Download “The Giver” Educator’s Resource Guide

A comprehensive companion to the book and the movie, The Giver: Educator’s Resource Guide is divided into three main pillars, outlined below, that serve as a theoretical framework for bridging the narrative between book and film.

EDUCATION: How does the story promote critical thinking and deep comprehension?
The Education activities are designed to engage youth in rich critical thinking exercises that deepen their comprehension of content matter and extend their reasoning skills beyond factual inferences from the texts. The activities include ways to broaden background knowledge through research, discussion, and writing.

 ETHICS: How does the story promote dialogue and ethical reflection?
The Ethics activities are designed to engage youth in high-quality dialogue centered on characters’ perspectives and ethical dilemmas presented in and inspired by the texts. They are based on empirical research focused on the promotion of students’ societal-, social- and self-awareness, typically through understanding the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters in the story, as well as their own.

ENTERTAINMENT:How does the story promote creativity and capture character identity?
The Entertainment activities are designed to engage youth in exercises that align dramatic events in the film to those in the book, and to nurture young peoples’ creative potential and identification with characters in the texts. These activities include methods that empower students to consider how the author and screenwriter structured the plot to enhance readers’ and viewers’ engagement with the story.

The Giver: Educator’s Resource Guide was created in conjunction with Walden Media by Robert L. Selman, the Roy E. Larsen Professor of Human Development and Education and Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Harvard University, and Tracy Elizabeth, a doctoral student in the Human Development and Education program at Harvard University.

CLICK HERE to download The Giver: Educator’s Resource Guide.