Thursday, August 20, 2009

Teaching The Hunger Games and a Tour of Mrs. Hart's Room!

Nanny-nanny-boo-boo, I get to teach The Hunger Games! Whoot-whoot! This will be my second year to teach the novel, but given the success of last year's teachings, I'm so pumped to repeat the process. Never before has a book been so loved and adored by my students. I only had the funds to purchase a class set, so the students couldn't leave my room with a book, which caused MANY of them to attempt to find excuses to come to Mrs. Hart's room to read! Many personal copies of the book were purchased after Chapter 2 because they couldn't STAND the fact they would have to wait until the next day to read. Suzanne Collins and Scholastic publishing, I'm still patiently waiting for my royalty check! ;)

If any of you are teachers of middle to high school age students, I HIGHLY recommend teaching this novel. Most students have read Lois Lowery's The Giver, and The Hunger Games is a great way to align with that classic work of fiction. I also teach about dystopian and anti-utopia societies and how they reoccur in literature and movies...hello??? ever hear of a little book called 1984 by Mr. George Orwell? Totally an example of an anti-utopia society! Or The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is another literary example of an anti-utopia! You knew you were a fan of The Games, but I bet you didn't know the literary significance of the piece, now did you?! If you are interested in teaching this amazing novel, shoot me a message and I can send you what lesson plans and activities I have that tie into the novel. I have also written a few articles with lesson plan ideas at Brighthub.com that you can find by accessing this link: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/39748.aspx. In the meantime, here is a tour of my reading classroom and a few snippets of my Hunger Games wall. I predict it to grow tenfold by the end of this school year!


Due to a very rude comment an "anonymous" viewer left (and which I promptly deleted), I would like to apologize for the gum smacking at the beginning of the clip! I had just put the piece in my mouth after lunch and was working in my room. I never smack or even have gum in my mouth whenever students are present! In the future, whoever you are "anonymous", don't visit my blog if you have only rude comments to leave. I'm not perez hilton, and do not welcome insulting comments...stop coming by if I offend you or make you upset! Sheesh!

6 comments:

  1. Hey Mrs.Hart,

    It's one of your freshmen! I love that you get to teach The Hunger Games this year again. I hope that your new 8th graders enjoy it as much as I did! I CANNOT WAIT TILL CATCHING FIRE COMES OUT!!!!I am so jealous now that you have tables! I can't wait to hear how you change them around into fun shapes! I also hope that they will not destroy the fun chairs like the guys in my class did! (6th period to be exact) Have a great year!

    PS:I cannot thank you enough for how much you helped me learn to love to read!
    Lots of Love,
    Shelby S. :)

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  2. Shelby, I'm going to miss you this year! You should come by and be my guest speaker before we start The Games! I will do my best to move the tables around and drive them crazy like I did with the desks last year...it might be harder on my back to do so, though! Have a great year as a big freshman, and be sure to stop by and visit!

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  3. wow! your class room is so much better than any i ever sat in. have a wonderful school year! love you

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  4. Wow...looks a lot like LdZ!!! ***shivers down my spine*** ;)

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  5. I'd love your lesson plans for this... I don't want to put my e-mail online though. Is there a link somewhere where we can communicate via e-mail?

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