CEP Lesson Plan Form

Teacher: Aldo Ricci (Coopera ng Teacher - Emily Pipkin) Date: 08/05/21

School: Poudre High School Grade Level: 09 Content Area: English

Title: From Topic to Theme Lesson #:1 of 2

Lesson Idea/Topic and Ra onal/Relevance: In the prior weeks students have been learning about
What are you going to teach and why is this topics and themes within the book Speak, so this lesson
lesson important to these students? What will e together the ideas that they’ve been learning and
has already happened in this classroom push their thinking as they close in on the end of the
surrounding the subject you will be teaching? story. They already know what topics and themes are in
What do students already know? Why are isola on, but they’ve yet to have these ideas connected
you going to teach this topic now (how does or to directly apply them, so this lesson will get them
it t in the curricular sequence)? What more engaged with these topics. This is an end of unit
teaching methods/strategy will you be use lesson that helps e things together and wrap up
and why? student’s ideas on the text they’ve been reading. I’ll
follow a simple mini lesson structure that includes
mul ple ques ons and examples throughout.

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson: (Write Content Standards directly from the standard)

• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of
the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and re ned by speci c details; provide an objec ve
summary of the text. (CCSS: RL.9-10.2)

Understandings: (Big Ideas)

• Understanding of how the events of a story allow for one to iden fy the topics within it

• Understand how commonali es between the topics within a story are what allow for the iden ca on
of a theme

• Be able to make a thema c statement on what you believe the author’s objec ve is within a text and
defend that statement with evidence

Inquiry Ques ons: (Essen al ques ons rela ng knowledge at end of the unit of instruc on, select
applicable ques ons from standard)

• What is a topic?

• What is a theme?

• How are topic and theme intertwined with one another?

• What is the importance of being able to generate a thema c statement?

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

• What do I use as evidence to defend my thema c statement?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets) AND (Success Criteria)

I can: Iden fy topics and themes within a story and create a thema c statement that I can defend with
evidence.

This means: I can analyze the class novel Speak, or any novel for that ma er, and be able to understand
the objec ve of the author and defend my claim.

List of Assessments: (Note whether the assessment is forma ve or summa ve)

• Pre Assessment - Asks students to reiterate the knowledge they gained from the prior class in regards
to topic and theme. (Not individual but serves as a progress check)

• Share Outs - Over the course of the lesson students will be asked to share their thoughts and ideas
regarding topic and theme as new informa on is presented to them. This is essen al to making sure
they understand the material before moving forward. (Doesn’t require all students to share but the
majority will over the dura on of the lesson)

• Post Assessment - While reading the class novel, students will be asked ques ons regarding the topics
and themes surfacing during the day’s reading and have to share out / discuss their observa ons. Gives
the teacher an idea if the lesson has been successful or not for the majority of students.

Important Vocabulary:

• Theme - A message or lesson you can learn from a story

• Topics - Big ideas that reoccur across the dura on of a story

• Theme Statement - A sentence detailing what the author is trying to say by repea ng topics

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

Planned Lesson Ac vi es

Name and Purpose of From Topic to Theme

Lesson (Ties together earlier established ideas of Topic and Theme
Should be a crea ve tle for you and that were instructed individually and gives students the
the students to associate with the opportunity to apply them)
ac vity. Think of the purpose as the
mini-ra onale for what you are
trying to accomplish through this
lesson.

Approx. Time and Materials 80 Minutes Total

How long do you expect the ac vity • 10 Minutes for Introduc on Ac vity - (Students Need Their
to last and what materials will you Laptops for this Por on)
need? • 20 Minutes for Minilesson - (No Materials Required)
• 50 Minutes for Class Book Readaloud - (Students need Speak
Novel)

(I will require a computer and display for the powerpoint)

An cipatory Set Bring up the tle of the lesson which takes the two tles of the
The “hook” to grab students’ prior lessons (Understanding Topic and Understanding Theme)
a en on. These are ac ons and and recontextualizes them together.
statements by the teacher to relate
the experiences of the students to the With this tle tying two previously discussed topics together
objec ves of the lesson, To put with new meaning, I!ll open with a statement recapping the
students into a recep ve frame of prior week’s lessons. This will get their a en on and remind
mind. them of their past work, and also spark their curiosity as to
• To focus student a en on on how what they!ve learned is about to be repurposed.
the lesson.
• To create an organizing
framework for the ideas,
principles, or informa on
that is to follow (advanced
organizers)
An an cipatory set is used any me a
di erent ac vity or new concept is to
be introduced.
How do you intend to engage your During the An cipatory Set I will ask the class for a Share Out
students in thinking during the on what both a theme and a topic are. These two concepts are
An cipatory Set? essen al to understand what we’ll be discussing moving
forward, so it’s a necessity that I know students have the
Why are you using it at this point in informa on they need before progressing. In addi on to this, it
your lesson? serves as a good refresher for the rest of the class and anybody
who may have forgo en last week’s lessons.

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

Procedures 1. Open Class with weekly scheduled Grammar Tuesday Introductory

(Include a play-by-play account of Ac vity (10 Minutes - Individual Prac ce) Students complete the
what students and teacher will do ac vity on google classroom while the teacher walks around,
from the minute they arrive to the surveying the class and making sure students are staying on task
minute they leave your classroom. 2. Teacher regains the a en on of the class to get the mini lesson
Indicate the length of each segment started. I begin with asking for a Share Out on the de ni ons of
of the lesson. List actual minutes.) theme and topic during the tle screen of the powerpoint to jog
Indicate whether each is: student memory and get them thinking about the day’s lesson. (2
-teacher input Minutes - Whole Class Prac ce / Teacher Input / Check for
-modeling Understanding)
-ques oning strategies 3. Con nue forward to the next slide and provide a teacher created
-guided/unguided: de ni on of topic and theme so students really understand the
-whole-class prac ce concept moving forward. Also use an example from the movie Toy
-group prac ce Story to ar culate what these things look like in prac ce and
-individual prac ce reinforce once more. Finish this slide by providing a template as to
-check for understanding how students can use topics to iden fy the theme within the work
-other they’re looking at. (2 Minutes - Modeling / Teacher Input)
4. The next slide contains a video clip from the Pixar movie Up in
which characters Ellie and Carl fall in love and grow old with one
another. The en re class watches the clip but not before I preface
the ac vity by asking them to note topics that they see in the
video and begin thinking about poten al themes. A er the
conclusion of the clip, I start another Share Out where I ask
students to list some of the topics they noted while watching. (6
Minutes - Whole Class Prac ce / Check for Understanding)
5. Move forward to the next slide, which details the plot points
unfolding in the story and the poten al topics that can be derived
from the clip. Reinforce student examples by showing similari es
and introduce the idea of mul ple/varied topics to them so they
understand the scope of this concept. Conclude this slide by asking
students to provide a thema c statement that es together all the
topics they listed out thus far. (3 Minutes - Whole Class Prac ce,
Check for Understanding, Modeling)
6. Following student examples, provide yet another teacher example,
this me for poten al thema c statements. Recap the ideas
brought up by students in the prior slide to reinforce learning and
these concepts before moving forward. (2 Minutes - Modeling,
Teaching Input)
7. Next slide contains a list of poten al topics that students will look
at brie y and consider which have been present in the class novel
Speak. They will select 3 total and share out their ndings, and
then come up with a thema c statement in their head that they
will also share out. This ac vity will be prefaced by having the
teacher share an example of their own crea on so students are
aware of what the expecta ons are. (4 Minutes - Group Prac ce,
Modeling, Check for Understanding)
8. Final Slide will con nue pushing this line of thinking toward the
class novel and recap the ideas covered (3 Minutes -teacher input)
9. Teacher reads class novel Speak (50 minutes - modeling, CFU, GP)

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

How do you intend to engage your As I detailed before, I will be doing consistent checks for
students in thinking during the understanding through the use of Share Outs from the class.
PROCEDURE? Because we’re on a schedule for nishing the class novel I need
my instruc on to be rela vely quick, so using this method
Why are you using it at this point in keeps students engaged and thinking about the informa on
your lesson? they’ve learned while remaining me e ec ve.

Closure
Those ac ons or statements by a Over the dura on of reading Speak out loud to the students,
teacher that are designed to bring a we will stop and have discussions as the story progresses.
lesson presenta on to an appropriate While this isn’t exactly the end of the lesson, it immediately
conclusion. Used to help students follows it and takes all of the concepts learned and directly
bring things together in their own applies them to the material.
minds, to make sense out of what has
just been taught. “Any Ques ons? It also allows for more progress checking and an opportunity to
No. OK, let’s move on” is not closure. clear the air on any outstanding ques ons before moving
Closure is used: forward conceptually on future lessons. It is essen ally both
• To cue students to the fact applica on and debrief rolled in one, and lets students fully
that they have arrived at an understand what they’ve learned in a conclusive manner. (50
important point in the lesson minutes)
or the end of a lesson.
• To help organize student
learning
To help form a coherent picture and
to consolidate.
How do you intend to engage your Students will be engaged during closure through the use of
students in thinking during Share Outs and Group Discussion. At the end of each chapter
CLOSURE? one of the two methods will be used in order to keep students
engaged with the material and to reinforce the ideas presented
Why are you using it at this point in in the mini lesson. Because they are encouraged to partake in
your lesson? this discourse, they will have to pay a en on to the reading in
order to know what is going on, and thus will naturally
comprehend the material be er. This also re nes the
informa on learned for students in the closing segment of the
lesson.

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

The structure of this lesson is one that inherently

accommodates students because it isn’t demanding on
Di eren a on: individuals as much as it is on the class community. People
Di eren a on should be with IEPs and 504s won’t have to contribute to the class
discussion or speak outs if they are having issues
embedded throughout your
understanding, but this alone isn’t enough. This is why the
whole lesson!! lesson goes to such great extents to repeat the main ideas, as
This is to make sure you have it’s going to be incredibly di cult to not pick it up by the
conclusion. In the case that this does happen, there is a period
met the needs of your of me in between the mini lesson and the reading where
students on IEPS or 504 students are ge ng prepared to read, and during this me
To modify: If the ac vity is too they can ask any clarifying ques ons individually to make sure
advanced for a child, how will you they understand everything. Finally, for the reading itself,
modify it so that they can be student’s are o ered individual book selec ons that di er from
successful? Speak if necessary for their educa onal success. In general
To extend: If the ac vity is too easy though, students can decide the di cultly level of the lesson
for a child, how will you extend it to themselves through par cipa on, as well as the di culty of
develop their emerging skills? the text they’re focusing on in class.

Assessment Re ec on: (data Having the lesson start by asking students for the de ni ons of
topics and themes was a decision made with great inten on, as
analysis) it allows me to understand where the class lies currently on
How will you know if students met this subject ma er and what I need to focus on speci cally to
the learning targets? Write a get them where they need to be come the lesson’s conclusion.
descrip on of what you were looking I close the lesson out by having them apply the concepts
for in each assessment. outlined in the beginning on the class text, as this reinforces
not only that they’ve learned the de ni ons of topics and
themes, but that they can now apply it themselves.

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 CEP Lesson Plan Form

Post Lesson Re ec on

1. To what extent were lesson objec ves achieved? (U lize assessment data to jus fy
your level of achievement)

As far as I can tell, my lesson was e ec ve. I was limited in how I could structure it because I
needed to move through the content quickly in order for us to be able to stay on track with our
readings, but based on the feedback I got from students during the class I have no doubt that all
the students that spoke up fully understood what I had taught them. In addi on to this, the
class is working on a topic to theme project that they started later in the week, and while
walking around and helping them with their work I now have no doubt that they understood
the content.

2. What changes, omissions, or addi ons to the lesson would you make if you were to
teach again?

I would undoubtedly put a greater emphasis on individual assessments. As I men oned earlier, I
was restricted with the me I had to teach, but future lessons will allow for me to implement
actual strategies from the MTV book and get a be er sense of the progress that the students
make. In addi on to this, I wouldn’t mind omi ng things such as the video clip in future
lessons. While things of that nature have their purpose in the classroom, they essen ally take
up me that could be used for instruc on, and given the class novel it would have been easy to
apply the same line of thinking to that story and ul mately have more me to reiterate/assess
learning.

3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Con nued prac ce, reteach content, etc.)

For my next lesson, I’d really like to structure it as follows (individual assessment, mini lesson,
group work/discussion, individual assessment). The next me I teach will be in the following
unit so I have absolutely no idea what to expect content wise, but I want to be able to use a
whole class period exclusively for teaching and try a bunch of di erent styles over it’s dura on.
Opening and closing with individual assessment will allow me to be er gauge student
understanding, and having group work or a class discussion that is more extensive than a
comprehension check will allow me to develop be er skills in the realm of classroom
management.

(Note - This plan was made for the lesson that I taught in the classroom earlier in the
week. I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to come up with an imaginary plan that
allowed for more crea vity or if we were to translate an actual run of the mill lesson
we completed, so I gured I’d use my real one in case that was the expecta on. If this
is too restric ve/isn’t mee ng the criteria for the assignment I’m more than happy to
create an addi onal theore cal plan that takes more risks. Thanks!)

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