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Direct Instruction 5th Grade Language Arts Lesson Plan

General Information
Lesson Title: Summarizing and Themes

Subject(s): Language Arts

Grade/Level/Setting: 5th Grade

Prerequisite Skills/Prior Knowledge:

It is assumed in this lesson that students understand the basic concepts of how to summarize.
Students were previously taught main ideas and key concepts as well as how to identify them
for a summary.

Standards and Objectives

State/National Academic Standard(s):

RL.5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how
characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects
upon a topic; summarize the text.

Learning Objective(s):

Given the readings The Road Not Taken, Since Hannah Moved Away, and How to Paint a
Donkey, students will be able to summarize the readings using graphic organizers with 80%
accuracy.
Given the readings The Road Not Taken, Since Hannah Moved Away, and How to Paint a
Donkey, students will be able to analyze and determine the themes portrayed with 80%
accuracy.

Materials
 The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
printouts
 Since Hanna Moved Away by Judith
Viorst printouts
 How To Paint a Donkey by Naomi
Technology
 Projector/Smartboard with the copies
of the poems online
 Fun Animation Showing How to
Identify a Theme within a Story by the
channel McGraw Hill PreK-12.
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Shihab Nye printouts

 “Theme” worksheets with summary
and theme section
 Poster boards
 Markers

Language Demands
Specific ways that academic language (vocabulary, functions, discourse, syntax) is used by students to participate in learning
tasks through reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking to demonstrate their understanding.

Language Function(s):

Students will identify the main ideas and concepts of the readings, analyze the themes, and
explain to their peers their findings by presenting a poster project.

Vocabulary:

Main Idea: what the text is mostly about.

Summary: a brief statement of the main points of the text.
Theme: the underlying message or big idea of a text. The message the text is teaching.
Key concepts/details: words or phrases that are important and help us summarize and
determine the theme of a text.

Discourse and/or Syntax:

Students will participate in class discussion as well as create posters analyzing the theme and
summarizing the texts provided.

Planned Language Supports:

Students will be given graphic organizers as well as modeling how to complete the worksheet
correctly.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

Anticipatory Set:
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Activity Description/Teacher Student Actions

Show the video Fun Animation Showing Students will watch the video, consider
How to Identify a Theme within a Story by anything important being taught and answer
the channel McGraw Hill PreK-12. verbal questions.

 Discuss what the characters in the

video were meeting about.
 How did they determine the
theme or main idea of their
friend’s story?
 How did they determine if the
themes were correct or not?
Hold a quick conversation with students
and introduce the assignment.

Presentation Procedures for New Information and/or Modeling:

Activity Description/Teacher Student Actions

Distribute Since Hannah Moved Away, Students will read along and write down their
How to Paint a Donkey and “Theme” summaries on their “Theme” worksheet.
worksheets.
 Answer questions prompted by me as
 Lead discussion on summarizing a well as circling the words from the
poem. poem on their papers.
 Ask the students to raise their
hands if they heard any words
stand out.
 Circle words students state on the
poem that’s projected on the
board.
 Prompt discussion as do why they
think the author chose that word.
 Discuss what characters in poem is
going through and how it affected
them emotionally or how they
reacted to what was happening.

Guided Practice:
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Activity Description/Teacher Student Actions

Explain that the theme is the message the
poem is teaching.
 Walk around checking on group
discussions.
Open discussion with the following
questions.
Students will discuss with their seat partners
what they think the themes of Since Hannah
Moved Away and How to Paint a Donkey.
 Use “Theme” worksheet to write what
they believe the themes are in their
own words.

 Which poem’s theme was the

most relatable to them and why?
Discuss the important of themes in
literature.
 Where else can themes be found
besides poetry? Discuss that most
literature have a theme to find.
 How do the characters reactions to
an event in a poem affect the
power of it? Do poems have more
effect on you when they make you
feel strong emotions?

Independent Student Practice:

Activity Description/Teacher Student Actions

Distribute The Road Not Taken, poster Collaborate to summarize poem and
board and markers to desk groups. determine theme.

 Collect poster boards when  Write answers on poster board.

students are complete to ensure  Discuss thoughts on how the character
students don’t add to their posters reflects on which road to take and why
during presentations. they might’ve been conflicted when
deciding what would be right for them.
 Work together to understand the
concepts independently.
 Students will provide theme, main
ideas, and summaries.
Culminating or Closing Procedure/Activity:
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Activity Description/Teacher Student Actions

Present their posters to the class as a group.

Differentiated Instruction
Consider how to accommodate for the needs of each type of student. Be sure that you provide content specific accommodations
that help to meet a variety of learning needs.

Gifted and Talented:

My students who are Gifted and Talented will be given the opportunity to find the theme and
summarize a poem at a higher-grade level. I want the students to continue with a similar lesson with
finding themes and summarizing. Giving a Gifted and Talented student more rigorous but relevant work
will challenge them enough to have them feel successful. They can teach the class their poem to
showcase their efforts and have the students learn something new. Having a more challenging poem can
prepare them for future classes where they would need to summarize more intense texts and poems.

EL:

My students who are English Language Learners will be provided vocabulary sheets and graphic
organizers as needed. I want to speak slowly and provide ample time for questions the class
has. I want to write down anything important and provide visuals for the students to be able to
reference. As well as having a vocabulary sheet. I want to write the vocabulary words on the
board for students to reference as well. I will make sure the ELL students are in a group of
students who will support them and not talk over them. I want group work to be a
collaboration of all students.

Students with Other Special Needs:

My students with ADHD and those that are more of a kinesthetic learner will be allowed to
stand or walk in the back of the classroom in a low distraction work area. The student can also
assist the teacher with circling and writing words during the instruction time to have more
focus on the lesson but will work with groups during discussions. They will be allowed fidget
toys or a balance ball chair to use quietly to aide them with focusing on the lesson.

Assessment
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Formative

Students will show understanding of how to Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem by
completing the “Theme” worksheet.

I will provide prompting and scaffolding assistance to students who need. I’ll monitor
discussions to ensure students are grasping the concepts and correctly identifying appropriate
information. I’ll prompt questions to extend thinking.

Summative

The group poster board will act as a summative assessment for this lesson. This shows students
have mastered the skills taught in the lesson because they would have had to work together to
create the poster. They needed to work together to determine the theme, main ideas and
correctly summarize the poem. If students were able to do this successfully, they could show
their mastery by teaching the class their findings. Further lessons I will provide quizzes.

B.  To make this lesson a cross-disciplinary lesson we could change the text into historical texts
Instruction wouldn’t need to be changed except the historical background and any relevant
events. The characters of the poem and other texts can be discussed in a historical manner.
The skills students would need wouldn’t change, but the knowledge of the students would
need to broaden into more historical knowledge. The content would be changed to revolve
around historical texts and events.

  
1.  The goals that could be used for the history portion of the cross-disciplinary lesson could
be Standard 5: Global Perspectives Students in Grade 5 build an understanding of
multiple perspectives and global interdependence, and Standard 2: Geography Students
in Grade 5 analyze the spatial organizations of people, places and environment on the
earth’s surface with the goal 2.5: Explain how geography enables people to comprehend
the relationships between people, places, and environments over time. This modified
lesson aligns with all these relevant standards because the student would need to
analyze multiple perspectives for Standard 5. The standard asks students to explain how
the world is divided. By understanding multiple perspectives, the student can analyze the
poems or other texts provided by each party and determine the themes they’re trying to
convey. For the seconds goal, students will be able to use texts from around the world to
determine their perspectives and determine how geography enables people to
comprehend the different relationships they have.
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2.  The modifications in the plan’s instruction, skills and content would increase the
relevance of this lesson because it would be more geared to historical events and pieces
of literature. Instead of pieces of literature that are seemingly random, they would be
historical relevant to the time frame being taught in fifth grade. Students would be able
to learn how to look at multiple perspectives, the history standard, by using the English
standard that wants students to analyze themes based on events and characters
reactions to the events. This would impact students’ engagement because they can
relate their history lesson to their English lesson. They would be reading pieces that are
relevant to their history instead of just relevant to English. Explain how your
modifications to the plan’s instruction, skills, and content would increase the relevance
of the lesson and impact student engagement and motivation in the lesson.