Throughout Ender’s Game, the characters—primarily Ender—face moral dilemmas and complex ethical choices. Choose one or more of the significant moral decisions made by Ender or another character in the story and analyze the factors that influenced this decision. Discuss the consequences of this choice and its impact on the characters and the larger narrative. What does this decision reveal about the novel’s exploration of the ethically complex topics of self-sacrifice, strategy, and leadership?

You may want to consider the following key plot points in your discussion:

• Ender’s decisions to take part in the battle school and its games
• Ender’s conflicting choices between violence and strategy
• Ender’s leadership initiatives when given consistent challenges from the colonels
• Ender’s moral opinions about the buggers before and after their annihilation

Teaching Suggestion: For small group instruction, consider breaking up the novel utilizing the same sections from the “During Reading” portion of this teaching guide. Then, students can focus on their specific chapters and share aloud or in a shared group document to compile their findings.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a scaffolded approach, consider providing a graphic organizer with 4 sections, one for each bullet point. Students can work in small groups to complete each section with 3-4 bits of evidence from the text before addressing the prompt.