1.  Journal Entry:  Families in Jonas‘s community share a feeling they had during the day. Picture yourself as a member of Jonas‘s family and write in your R/W Notebook one feeling you had since class met last. Your response should include the event(s) that caused you to have that feeling and what, if anything, changed that feeling.

2.  In The Giver Jonas’s community thinks it is very important that everyone uses precise language.  “Jonas was careful about his language” (p. 3)  Read the last paragraph on page 4.

3.  Why do you think it is important to use precise language?  Can you think of a time that you used the wrong word in a conversation that led to misunderstanding?

4.  Denotation- the dictionary definition of any given word. Copy the denotation for the words school and home and write them down (leave a line under each to add to the definition later). ◦ Home: the place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household. ◦ School: An institution for educating children

5.  Connotation- the secondary, emotional meaning of the word. ◦ When you think of the words school and home, what do you associate them with?  The connotation of a word can change the mood of the word from positive to negative.

6.  Plain-Natural  Clever-Sly  Cackle-Giggle  Cop-Officer  Skinny-Slender  Smile-Smirk

7.  Group 1: Thin, slim, lanky, skinny, bony, slender  Group 2: Aggressive, assertive, dominating, forceful, pushy  Group 3: Soldier, guerilla, mercenary, terrorist, freedom fighter

8.  Changing the words that have a negative connotative meaning in a sentence can change the sentence from sounding negative, to sounding positive.  Positive: There are over 200 people living in Cabot who’s address is unknown.  Negative: There are over 200 homeless people living in Cabot.