Mrs. Mack: More Practice with Theme
Lesson 10 of 16
Objective: SWBAT read a book and identify the theme along with corresponding text evidence.
Going Over the Homework
When the students come to class today, we immediately go over the homework from yesterday. And the conversation comes up, as I hoped it would, that some of the themes from the homework didn't match what we did in class yesterday. I explain to the students that the list I gave them is not exhaustive, it's just a start of themes they will find in children's literature and that they should feel free to add other themes they come across to their notebook page.
Reading Mrs. Mack
Today we're going to read another Patricia Polacco book- Mrs. Mack and analyze the theme of it. This book is a bit different than the other books we've read in this unit. It is longer and has chapters of sorts, so it takes us a while to read and discuss it. I love this book so much though and the themes are plentiful!! I don't particularly care which theme the kiddos choose to apply to this book just so that the theme is correct and supported by text evidence.
After we read the book, it is time to hand out the graphic organizer. At this point, we're not necessarily writing about theme, just identifying it and supporting it with text evidence. After explaining the graphic organizer, it's time for students to choose a partner and go to work.
I pull a small group to work with my struggling readers in processing the information and completing the graphic organizer.
Which Theme Did You Choose?
After the working session, it is time to share the themes we came up with. Most pairs said that perseverance was the theme, but some said that friendship was the theme. There were some other answers that were less focused on the whole book, but rather focused on small parts of the book, so that was a good conversation to have.
Overall, in looking at the graphic organizers under the ELMO, the students did a good job of finding the theme and providing text evidence. I hope that in when they are assessed individually they do just as well!!