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We are reading The Hunger Games in my 8^th grade classes this year. I love to teach this book because kids are genuinely interested in it and cannot put it down. The action-adventure theme hooks even the most reluctant readers, and most kids don’t realize how much they are learning while we’re reading it. Before they know it, we are discussing really adult themes like Government Control and Social Classification and the moral value of Reality Television.

I have many Language Arts components that I am required to teach, but this quarter we are spending a great deal of time concentrating on providing textual evidence to support a theme. I have modeled several times the skill of responding to a question and then locating a passage in the story to support their answer. This is pretty much English 101; every class they take from now until the end of time will ask them to find text support. But these kids are brand-new to the idea, and it has been a struggle to get them to do it.

In case you are not familiar with the story, I will tell you that two particular characters (Peeta and Katniss) find themselves having to work together in the story. It is pretty clear from very early in the story that Peeta has strong feelings for Katniss. The question on my daily quiz today read like this: “How does Peeta feel about Katniss? Provide a page number and a quote from the book to support your answer.”

This one was kind of an easy one, I thought. I wasn’t trying to trick them on this first test; I actually want them to experience success so they feel confident moving forward into more difficult processes. There are easily 20 or 30 sentences in this section of the book that give insight into Peeta’s feelings. In fact, one line actually reads: “Peeta sighs. ‘Well, there is this one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember.’”

So there I am, correcting tests, and feeling increasing alarm over the answers that have been given. Some of them answer only in their own words. Some of them include a page number but not a quote. Some of them are even blank! (Blank? Really?)

But this one…this one’s my favorite. Here’s the unedited answer on the test paper:

“Peeta wants Katniss to die. Because in the chairiot (sp) when they are wearing flames on their costume he says they ‘suit her.’ So that means he wants to set her on fire. Page 72.”

After I finished laughing and wiping my eyes, I gave this student half credit. They were able to locate a page number…(yay!)….they were able to articulate a personal answer…(yay!)…and while there is no direct quote from the story, there is at least a reference to actual text.

The follow-up lesson is going to have to address the fact that while the concept of citing textual evidence is indeed emerging, we must take care not to miss gigantic chunks of comprehension in the process.

Good grief.

It’s nice to feel necessary.