The Giver Anticipation Guide | Agree/Disagree Discussion Activity | Grades 6–8
The Giver Anticipation Guide | Pre-Reading Activity | Discussion Activity | Grades 6–8 | PDF + Editable Google Doc
A 12-statement The Giver anticipation guide designed as a pre-reading activity to help students examine beliefs about freedom, safety, memory, community, and moral responsibility before and during reading The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Students record positions they will revisit as they encounter evidence in the novel. Instead of previewing the plot, the activity encourages students to test their thinking against the choices characters make and the rules governing Jonas’s community.
In a novel where a carefully controlled society removes pain, memory, and emotional complexity, this structure gives students a clear starting point for exploring the tension between safety and freedom, belonging and individuality.
What’s Included
✔ 12 Agree / Disagree / Unsure discussion statements
✔ Teacher guide with instructional strategies for Before, During, and After Reading
✔ Character-based applications (Jonas, the Giver, the Chief Elder, and Jonas’s family)
✔ Research support with plain-language summaries (Duffelmeyer, 1994; Ortlieb, 2013)
✔ Common Core ELA alignment (Grades 6–8)
✔ PDF + editable Google Doc
Sample Statements
“Kindness can be a form of control.”
“A good life and a free life are not always the same thing.”
“Belonging to a community always costs something.”
“Without memory of the past, a person cannot fully know who they are.”
Classroom Uses
This resource works well for:
- The Giver pre-reading activity
- discussion-based lessons
- Socratic seminar
- small group discussion
- writing and argument practice
- whole-class debate
Designed for Grades 6–8, but adaptable for older students depending on discussion depth and instructional goals.
The guide can be used as a single class introduction activity or revisited throughout a The Giver unit as students reconsider their original responses using textual evidence.