The Giver by Lois Lowry
Lesson plans and other teaching resources
Lois Lowry
The author's official site.
Teacher Guide to The Giver
How might students use storyboards to demonstrate and to extend their learning? Check the resources here. Includes essential questions, plot diagram, character maps, exploration of dystopiansocieties, key themes, motifs and symbols, vocabulary, and more. Note: Storyboard That helps sponsor this site.
Text to Text: The Giver and "The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction"
This article pairs the novel with a nonfiction article from The New York Times. It also provides some biographical information about Lois Lowry and includes a video interview with her.
The Giver
A message from the author, booktalk, pre-reading activity, thematic connections, interdisciplinary projects, vocabulary, and related titles.
The Giver
Passages for close reading and discussion, divided by chapter.
The Giver
A black-and-white activity designed as a followup to the novel.
The Giver
Students explore the effect of different colors as an introduction to the idea of "no-color" in the book.
The Giver
Designed for grades 7 and 8, this novel guide includes theme openers, crosscurricular activities, research assignments, and related readings.
The Giver: 7 Creative Classroom Activities
Job Fair, Memory Book, Travel Brochure, 90-second Video Adaptation, Cover Redesign, Emotional Rainbow, Community Newspaper. Great ideas for helping students connect to the text.
The Giver Educator's Resource Guide
Discussion questions, writing prompts, cross-curricular connections, debate topics. academic vocabulary like irony, turning point. Designed to accompany the 2014 film. 28 pages; Adobe Reader required.
The Giver — Authority
A unit lesson that will have students be researchers and recorders in the process of finding information on Utopian societies, cults and authority. Students will complete a Powerpoint, Glogster, essay or news broadcast by the conclusion of the essay.
The Giver: Crossword
Crossword puzzle with answers. Access requires Adobe Reader.
Memories Matter: The Giver and Descriptive Writing Memoirs
From the site: "By discussing the importance of having a written history of humanity, and the ways in which prior knowledge and life experiences influence others, students soon realize the horror of Jonas's utopian society. This understanding generates a keen interest in the descriptive writing of students' own history."
Teaching Problem Solving Through The Giver
In this blog post a teacher describes a prewriting strategy that helped students narrow a topic before writing an argument paragraph.
Vocabulary from The Giver
Words are presented in context and with definitions. Click on a word for pronunciation, examples of recent use, more.
Word Search: The Giver
This 2-page printable requires Adobe Reader for access, includes answers.
Word Unscramble: The Giver
A list of 16 scrambled words drawn from the book. This 2-page printable requires Adobe Reader for access, includes answers.
Lois Lowry
Links to lesson plans for other works by Lowry.