Assessment for The Giver Novel Study Unit: K.S.A.s #9, and #11
In this unit, there are a variety of assessment strategies: A daily review of the chapters recently read, an on-going blog where students will post their responses to daily questions, three main activities, plus a unit test.
Introductory
In order to stimulate the students’ interest and involvement with the novel, they will be placed in a situation where they will pretend to be scientists who have recently discovered a wonder drug. It is odourless, colourless and tasteless and can be added to the drinking supply of the country’s water without detection. The effect of this drug is that it makes everyone happy and complacent. It takes away the urge to compete and therefore to fight, and generally instills within people that they are very happy in life, just as they are. Therefore, people still desire to get up and go to work, but have no desire to “get ahead”. This eradicates the vices of greed and well as war, and because people are so complacent, they do not feel the need to overly indulge themselves. Smoking, the use of drugs and alcohol and obesity are issues of the past.
While the drug has its benefits, it has one major set-back: It stops people from caring about making personal choices. They are just too complacent to desire change. Therefore, while the drug does solve a lot of problems, in essence, it takes away free will. Instead, people must be lead to do everything for themselves, which they only too complacently agree to.
The question: Would you put the drug into the water?
This activity is for formative assessment only and not worth any grade toward the final mark
On-Going
There are several on-going learning activities and methods that this novel study will be using.
1. Daily Blog.
(This activity can be submitted in written form for students who cannot access a computer for any reason.) The daily blog is intended to help students to a) demonstrate comprehension of the novel, and b) share their opinions with each other.
Set-up: The daily blog will be initially set up by the teacher. Students will be asked to choose a blog name for themselves (nothing that is a direct tie-in with their real names. It will be up to them if they share that name with their class-mates, or wish to remain anonymous). They will then submit this name into the teacher. The teacher will post a question every day in the blog. The students will then have the opportunity to answer the questions in the blog, using their pseudonyms only. In addition to posting the questions in the blog each day, the teacher will post the question on the board, or have it up on the SMARTboard. This will be the bell-work question that students will find waiting for them at the start of each class.
Follow-through: Students who answer the question in the blog (or hand in a written submission) will get a “Brain Blurb Buck”. (Please see the appendix for more on “Brain Blurb Bucks”.) The teacher will check the blog site each day and make comments on the blog entries. Exceptional entries may be further discussed in class the next day during the chapter review.
Note: Abuse posted in the blog will not be tolerated. It will be shut down by the teacher if abuse occurs.
The Blogs will be rewarded with “Brain Blurb Bucks”, and will be worth ten percent of the final grade, or approximately one percent each entry. Blog responses will be compiled and averaged out for each student.
2. Daily Review of The Giver.
In order to help students to integrate some of the more complex and subtle aspects of the novel, and refresh their memories, it is beneficial for students to engage in a daily discussion about what they have read so far in the story.
Set-up: During class each day, the students and teacher will engage in a whole-class discussion that outlines what happened last in the novel, as well as point out vocabulary that may need explaining. While the teacher will be reading a part of the novel out loud each day, students will also be expected to read a chapter a day as homework. The chapters of this novel are quite short and it should not take much time for most readers. However, for struggling readers, a reading buddy will be assigned. It should be noted that it will be too time-consuming to read the entire novel out to the class.
Follow-Through: Students will be called upon to answer various questions or to summarize the previous chapter. Students will be chosen to answer via a foam ball toss, randomly by the teacher, or by hands-up.
The whole-class discussion will be counted as formative assessment and will not contribute to the final grade.
3. Power Point Presentation.
The first main activity designed for summative assessment will involve a presentation that challenges students to think about the values that they hold for living in a community. This activity is designed to encourage students to consider what is really involved in order to have a cooperative and decent level of happiness and productivity in a community.
The students will be researching, developing and presenting a power point presentation on community values. Students will work as pairs in order to accomplish this task, mainly because community is very much based on working with and/or getting along with others. Students will be required to briefly research the values they wish to present on, then choose an image from the internet that best suits that value. They will then put these images into a power point in order to present their values to the class.
Each slide/value will also have an accompanying paragraph the students will use to for their presentation. These paragraphs will discuss the importance of the value to the community for the students, and justify why the picture they chose for their presentation is a good fit for that value.
Follow-Through: Because this is one of the opening activities for the novel, The Giver, students will assess each other’s presentations as if they were members of each other’s community. The teacher will provide a step-by-step summary of what is expected, as well as a checklist to help students organize themselves effectively. Students will also be provided with a checklist of the qualities they should be looking for while evaluating the presentations. While the students will be evaluating each other, the grade students get from their peers will only account for 20 percent of their presentation grades. The rest will be determined by the teacher. The written portion of the assignment, the paragraphs, will be handed into the teacher for grading separately.
The grading will be divided as follows:
• Power Point and presentation: 12 % (2.4 % form peers, 9.6 % from the teacher)
• Paragraphs: 8 %
(Please see grading rubric for the Power Point and accompanying paragraphs in the appendix.)
4. Persuasive Essays.
The students will be writing a five-paragraph persuasive essay as the second on-going summative activity. While exploring some of the deeper themes of the novel, the students will learn how to express their arguments in a logical manner that helps build upon the students’ writing skills. Students will be required to pay attention to writing conventions while at the same time, demonstrating their ability to think critically and analytically about the ideas presented in the novel.
Set-up: The students will be given a list of eight topics from which to choose from. All of the topics are based directly on events, belief systems, or ways of life that Jonas and the community hold to. Students will be asked to choose one of these topics and to then take a stand on whether or not they agree with it. Next, students will have to think critically and fully examine the implications of their positions for the community portrayed in The Giver. Finally, students will write their positions out in a persuasive essay using the five paragraph format.
During the writing process, students will work with a partner to brainstorm ideas. Next, the students will create an outline and a draft. After they have had an opportunity to type out their essays in the computer lab, students will again partner-up in order to peer-assess each others’ writing. This assessment will be based on a checklist given to them from the teacher that highlights the important aspects of the persuasive essays that should be in place.
Follow-Through: Students will type out the final copies, using their peers’ suggestions as a guide. The final copy will be handed in for grading.
Because the persuasive essay will be taking up the majority of time and effort for the students, and because it fulfills many of the GLOs we will be covering, the weight for this assignment will be 30 percent. (Please see grading rubric in the appendix.)
5. The Diamante poem:
The poem the students will be creating is based on one of the more subtle themes of the novel. Lois Lowry makes fabulous use of language in order to convey a certain mood and tone for the novel, The Giver. Therefore, the Diamante poem students will be writing will help students to recognize the ways in which Lowry has manipulated how we use language to create her “Utopian” society. It is hoped that students gain a deeper understanding as to how language creates how we see and interpret our world.
Set-up: Students will work with the teacher to make note of some of the many interesting societal differences between Lowry’s Utopian society and our own. Once these words have been highlighted for the students, they will work independently to create a Diamante poem. Students will begin with the word/phrase and its intended use from the novel, and then using the format of the poem, contrast it with words from our own society. For example, “family dwelling” and “home”. The former is more clinical, while the later instills the feeling of comfort.
Follow-through: The poems will be read out by students on a volunteer basis before being submitted in for grading. The grade for this assignment will be five percent. (Please see the rubric for assessment of the Diamante in the appendix.)
Cumulative
The Giver novel study will culminate in a unit test. The test will be divided into two main parts: a multiple choice and mix-and-match section intended to test for knowledge, and a fill-in-the-blank section intended to test for comprehension and analysis. The test has yet to be created by the teacher. However, the unit test will be worth 30 percent of the final grade for this the novel study.
In this unit, there are a variety of assessment strategies: A daily review of the chapters recently read, an on-going blog where students will post their responses to daily questions, three main activities, plus a unit test.
Introductory
In order to stimulate the students’ interest and involvement with the novel, they will be placed in a situation where they will pretend to be scientists who have recently discovered a wonder drug. It is odourless, colourless and tasteless and can be added to the drinking supply of the country’s water without detection. The effect of this drug is that it makes everyone happy and complacent. It takes away the urge to compete and therefore to fight, and generally instills within people that they are very happy in life, just as they are. Therefore, people still desire to get up and go to work, but have no desire to “get ahead”. This eradicates the vices of greed and well as war, and because people are so complacent, they do not feel the need to overly indulge themselves. Smoking, the use of drugs and alcohol and obesity are issues of the past.
While the drug has its benefits, it has one major set-back: It stops people from caring about making personal choices. They are just too complacent to desire change. Therefore, while the drug does solve a lot of problems, in essence, it takes away free will. Instead, people must be lead to do everything for themselves, which they only too complacently agree to.
The question: Would you put the drug into the water?
This activity is for formative assessment only and not worth any grade toward the final mark
On-Going
There are several on-going learning activities and methods that this novel study will be using.
1. Daily Blog.
(This activity can be submitted in written form for students who cannot access a computer for any reason.) The daily blog is intended to help students to a) demonstrate comprehension of the novel, and b) share their opinions with each other.
Set-up: The daily blog will be initially set up by the teacher. Students will be asked to choose a blog name for themselves (nothing that is a direct tie-in with their real names. It will be up to them if they share that name with their class-mates, or wish to remain anonymous). They will then submit this name into the teacher. The teacher will post a question every day in the blog. The students will then have the opportunity to answer the questions in the blog, using their pseudonyms only. In addition to posting the questions in the blog each day, the teacher will post the question on the board, or have it up on the SMARTboard. This will be the bell-work question that students will find waiting for them at the start of each class.
Follow-through: Students who answer the question in the blog (or hand in a written submission) will get a “Brain Blurb Buck”. (Please see the appendix for more on “Brain Blurb Bucks”.) The teacher will check the blog site each day and make comments on the blog entries. Exceptional entries may be further discussed in class the next day during the chapter review.
Note: Abuse posted in the blog will not be tolerated. It will be shut down by the teacher if abuse occurs.
The Blogs will be rewarded with “Brain Blurb Bucks”, and will be worth ten percent of the final grade, or approximately one percent each entry. Blog responses will be compiled and averaged out for each student.
2. Daily Review of The Giver.
In order to help students to integrate some of the more complex and subtle aspects of the novel, and refresh their memories, it is beneficial for students to engage in a daily discussion about what they have read so far in the story.
Set-up: During class each day, the students and teacher will engage in a whole-class discussion that outlines what happened last in the novel, as well as point out vocabulary that may need explaining. While the teacher will be reading a part of the novel out loud each day, students will also be expected to read a chapter a day as homework. The chapters of this novel are quite short and it should not take much time for most readers. However, for struggling readers, a reading buddy will be assigned. It should be noted that it will be too time-consuming to read the entire novel out to the class.
Follow-Through: Students will be called upon to answer various questions or to summarize the previous chapter. Students will be chosen to answer via a foam ball toss, randomly by the teacher, or by hands-up.
The whole-class discussion will be counted as formative assessment and will not contribute to the final grade.
3. Power Point Presentation.
The first main activity designed for summative assessment will involve a presentation that challenges students to think about the values that they hold for living in a community. This activity is designed to encourage students to consider what is really involved in order to have a cooperative and decent level of happiness and productivity in a community.
The students will be researching, developing and presenting a power point presentation on community values. Students will work as pairs in order to accomplish this task, mainly because community is very much based on working with and/or getting along with others. Students will be required to briefly research the values they wish to present on, then choose an image from the internet that best suits that value. They will then put these images into a power point in order to present their values to the class.
Each slide/value will also have an accompanying paragraph the students will use to for their presentation. These paragraphs will discuss the importance of the value to the community for the students, and justify why the picture they chose for their presentation is a good fit for that value.
Follow-Through: Because this is one of the opening activities for the novel, The Giver, students will assess each other’s presentations as if they were members of each other’s community. The teacher will provide a step-by-step summary of what is expected, as well as a checklist to help students organize themselves effectively. Students will also be provided with a checklist of the qualities they should be looking for while evaluating the presentations. While the students will be evaluating each other, the grade students get from their peers will only account for 20 percent of their presentation grades. The rest will be determined by the teacher. The written portion of the assignment, the paragraphs, will be handed into the teacher for grading separately.
The grading will be divided as follows:
• Power Point and presentation: 12 % (2.4 % form peers, 9.6 % from the teacher)
• Paragraphs: 8 %
(Please see grading rubric for the Power Point and accompanying paragraphs in the appendix.)
4. Persuasive Essays.
The students will be writing a five-paragraph persuasive essay as the second on-going summative activity. While exploring some of the deeper themes of the novel, the students will learn how to express their arguments in a logical manner that helps build upon the students’ writing skills. Students will be required to pay attention to writing conventions while at the same time, demonstrating their ability to think critically and analytically about the ideas presented in the novel.
Set-up: The students will be given a list of eight topics from which to choose from. All of the topics are based directly on events, belief systems, or ways of life that Jonas and the community hold to. Students will be asked to choose one of these topics and to then take a stand on whether or not they agree with it. Next, students will have to think critically and fully examine the implications of their positions for the community portrayed in The Giver. Finally, students will write their positions out in a persuasive essay using the five paragraph format.
During the writing process, students will work with a partner to brainstorm ideas. Next, the students will create an outline and a draft. After they have had an opportunity to type out their essays in the computer lab, students will again partner-up in order to peer-assess each others’ writing. This assessment will be based on a checklist given to them from the teacher that highlights the important aspects of the persuasive essays that should be in place.
Follow-Through: Students will type out the final copies, using their peers’ suggestions as a guide. The final copy will be handed in for grading.
Because the persuasive essay will be taking up the majority of time and effort for the students, and because it fulfills many of the GLOs we will be covering, the weight for this assignment will be 30 percent. (Please see grading rubric in the appendix.)
5. The Diamante poem:
The poem the students will be creating is based on one of the more subtle themes of the novel. Lois Lowry makes fabulous use of language in order to convey a certain mood and tone for the novel, The Giver. Therefore, the Diamante poem students will be writing will help students to recognize the ways in which Lowry has manipulated how we use language to create her “Utopian” society. It is hoped that students gain a deeper understanding as to how language creates how we see and interpret our world.
Set-up: Students will work with the teacher to make note of some of the many interesting societal differences between Lowry’s Utopian society and our own. Once these words have been highlighted for the students, they will work independently to create a Diamante poem. Students will begin with the word/phrase and its intended use from the novel, and then using the format of the poem, contrast it with words from our own society. For example, “family dwelling” and “home”. The former is more clinical, while the later instills the feeling of comfort.
Follow-through: The poems will be read out by students on a volunteer basis before being submitted in for grading. The grade for this assignment will be five percent. (Please see the rubric for assessment of the Diamante in the appendix.)
Cumulative
The Giver novel study will culminate in a unit test. The test will be divided into two main parts: a multiple choice and mix-and-match section intended to test for knowledge, and a fill-in-the-blank section intended to test for comprehension and analysis. The test has yet to be created by the teacher. However, the unit test will be worth 30 percent of the final grade for this the novel study.