack for each reading assignment. They are to sign up for sections so we

will listen to at least one song in the class every day during the unit.

• Students select a passage from The Hunger Games and a song that applies to the story.

• Describe how specific song lyrics reflect specific portions/exact scenes from the book.

• How does the overall tone of the song fit with the book?

• Is there anything about the song that does not really work when compared to the book?

• Examples:

• “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2 -- especially the following lyrics:

• And it's true we are immuneWhen fact is fiction and TV realityAnd today the millions cryWe eat and drink while tomorrow they die

• “Love is Battlefield” by Jordin Sparks

• “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath

• “Sharp Knife of a Short Life” (when Rue is killed) by Perry

• “Is There Anybody Out There” by Pink Floyd

THEORY TO PRACTICE• In their book “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys” authors Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm note

how music helps bridge the gap in literacy:

The tremendous impact of music on the lives of the young men in our study provides testimony to scholars like Mahiri (1998) and Duncan-Andrade and Morrell (2000), who are investigating ways to use music and other popular culture materials as a bridge to developing more canonical literacies. (2002, p. 150)

• Smith and Wilhelm also explain the importance of getting to know students as individuals to better engage them with learning, and they specifically point to listening to students’ music as one of the means to accomplish this:

One of the things we discovered in our study is just how much the boys valued their music. We started to think about the potential benefits of asking one student in each class to share an especially important song each day… Listening to a few songs might only take us the ride home from school, but could pay huge dividends in terms of getting to know students and developing relationships with them.... The important thing is to engage in activities with our students that allow us to get to know them and that communicates our care and concern for them as whole people. (p. 21)

• By sharing music, teachers can encourage students who would otherwise disconnect from reading make connections to literature, in addition music can strengthen their relationships through individual expression.

HIDDEN AGENDA-WHAT IS NOT SAID

THEORY TO PRACTICE

FINAL GROUP PROJECTS

• After finishing the novel let students get into groups of 3 or 4.

• Allow them to choose one of the three following options for a final project.

• Video Game

• Travel Guide

• Trailer/Movie

• Students will present their project to the class when they are finished.

VIDEO GAME

TRAVEL GUIDE• Make a travel guide for someone visiting Panem.

• Possible things to include may be:

• A map of the country and its districts.

• Specific details of each district.

• Customs

• Language

• Things to do and see

• Things to avoid

• History

• In addition to having students draw information from the text, they also can make connections between Text to World and Text to Text (Tovani) by referencing popular travel guides to places around the world.

FAN-MADE TRAILER/MOVIE

• Have students either make a trailer for the novel or pick out a specific scene and make a movie version of it.

• In Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm note how sometimes students don’t even recognize when they are engaging in a literate activity outside of class, such as with a movie, but that these literate activities can ignite their passion for engaging in literacy (pp. 95-96).

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS SURVEY REVISITED…

• Have students take the survey again AFTER reading the novel.

• Their answers might have changed based on the events in the novel or they may have stayed the same.

• Again, have students discuss their answers and justifications, relating it back to The Hunger Games.

SOURCES• Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Waterville, MI: Thorndike Press, 2008. Print.

• Tovani, Cris. I Read It, But I Don't Get It. Portand: Stenhouse Publishers, 2000. Print.

• Wilhelm, Jeffrey and Smith, Michael W. Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann, 2002. Print.