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who have become enthralled with The Hunger Games, a trilogy by Suzanne Col- lins that depicts a bleak future where teens fight to the death in an annual tournament on live TV. Educators have found creative ways to use the book in the classroom, reports the New York Times. In addition to motivating students to read, The Hunger Games is generating powerful classroom discussions on government, oppression, inequality, surveillance, bully- ing, reality TV and morality. That's certainly the case at Hoover Wong is among millions of students FOR TEACHING THE HUNGER GAMES TIPS ~ Ask students to Middle School, says Wong's language arts teacher, Sarah Gadye. She and Gerraldine Darlington, both members of United Educators of San Francisco, decided The Hunger Games should be read by the entire eighth-grade class, and they asked the PTA to purchase copies for 400 students. Students have been reading sections of the book aloud in class. "Even struggling readers are picking up the book so they can be part of the conversation. They don't even realize that they are discussing some very grownup themes," says Gadye. "We want to engage as many kids as possible — even kids who hate reading. And we've been successful. We're happy teachers." Students wrote essays and did research projects based on the book. Some described how the fictional coun- try Panem and its Capitol mirror the Roman Empire, where gladiators fought to the death. A student researched post- traumatic stress disorder because she felt Haymitch, a Hunger Games champion and mentor who drinks excessively, suf- fers from that condition. Characters in the book are constantly compare it with classic books with similar dystopian themes such as Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451 or 1984. Ask students to write in journal format from the point of view of one of the main characters about what is taking place and how they feel about it. Have students compare The Hunger Games to reality shows like "Survivor" or "American Idol." Assign research topics based on themes of the book, such as government oppression, being watched by the government, so when Hoover School installed surveil- lance cameras, students hotly debated whether being recorded increased safety or violated their privacy. This led to fur- ther discussion about the government's right to view phone and computer records of individuals. "People who don't talk to people out- surveillance and the Patriot Act, poverty, ancient Rome or McCarthyism. Visit online sites offering lesson plans, such as teachershare. scholastic.com/ resources/11485. side of their own group are talking to each other about the book at lunchtime or on the Muni bus," says student Riki Eijima. ~ parents made plans to accompany classes on field trips to see the film aſter finishing the book. Two groups from Hoover Middle School rented out the entire theater. With TV viewers following every move Even the parents tallked about it. Many of the Kardashians, Snooki and other real- ity TV stars, Gadye asked her students to compare current shows with The Hunger Games — the ultimate reality show where death is usually the outcome. Some students made comparisons to "Ameri- can Idol" and "The Bachelor," where contestants suffer and cry before being eliminated. When asked by their teacher if they cheer for contestants to win — or lose — based on appearance, most stu- dents raised their hands in affirmation. Then they pondered whether this was good or bad. "I had a lot of fun teaching this book," says Gadye. "The best thing is that it got students thinking. We could have spent more time on it, but we don't have lots of time because of testing. These days it's challenging to do anything in depth, but we succeeded. " Using the book in the classroom Capitalizing on students' passion for the book, Mindy Ahrens incorporated it into core subjects. When teaching percentages in math, she had them figure out the per- centages of children from the 12 districts who are selected in a ceremony called the Reaping to become "tributes" and fight in the Hunger Games. There was also a class field trip to see the movie. "On the bus ride home, I could not believe the rich conversations I heard from my kids," says Ahrens, a sixth-grade teacher at Northside Elementary School in Cool, El Dorado County. "There was a lot of talk about utopia ver- sus dystopia, where there is hunger and starvation. I was impressed with the amount of critical thinking."