edTPA Lesson Plan Template

Central Focus:
Subject:
Determining the theme of similar articles and providing
Reading
evidence on how you determined the theme.
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.9
Date submitted: Date taught: 3/28
Compare and contrast stories in the same genre
(e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their
approaches to similar themes and topics.

Daily Lesson Objective:

Given 4 articles total, students will independently create a graphic organizer that shows how the theme of 3 of
the 4 articles are similar and give an example from each article to support the overall theme and write a
sentence about how they are all connected. Students will earn 2 points for the overall theme, 2 points for the
explanation, and 2 points for each example from the articles. Students are expected to earn at least 8 out of 10
points.

21st Century Skills:

Collaboration: students will work in partners to Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
practice finding theme and evidence of two Vocabulary):
separate articles.
Create
Critical Thinking: Students will think critically about
how 3 out of the 4 articles are similar in theme.
Prior Knowledge:
Prior to the lesson, students will need to know that the theme of a text is the big idea or message that the writer is trying
to convey. Students will need to know how to analyze an article and determine the overall theme.

Activity Description

To start the lsson off, the teacher will play two songs for the studnets to
listen to and compare the overlal meaning or the THEME of the songs. The
two songs the students will listen to will be “Brave by Sara Bareilles and
“Roar” by Katy Perry.

The teacher will tell the students “I want you to listen carefully to the lyrics of
each of these two songs. Think about what the artist or the “writer” is trying
to convey to you. Then we will determine if the two songs have a similar
theme or big idea.”
1. Focus and Review
After the teacher has introduce what the students are going to do and let
10 points them listen to the songs, the teacher will ask the students to turn and talk to
their neighbor about their thoughts about a similar theme between the two
songs. After a minute of turning and talking to the person next to them, the
teacher will call on 2 students to share out their thoughts.

The teacher can ask questions as such:

Did both song have the EXACT same meaning?
Were both songs written the EXACT same way?
So can we have similar themes, yet completely differently organized
thoughts in songs, books, or any type of text?
 “Today we are going to read 4 different articles and determine the theme of
2. Statement of Objective each article. We wil be finding examples in the articles to support our theme.
for Student After we have determined the theme for all four articles, you will
10 points independently relate 3 out the 4 articles and find an overall theme.”

During the teacher input, the teacher will say “The theme of a text is the big
idea or the central message the writer is trying to convey to the reader. Let’s
look at 2 articles”.

The teacher will do a read aloud and read the articles to the class. As the
teacher is reading, he/she will stop and underline anything that may be
helpful in determining the theme.

After the teacher reads aloud and marks anything important in the articles,
he/she will tell the students we are going to create a graphic organizer
that shows the overall theme of both articles. The teacher will draw the
graphic organizer just like it looks below. The teacher will think aloud and tell
the students the overall theme between both articles is “opportunities to make
a difference”. After the teacher writes the overall theme, the teacher will think
aloud and use the things he/she underlined while reading and find at least 2
examples that are supporting the overall theme that he/she put in the graphic
organizer.

The two articles that the teacher will model with will be these:
3. Teacher Input
https://junior.scholastic.com/pages/news/2017-18/a-mass-shooting-
10 points generation-cries-out-for-change.html

https://wethepeople.scholastic.com/etc/designs/scholastic/classroom-
magazines-migration/clientlibs/reader/index.html?id=800-000001

Graphic Organizer to use:

Overall

During the guided practice the students will be given two more articles that
have similar themes. The students will work with a partner and read the two
articles and create a graphic organizer that shows the overall theme of the
two new articles and give 2 examples from each article that supports the
overall theme. The students will be working together to do the same thing
4. Guided Practice the teacher just modeled.
10 points
The students will EACH draw and fill in their graphic organizer in their
reading journal. Each students must draw and fill it in even if they are
working in pairs because they will use this as a reference for their
independent work.
 The students will use the same graphic to organize the overall theme and
supporting examples from the two articles.

The two articles the students will use will be about bullying and peer
pressure:

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/social-emotional-
skills/bullying-and-teasing-no-laughing-matter

KidsHealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html
The graphic organizer the students will use:

For the independent practice, each student will go back to their desk after
working with their partner for the guided practice. Each student will use ALL
4 articles that we have either read together or with a partner and decide
what an overall all theme of THREE of the articles is. The students will
create a similar graphic organizer with the theme at the top and give ONE
example from each article they choose to use (3 total). After they have
created their graphic organizer that shows the overall theme of THREE
articles, the students will write a sentence or two explaining how the articles
are similar and how they determined the theme.
5. Independent Practice
10 points The graphic organizer the students should use look like this:

Overall

Students performance will be measured from their independent practice. The

assessment will be taken from the graphic organizer they create linking the
similarities between three articles.

The grading will be as follows:

6. Assessment Methods of Overall theme of the 3 articles: 2 points
all objectives/skills: 1 example from article 1: 2 points
10 points 1 example from article 2: 2 points
1 example from article 3: 2 points
Explanation: 2 points
 To close the lesson, the class and the teacher will have a whole-group
discussion about theme and how some text can have similar themes but be
about different topics. For example, the teacher can say “The first article we
read was about making a difference in children’s literature and accurately
representing the students in our schools. The second article we read was
7. Closure about gun violence in schools and speaking out and standing up for what
you believe in. The overall theme of those two articles spiraled back to
10 points
advocating for change and making a difference.

The teacher can ask if anyone thought of an overall theme for 3 of the
articles and would like to share it with the class and explain why they came
to that conclusion.

8. Assessment Results of
all objectives/skills:
10 points
This section is not completed unless the lesson plan has been
implemented.
Measure how well students were able to achieve the performance/criteria
from the daily lesson objective.
 What percentage of your students achieved mastery (as outlined in your criteria)?
 Based on student performance, what strengths do students exhibit in regards to the
expected performance (as outlined in the daily lesson objective)?
 For students who did not achieve mastery, what kinds of errors did they make?

Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations

4 points 4 points

ELL Students: English language learners can be paired Early Finishers/Gifted Students: Students who finish early
with a higher performing student to complete the or need a challenge will add two more examples to their
independent practice. graphic organizers to further support their theme.

Accommodations/Modifications: Students who need it will Struggling students: Students who are struggling can
be given a print out of the graphic organizer that is labeled underline in the article examples that support the theme
where they can just fill in the theme and examples that and be given a print out of the organizers to fill in with
support it. what they underline.

Materials/Technology:
1 point

Four articles, graphic organizers, reading journal

CT signature: ________________________ Date: ______ US signature: ___________________Date: ____