Lesson Plan # 2

Title: Common Topics

Lesson Overview: In this lesson, students will read and summarize medieval tales in
order to identify and describe common topics within the genre. Students will orally share
their summaries. As students share, reoccurring words will be charted and tallied. After
doing this twice, students will compare and contrast topics from two tales.
Resources or Materials Needed:
Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne,pencils,readingjournals,chartpaper,
markers,Coggleaccounts,LunchListenInsheets,computerandinternetaccess(for
Wordle)
Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.9
Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good
and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature
from different cultures.
Lesson Objectives: Given two literary works from within the same genre, students will
refer to specific textual evidence as they identify and compare and contrast the primary
topics presented in both literary works as they respond to a writing prompt, scoring at
least a three out of four on the Common Topics Rubric.
Time: Approximately two and a half hours
Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: Lunch Listen-In
Students will be tasked to eaves drop during lunch. Students will make
predictions as to which words they think they will hear the most frequently at lunch.

These words will be recorded on a Lunch Listen-In sheet (Appendix F). Students will
then record words that they hear repeated such as recess, teacher, and gross as they
listen to random students talking during lunch. Students will tally the number of times
they hear each repeated word on the Lunch Listen-In sheet. After students have gathered
data from one to two lunch periods, students will enter the words onto Wordle, repeatedly
typing words that reoccurred. Students will share their Wordles with the class and a
discussion about similarities between student Wordles will be conducted. This activity
will serve as an introduction to the word topic. The reoccurring words from the Lunch
Listen-In represent common topics in elementary student conversations. The teacher will
then segue into a conversation about how there are common topics in literary works too.
Step 2: Content Presentation
The teacher will explain the overall goal of instruction. The teacher will then
provide a definition for topic after the Lunch Listen-In discussion. The teacher will
give a brief example of common topics in Disney princess movies (love, heroism, evil
step-mothers, etc.). The teacher will review summarizing with students, ensuring that
students remember to record key details from the beginning, middle, and end of a text.
The teacher will also review the term textual evidence, reminding students that specific
reference to the text is a strong way to support ones work. The teacher will distribute
copies of Finn MacCoul. Students will be asked to read the tale and summarize the tale
with a partner.
During reading, the teacher will circulate through the room, prompting students to
include specific details about main characters, setting, and events in the story. After
students complete the work, the teacher will record reoccurring words from student

summaries and tally the amount of times the word is mentioned by students. The teacher
will then add the words to Wordle in order to create a visual representation of common
topics. The reoccurring words represent the topics in the literary work.
The teacher will assist students, meeting in small groups with students who
struggled during partner practice, during independent practice. As students read The
Werewolf and identify topics, the teacher will ensure that students are on the right track
and should also discuss topics that may not be mentioned explicitly.
The teacher will collect and assess student work, including the Coggles and
sentence frames mentioned in Learner Participation.
Step 3: Learner Participation
Step 1: Students will work in pairs in order to read and summarize Finn MacCoul.
Step 2: Students will orally share their summaries.
Step 3: Students will transition to independent work, reading The Werewolf and
recording the topics.
Step 4: Students will rejoin their partner and compare and contrast recorded topics
by creating a Coggle that represents commonalities and differences in their work.
Step 5: Students will share their Coggles with the class.
Step 6: Students will participate in a whole-class discussion as they compare and
contrast noted topics from the partner work (Finn MacCoul) and independent
work (The Werewolf)
Step 6: Each student will independently complete an exit ticket on which they
will complete the following sentence frames.

Frame 1: Both Partners name and I recorded Topic as a topic in Finn

MacCoul.
Frame 2: Although Partners name recorded Topic as a topic in Finn
MacCoul, I did not note this as a topic.
Frame 3: Topic is a common topic in both The Werewolf and Finn
MacCoul.
Frame 4: Topic is a topic in The Werewolf, however Topic is not a topic in
Finn MacCoul.
Step 7: Assessment
Step 4: Assessment and Evaluation Method
Given two literary works, Beowulf and Island of the Lost Children, students will
refer to specific textual evidence as they identify and compare and contrast the primary
topics presented in both literary works, scoring at least a three out of four on the
Common Topics Rubric (Appendix H).
Students will read both Beowulf and Island of the Lost Children, noting primary
topics.
Students will compare and contrast topics represented in the two works using
digital graphic organizers and sentence frames to guide their work.
Students will respond, with specific textual evidence, to a writing prompt
concerning common topics in medieval tales.
Specific directions for this assessment can be found in Appendix G.
Time: Approximately three hours
Step 5: Follow-Through Activities

Students will apply information and skills gathered from lesson plan number two
in order to meet performance objective number seven: Students will synthesize
information about common topics, structures, and themes in medieval tales in order to
create a new tale in which characters from separate stories are brought together, scoring
at least an overall level three on the rubric.
The ability to define and compare prevalent topics in literary works will also help
students as they participate in increasingly sophisticated conversations about literature
throughout the year and throughout their academic careers. Being able to speak about
prevalent topics will also help students become more active participants is global
conversations later in life.