Megan Ulicny

Course: Education 521

Grade: 6-8
Topic: Theme

Professor: Professor Rickey

Date: 11/13/16
Content Area: ELA

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE
After the teacher has reviewed the topic of themes through the use of videos and a slideshow
presentation, in groups the students will read a leveled text and will demonstrate their
understanding of themes by correctly identifying 75%- 80% of what the theme is in the text and
then answering questions on KaHoot.
STANDARDS AND INDICATORS
Common Core Anchor Standard (RL.2): Determine central ideas or themes of a text and
analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Indicator: This will be evident when the students read their stories and identify the theme.
Common Core Anchor Standard (SL.1): Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing
their own clearly and persuasively.
Indicator: This will be evident when the students are working with their groups to determine the
theme of their story as well as when they discuss with the class their findings.
ISTE NETS Standards: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing,
achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning
sciences.
Indicator: This will be evident when the students are interacting with the Percy Jackson and the
Lightning Thief website as well as when they are answering and receiving feedback on theme
when answering questions on KaHoot.
Common Core Anchor Standard (RI.1): Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or
speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Indicator: This will be evident when students are reading and determining the theme in passages
from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
Motivation
The teacher will begin class with a Do Now in which the students will be asked to think about
what theme is with a partner. The students will then be asked to individually fill in the sentence
starter: I believe theme is

. Afterwards, the teacher will engage in whole class

discussion about what the students wrote about theme, in relation to what they have been

learning. The teacher will ask students key questions regarding themes such as: What are
themes? Why is theme important?
Materials

SmartBoard
Theme SmartBoard Presentation
Theme Presentation Worksheet
Theme examples
Timer
WeeblyWebsite
IPads
KaHoot
Strategies

Entrance Slip. A quick writing activity to see where the students are in their learning.
Cooperative Learning. This will be evident when students are grouped heterogeneously for
various learning tasks.
Independent Work: Students will be asked to answer questions on theme explain and discussed
in class using KaHoot.
Direct Instruction. This will be evident when the teacher is explaining themes as well as
different examples of each.
Scaffolded Writing Tasks. This will be evident when tasks are either partially completed,
contain sentence starters, or word boxes to assist students in their writing.
Adaptations

Flexible grouping of students

Visuals aids
Wait time
Native-language support
Speaking slower
Text Readers (for students who may have difficulties reading the passages from the story)

Differentiation of Instruction
Content: This will be evident when students will be provided with tiered reading based on their
reading and language proficiency levels.

Process: This will be evident when students have sentence starters when participating in the
class discussions and while they are completing their Do Now activity. While the students are
working collaboratively with each other determining the theme of their text, they will also be
placed in heterogeneous groups based on their learning abilities.
Product: This will be evident when students are given scaffolded assignments and the choice of
which theme to write about when they are answering questions on KaHoot regarding theme.
Developmental Procedures
1. After the motivational activity, the teacher will announce to the students that they are going to
learn about different themes that can be seen in literature as well as movies and television shows.
The teacher will then hand out the Theme Presentation Worksheets in which they will ask the
students to fill in information as the Theme slideshow is being presented.
2. After the Theme slideshow presentation, the students will be heterogeneous grouped and given
their own passages from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The teacher will then explain
that as a group, the students will read the text and then determine what the theme of the passage
is that they are reading. Before the students begin reading and their discussions, the teacher will
explain that the students should read the text together as well as be respectful and attentive
listeners when discussing what they believe the theme is. Before the students begin, the teacher
will explicitly explain the directions to the students and will display them on the SmartBoard so
that they will have a better understanding of the activity. The students will also have a certain
amount of time to complete the assignment and the teacher will announce every few minutes
how much longer they have left to work.
3. While the students are reading and discussing their text and its theme, the teacher will be
walking around to each of the groups listening to student conversations and will provide positive
and enriching feedback to students.
4. Once the time is done, the teacher will ask each group to briefly summarize their reading and
what they believe is the main theme of the text. The teacher will facilitate the discussion by
asking questions such as: What did the characters learn? How did the characters grow or
change? Which theme do you think is discussed in the passage? Why do you believe it was this
theme?
5. Afterwards, the teacher will explain and show the students the Weebly website created for the
beginning of this unit. The teacher will show the various resources on the website, in addition to
the various assignments that they will have to complete throughout the unit. The teacher will
allow time for questions about the website.

6. After the website is shown, the teacher will The students will be given IPads and be asked to
log in to KaHoot where they will answer questions regarding theme and what they have learned
in class.
Assessment
The teacher will informally assess the students throughout the lesson. The teacher will be
walking around the classroom listening to the students conversations and class discussions on
their text and its theme. Students class discussions as well as their answers and scores on KaHoot
will be assessed using a teacher-created rubric.
Independent Practice
Students will be asked to look up a scene from a movie, television show or other piece of
literature that expresses one of the themes discussed in class. Teacher will check for theme
accuracy.

Academic Intervention & Academic Enrichment

Academic Intervention: The teacher will work one-on-one with students who are struggling and
not understanding the concept of themes, so that students have a better understanding.
AcademicEnrichment:Theteacherwillaskstudentstoidentifyvariousthemes,notone
discussedinclass,inagiventextandwillwriteanexplanationastowhytheirthemeiscorrect
usinginformationfromthetext.

References
Brand, J., Brooker, J., & Versvik, M. (2013) KaHoot!. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from
https://kahoot.it/#/
International Society For Technology in Education Standards for Students. (2008) Retrieved
November 21, 2016, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, & Council of Chief State School
Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards English Language Arts Standards
Reading: Literature. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELALiteracy/RL/introduction-for-6-12/
New York State Bilingual Common Core Initiative: Grade 6-8 | EngageNY.
(n.d.). Retrieved

November 21, 2016, from https://www.engageny.org/resource/newyork-state-bilingual-common-core-initiative

RubiStar. (2008) Theme Rubric. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
Teacher Created Materials. (2016). Theme. Megan Ulicny.
Ulicny, M., Velasquez, G., & Molina, J. (2016). Theme of Percy Jackson and the
Lightning Thief. Retrieved December, 2016, from http://themeofpj.weebly.com.