1. Have a silent discussion with the students about how the envision the world in the future. Ask them how they imagine the country, and specifically the government, will be in 500 years. Do they think it will stay the same? If not, how will it change? Will the country be better or worse off? During the discussion following the activity introduce the idea of dystopian societies. (This activity can also be done after reading. By this point the student's have been given a vision of what North America can become if the government is allowed to abuse its power.)
DURING/AFTER READING
1. Students keep a reader response journal while reading The Hunger Games. In it they record their thoughts, responses, reactions, and predictions about the text. Once students get close to the ending of the book, have students predict the ending. (A good time to do this would be when Katniss & Peeta are the only two left standing and it is announced their can only be 1 winner.) Some questions for them to keep in mind during their predictions include:
Does Katniss win The Games?
Does she play by The Capitol's rules?
What happens to Peeta?
What is The Capitol's reaction?
What do the people back home in District 12 think?
2. Or, once students have finished reading have them write alternate endings. How would they have concluded this book? Would they have thought of a better way for Katniss to thwart the capitol?
3. A fun activity for the students would be to read the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Discuss how this myth was inspiration for The Hunger Games. Then, provide students with access to other stories from Greek or Roman mythology. Have them pick one myth, read it, and write their own modern day story using the myth as inspiration.
For fun, the students can then share their stories with the class (or smaller groups) and the listening students guess which myth was used as inspiration.
4. Give students a blank map of North American and have them draw Panem according to descriptions in the book and their imaginations. Come to a general consensus as a class about the layout of Panem and construct a class map.
