LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Name:

Julie Delaney

Date: 2/17/2015

Grade Level: 4

1. Content Objective(s)/State Standards:

Reading: Literature Standard 2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in
the text; summarize the text.
Speaking and Listening Standard 4 : Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an
experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details
to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
Health Education: Standard 2. Objective 2: Identify the qualities of positive role models.
[Josephson Institute C1.1. Components of Good Character: Students understand that good character consists of
attributes reflecting positive moral values, traits, dispositions, habits, and attitudes.]

Behavioral Objectives: I can collaborate effectively with my peers by using speaking and
listening skills.
2. Instructional Focus: The students will be learning that theme is a central message or
idea found in literature. The students will simultaneously be learning about role models,
who exemplify good character, and will discuss the observed qualities of the role models.
3. Interesting Texts/Materials for Instruction

Billboard pictures and text from values.com

Video: Hoyt team
Graphic organizer for sharing information

4. Student Engagement: What engagement principle(s) are you choosing for this lesson?
________choice, __x_____collaboration, ___x____building concepts, ___x_____relevancereal
world interaction
I will engage students in this lesson by:
Collaboration: Students will collaborate in their groups by choosing a word which represents
the theme of the text.
Building Concepts: The students have been introduced to a few different character traits.
This lesson will build on students understanding of character, and help them to recognize
the connection between the persons actions and what the person is known for.
Relevance: Our classroom is a place for learning, including character development. This
understanding can help students to recognize character traits in themselves and others, and
can help them to better understand how to achieve their goals.
5. Student Activity/Differentiation.
What my students are actually DOING: Before, During, and After.
Before: The students are listening to the teacher give an example of the assignment.
During: The students are reading the given text and collaborating in order to choose the
correct word for the theme of their text. They will fill out the graphic organizer to guide
them in sharing.
After: When the students have finished, they will share their thoughts with the class. The
teacher will show them the word for the theme of each text.
How will you differentiate your instruction for struggling/gifted readers?
For struggling readers and ELL students who need extra help, I will assign a text with a topic

that is more familiar and easier to read. They will also be given sentence starters in order to
better formulate their thoughts and writing. For gifted learners, I will assign more complex
texts from which to determine theme.

6. Writing/Communicating/Assessment: How will you know students have met the

purpose of the lesson? What will students do to record their understanding?
Each group will write and read their thoughts about the given text. This will be shared with
the class. I will also be informally assessing the students in order to identify student
understanding.
7. Reflection: What were the strengths and or areas of refinement of this lesson. Given
what you taught in this lesson, what are you teaching next?
If the students struggle with this basic introduction to the concept of theme, then I will
continue to show more examples using the billboard texts and pictures. I will also help them
to recognize theme in songs and videos; this method is a way to develop their
understanding of the concept while removing the difficulty of deciphering the passage.
Once the students have a good idea of theme, I will continue to teach it through different
kinds of literature (including narrative, poetry, and short stories). The students will continue
to identify theme using a variety of literature, including our current read-aloud.
As students develop their understanding, I will also familiarize them with some of the most
popular themes in literature, and extend one-word themes to short phrases.