This lesson plan aims to teach 4th grade students how to identify themes in stories. The teacher will define theme as the main idea or message of a story. Students will then work in groups to identify themes in short passages using details from the text as evidence. For homework, students will find the theme in the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web and support it with textual details. The teacher will assess understanding through a homework assignment and closing questions. Accommodations are made for English language learners.
This lesson plan aims to teach 4th grade students how to identify themes in stories. The teacher will define theme as the main idea or message of a story. Students will then work in groups to identify themes in short passages using details from the text as evidence. For homework, students will find the theme in the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web and support it with textual details. The teacher will assess understanding through a homework assignment and closing questions. Accommodations are made for English language learners.
This lesson plan aims to teach 4th grade students how to identify themes in stories. The teacher will define theme as the main idea or message of a story. Students will then work in groups to identify themes in short passages using details from the text as evidence. For homework, students will find the theme in the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web and support it with textual details. The teacher will assess understanding through a homework assignment and closing questions. Accommodations are made for English language learners.
This lesson plan aims to teach 4th grade students how to identify themes in stories. The teacher will define theme as the main idea or message of a story. Students will then work in groups to identify themes in short passages using details from the text as evidence. For homework, students will find the theme in the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web and support it with textual details. The teacher will assess understanding through a homework assignment and closing questions. Accommodations are made for English language learners.
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Direct Lesson Plan 3
Jessica Williams
Subject: 4th Grade Writing
Central Focus: Identifying Theme
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL4.2
Date submitted:11/5/2015Date taught: n/a
Daily Lesson Objective: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem, from details in the text; summarize the
text. 21st Century Skills: Collaborating with Others
Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
Vocabulary): N/A
Prior Knowledge: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Activity
1. Focus and Review
2. Statement of Objective for Student 3. Teacher Input
Description of Activities and Setting
Over the past couple of weeks we have been reading several stories. We also have learned how to find specific details within a story. Who can tell me what a detail is?(CFU) Correct; a detail is a fact or piece of information in the text. Today we will learn about the main idea of a story, which is also known as theme. Students will be able to identify the theme within Charlottes Web written by: E.B White. Students will come to the carpet and I will first discuss what theme is. ELL students will sit up front on the carpet so they can see clearly and listen closely (PID). Who can please tell me what they think theme is?(CFU) Great Job. Details help us figure out what the story is about. This is known as the theme. Today we will learn how to identify the theme of a story. Theme is the main idea of a story, let me read this short story to you, and show you how I would figure out the theme of the story. Katie invited Missy to her house to work on their biology project, but Katie had no idea what a visit from Missy entailed. First of all, it was raining and Missy neither bothered to take her boots off nor thoroughly wiped them on the doormat. Then Missy ate a bag of hot chips on Katies white bedspread without asking, and Missy is a sloppy eater, so hot chip powder got all over the bedspread. Katie tried to be polite and ignore Missys sloppy behavior, but then Missy threw her chip wrapper on the floor. Offended, Katie pretended that she was sick and asked Missy to leave. The next day Katie asked the teacher if she could work by herself. After explaining her situation, the teacher allowed Katie to work alone. Missy would have finished the assignment by herself, but she spilled grape soda all over her assignment. Who can tell me what the theme is? (CFU) It is hard to work cooperatively with someone when they are messy and disrespectful.
Time
I know that this is the theme because in the story it describes the ways that Missy was messy in Katies house, and how much it frustrated Katie to the point she worked on the assignment alone. Lets try to find another theme! Read the following passage aloud with students: Mr. Pig and Mr. Dog were hanging out at the food court of the animal shopping mall. Mr. Pig was eating a huge feast of pizza and drinking a large jug of fruit punch and Mr. Dog was watching him eat. Hey, Mr. Pig. If you give me a slice of your pizza, Ill let you have the next bone I find. Mr. Pig declined, even though it hurt his stomach to eat the last three slices of pizza. Im sorry, Mr. Dog, Mr. Pig said, but I paid for this pizza and its all mine. Mr. Dog sighed and waited for Mr. Pig to finish, and then they left the animal mall together. On the way out, a hunter spotted them and gave chase. Mr. Pig normally could have escaped the hunter but since he was weighed down by such a large meal, Mr. Pig collapsed and the hunter killed him. Mr. Dog easily escaped. Later that night while returning to the scene, Mr. Dog caught the scent of something delicious and began digging around a trash can. He found a large ham bone with lots of meat and marrow still stuck to the bone. Mr. Dog happily ate. Who can tell me what you think the theme might be in this short story? (CFU) What details from the passage can you use to support your answer? (CFU) As a class we come up with the following theme: Being greedy can cause you to lose your friends and in extreme cases your life. Textual evidence to back up the theme: Mr. Pig wouldnt share the pizza with his Mr. Dog and he was too full to run away from the hunter and he died. This shows how his greediness caused him to lose his life.
4. Guided Practice
5. Independent Practice
Students will work in groups with partners, and be given a two
paragraph passage. ELL students will be paired with a strong English learner to help them better understand the text (PID). They will need to come up with their group the theme of the two passages. I will walk around checking in on the groups, giving feedback and correction as needed to make sure they are understand how to find/identify the theme. Also with the ELL students I see who are struggling even with help from stronger student, I will pull them out and work with them in a small group (PID). Now that we have found a theme together, I want you all to go home and read the first three chapters of Charlottes Web and find a theme and give details from the text to support it. Dont forget to find evidence from the story to support your thoughts. ELL learners will only have to read the first chapter and find a theme for that chapter (PID).
6. Assessment Methods of all objectives/skills:
7. Closure
I will grade the students homework assignment which they had to identify a theme in first three chapters of Charlottes Web using details from the text. Since theme is subjective, as long as their details back up the theme they found, I will consider them to have mastered finding theme in a literary work.
Before we leave today, lets review what we have learned.
Who can tell me what theme is? Why does having evidence from the story help you explain your theme? What was the theme of the first passage I read to you? What was the theme from the second passage? All of these questions are checks for understanding. N/A
8. Assessment Results of all objectives/skills: Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations ELL Student Accommodations: guided practice and independent practice.
Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations
Extreme struggling ELL students I will work with in a small group during guided practice really focusing on vocabulary and concepts.
Materials/Technology: Charlottes Web by E.B White
Reflection on lesson: *Modified slightly for use in ELED 3111, Smith, Fall 2015.
