What Were Working Towards

This semester I am teaching my eighth graders The Hunger Games. Many have of you have probably read this book, and if you have you may be wondering why it's being taught in school. On the surface the books appears to be one of those trendy teen books that blows up and becomes the biggest thing around for about ten minute. On some level that may be true, but do not get it twisted. The Hunger Games is no Harry Potter or Twilight, it is actually a bit of a literary gold mine that dives into serious issues like love, freedom, survival and identity. The latter is the basis of the unit I'm teaching. Identity is huge for me, because I believe the best knowledge is self-knowledge. If you do not know yourself than you cannot accomplish very much. So try not to focus my teaching on Shakespeare, poetry or writing essays, but rather in questions like how can I find myself through Shakespeare? What does this poem say about me? How do I write an essay that authentically represents who I am? If these connections are not made, than I have no business telling my kids to read something.

So I am focusing this Hunger Games unit on Identity to start, I gave the kids a Core-Value Survey. They had 40 cards in front of them, each displaying a core-value and definition. Things like "faith," "religion," "trustworthiness," "pleasure," "social," "wealth," "knowledge," "freedom" and many others. The goal was, through process of elimination, to get this down to the 5 values that are at your core. In other words, at your center, what do you value the most? What will you never give up? It was awesome to see hear the kids talk about what these values mean to them and where they came from. Each student will present these values to the class throughout the unit by bringing in objects that reflect or represent them.

Through these values, we will base all of our endeavors into the book. We will talk about characters' identities and why they are that way. We will talk about setting and how that effects our characters and us. Things like reality TV and government. Students will know what it means to hold onto these values even in a hostile environment. This is all leading up to the final project which will have them identify a social injustice that violates their core values and write a paper relating that injustice to the book, themselves and propose a change. Like the young man in the video, students will be required to take action as a component of the assignment. We will talk about what it means to inspire change, how revolutions begin at the bottom and work their way up and how to use the system to your advantage.

I do not expect all of my students to be on TED speaking to the world about change, but than again I believe everyone of them is capable. So often we look at a task as being too big and ourselves as too small. Through companion texts such as the tipping point and civil disobedience, I plan on showing my kids the power of the individual in or against the system. Maybe they won't make it to TED or the UN, but they can post facebook statuses. They can educate those around them. And little by little, if enough people stay true to those 5 values, a change will come. If I didn't believe that, than I wouldn't be working in a system that is so screwed up.