Thursday, December 1st, 2016

Vestuto
English 8

UNIT: Of Mice & Men and The Literary Essay

LESSON TOPIC: Identifying Theme and Growing Our Ideas
AIM QUESTION: What is the text really saying about some of the topics it addresses?

A. CENTRAL FOCUSES/MAIN IDEAS

SWBAT identify the themes in multiple narratives.

SWBAT analyze the theme by asking the question What is this text really
saying about some of the topics it addresses?
Students will evaluate as comparative readers and examine themes across
texts.
SWBAT grow their ideas about multiple themes through conversation and
writing long.

B. MATERIALS

All Summer in a Day anchor text Determining Theme Handout

Of Mice and Men novel Prompts to Push Writers
Video

C. DO-NOW/MOTIVATION

Students will discuss the issues they see in the video and identify themes in the videos
narrative. (Students watched video yesterday).
Discuss the theme with your partner-what do you think the artists were
trying to say with this song? What is the theme?

D. ACTIVITIES

1) MINI-LESSON MODEL: Students will identify the theme using the

anchor text All Summer in a Day. Students will use the problems/issues we
discussed yesterday for this exercise.
a) With a writing partner, students will answer the questions:
i) What is the story teaching me about this
problem?
ii) Find some examples that pertain to this
problem of jealousy in the text.
b) Write Long: Students will read an example of how one can
use writing to grow ideas and expand thinking on document camera.
i) What are some craft/writers moves you
noticed?
2) Independent Work: After practicing with All Summer in a Day,
students will apply this process of thinking about theme to Of Mice and Men.
Once they have a theme in mind, students will write a theme entry on the
 handout:
a) Name a central problem or issue that characters in the
story face.
b) Find parts of the story that pertain to this problem.
c) Think to yourself, What is the story teaching me about this
problem/issue?
d) Write long about the problem/issues and grow your ideas.
For example, you might ask how different characters relate to that issue.

E. DIFFERENTIATED/ACCOMMODATIONS

Alternate Teaching Session (MC):

Students who struggle to identify theme will go to back table for a mini-lesson and
additional support. Students will be reminded that themes can be universal and
repeat across stories, so they can try taking a theme they found in Ray Bradburys
text and see if a variation of that same theme might be embedded in Of Mice and
Men.

F. CLOSURE

Turn and Talk: Talk with your partner about the themes you were
exploring today in Of Mice and Men, thinking about whether your life experiences
drew you to that theme. What do you want to learn from exploring the storys
message?
Seminar our ideas: What kind of writing did you do? What are some
possible themes? Can you build off of your peers responses? What is the author
saying about the issue? (If time allows)

G. FORMAL/INFORMAL ASSESSMENT

Informal Assessment: Conferencing with students during pair work,

circling the room as students work in pairs, taking notes on their seminar
discussions.
Formal Assessment: Students answers to questions as they follow the
theme chart allows teacher to assess how/if students are identifying theme; their
first theme entry in class during the write long segment, the homework.

H. HOMEWORK

Write a theme entry in your notebook using the steps we did in class. You
could:
Dig deeper into a theme entry you already wrote, exploring
how that theme plays out in more parts of the text
Write a new entry
Reading Log due tomorrow