The Hunger Games Project

Subject:  Language Arts

Grade:  9

Technology tools:  Computer(s), LCD Projector

Tools used:  Social media tool

Activity type:  Lesson

Objectives:  Students develop informed opinions and critique communication. They react to print and non-print texts and incorporate literary criticism and the opinions of others to formulate responses to the literature (Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games).

In the middle of reading The Hunger Games with my ninth grade students, the film came out, and almost immediately after there was a flurry of Internet activity (mostly on Twitter) decrying the movie for casting black actors in the roles of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna. 



I projected some of the Tweets and coverage of the incident to show students and spark a discussion about race, how characters are imagined in different people's minds, and how that impacts the story.  We looked at specific passages in the book that describe characters, discussed cultural stereotypes, and completed a journal entry to share reactions.

I accessed the coverage on Jezebel (complete coverage: http://jezebel.com/hungergames; specifically the articles "Racist HungerGames Fans Are Very Disappointed" and "I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of CulturalWhitewashing").  There is some bad language in the article and at least one racial epithet in the Twitter posts, but it was pretty easy to not show those parts of the post.

This activity was great for getting students involved in a discussion about the idea of a "post-racial" America and how and why racism has managed to hang around for so long.

Students were graded on the completion of their journal entry, where they wrote down their responses to people's reactions.

This activity got students involved and engaged, and they were able to articulate their responses very well.  I would probably have used more structured questions to guide the discussion.

Amy Williamson,  HCAM