Students investigate how rules shape people and communities by using book club discussions of The Giver to answer the question, What makes a society fair, and who gets to decide the rules that shape it? They build speaking, listening, and evidence-based reasoning skills through structured discussion, critique and revision, short audio or video reflections, and a brief Q&A with a city council member or school board member about how policies are made. Over four weeks, they compare the novel’s rule-making to real public decision-making, revise their ideas based on feedback, and prepare a recorded panel response and one-minute claim for the Fairness Forum. The experience helps students connect literature, civic thinking, and their own experiences as they propose and justify a fair rule for their school or community.

Students will engage in structured book club discussions and recorded reflections to build speaking and listening skills, citing clear evidence from The Giver to support claims about fairness, power, and rule-making. They will analyze how rules are created in the novel and in real civic settings through a Q&A with a city council or school board member, then compare whose voices are included or excluded in those decisions. Students will strengthen collaboration and self-direction by using critique protocols, revising discussion notes and speaking points, and tracking how their thinking changes over time. They will create and present a one-minute claim, a short recorded panel response, and a final rule proposal for a fairer school or community, communicating ideas clearly to an authentic audience.

Students will create book club discussion notes, annotated evidence trackers from The Giver, and short audio or video reflections after each discussion to capture how their thinking changes about fairness, rules, and character choices. Midway through the project, each group will revise its notes and speaking points after a critique protocol focused on how clearly their evidence connects to fairness and rule-making. For the Fairness Forum, book club groups will produce a short recorded panel response explaining what makes a society fair, how their ideas changed after feedback, and the strongest evidence they gathered from the novel. Individually, students will also create a one-minute claim presentation and a brief performance task proposing one fair rule for their school or community, justified with examples from The Giver and the guest policy discussion.

Begin with “Citizenship Sparks”: post 4–6 surprising school or community rules around the room and have students do a quick gallery walk, marking which rules feel fair, unfair, or unclear. In pairs, students complete fast turn-and-talks about who made each rule, whose voices were included, and how the rule shapes daily life, then connect those ideas to early situations in The Giver. Close with a whole-group discussion that introduces the question, “What makes a society fair, and who gets to decide the rules that shape it?” and preview that students will investigate this through book clubs, a policy guest Q&A, and a recorded Fairness Forum response.

Host a Fairness Forum as a gallery-style exhibition where book club groups present their one-minute claims, play their short recorded panel responses, and share selected audio or video reflections. Invite the city council member or school board guest, families, and other classes to rotate through stations and leave sticky-note questions or comments about what makes rules fair and whose voices shape them. Include a final response wall where students post their proposed rule for a more fair school or community with evidence from The Giver and the policy Q&A. End with a brief live panel from a few student groups highlighting how their thinking changed after critique and revision.