Molloy College

School of Education and Human Services

Elisabeth Perlegis Professor Brenda Williams

English Language Arts Mrs. Hansen

Grade 5 Lesson# 1 Themes Between Two Texts February 2, 2023

Seaford School District Seaford Harbor Elementary School

STANDARDS AND INDICATORS

ELA Standard: New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standard

Reading Standards

(Literacy and Informational Text)

Key Ideas and Details

5R2

Determine a theme or central idea and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize a text (RI

& RL).

Indicator: This will be evident when the students read the story Fly Away Home, annotate the text and

summarize the text by completing their Connecting Themes Worksheet.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVE(S)

After reading and discussing the story, Fly Away Home, students will be able to come up with how

universal themes evident in both the book Fly Away Home and Home of the Brave are supported with
details and therefore relate to their personal lives, completing the Exit Ticket, correctly answering at

least 2 out of the 3 questions correctly.

PRIOR ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE, CONCEPTIONS/MISCONCEPTIONS

Prior Academic Knowledge

Before the ELA lesson on determining a theme or central idea and explain how it is supported by key

details, students should know what parts of a story are, and how to complete a story arc. Students should

be able to define the meaning of a universal theme. Students should be able to provide examples of

themes and their importance between different texts. Students must be able to retell stories or share key

details from a text. Students must be able to identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Misconceptions

Students may think that universal themes do not overlap between different stories. Students may think

that a universal theme is different from a central idea. Students may think universal themes are only

applicable to stories. Students may think universal themes apply to only two pieces of text. Students may

think universal themes must only overlap between similar texts, or texts only by the same author.

DEVELOPMENTAL PROCEDURES (*Engaging the learner)

1. MOTIVATION Students will participate in a class discussion to talk about universal

themes. Students will already have reviewed earlier that week, a PowerPoint presentation

on Understanding and Interpret a Story’s Arc and Themes evident in their author study
unit. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SNCs7CfGc7pwkzpc1SyGpl9q7qQ9od

3xuIDDVethXKw/edit - slide=id.g91c7d10726_8_46 Students will get the opportunity

to first Think Pair Share with their peers to discuss the definition and purpose of

universal themes before joining the class discussion. Students will think about what

universal themes are, then pair with a partner and share ideas. Students will come up to

the board and write down one theme their group tables talked about.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zxpaEicTKBWsZLbhmLd_7mYgSHB6zprdci59

fsyHB2M/edit#slide=id.g76cbc6627a_0_91 (What is a universal theme? What does it

mean if something is universal? What are some themes you know not only from books, but

that apply to your life? What universal themes can you remember from the book, Home of

the Brave? Themes are universal and can be found in many places. A universal theme is a

central idea understood by by everyone. ) (5 minutes).

2. Students will be given the Home of the Brave blurb worksheet to refresh their memory on

their class book (the class has already read the book prior to this lesson). Students will reflect on

the reading and complete with the teacher the five parts of summarizing a story (somebody,

wants, because, but, so) on their “Connecting Themes Worksheet”. Students will then work with

their group tables to provide evidence on how and why they chose their specific theme. Students

will provide details and reasoning with their choice and complete the left column of the

“Connecting Themes Worksheet”. Then students will share their answers with the class. (Let’s

think together and see who can tell me who was the main character in the book, Home of the

Brave? What did Keik want? Why did Keik want a better life? What were some difficulties Keik
encountered? What makes you say that? What evidence can you provide? How would you feel if

you were Keik? Why? So what happened at the end of the book? Did Keik persevere past the

challenges? What lesson can we learn from Keik and or the book as a whole?) (15 minutes).

3. Students will then reread Fly Away Home (short story text) to review the characters, setting,

and plot of the article. Students will take a look at their Story Arc Map worksheet (that was

completed the day before) to review the different parts of the story (Who are the main characters

in the story? What do we know about their life and or where they live? Can someone tell me what

happened at the beginning of the story? What happened in the middle of the story? What

happened at the end of the story? As a class we will then complete the five parts of summarizing

a story? (Someone, wanted, because, but, so) (6 minutes)

4. Students will work in their heterogeneous groups (pre-assigned on the board) to look at certain

parts of the text, Fly Away Home, to detect how the theme from Home of the Brave, (We need

Hope to help us survive), lives in the Fly Away Home Text. Students will stop and annotate with

their group members important characters, setting, plot, and objects and or living things that are

symbolic with their group. The teacher will first model how to annotate important parts of the

text, on the second page of the text, (looking at a specific paragraph involving a bird that

symbolizes hope/freedom). Then students will work with their groups to dissect and annotate the

rest of the text, while looking for parts of the story that share a similar theme to Home of the

Brave. Students will then complete the rest of the Connecting Themes worksheet. After students

finish, the teacher will review with the class their Connecting Themes worksheet (What parts of
the story show the same theme from Home of the Brave? Did you find any parts of the story

(evidence) that showed the importance of hope or freedom? Where does the theme live in the

text? How can you tell? What makes you say that?) (10 minutes).

5. Students will assess their knowledge by completing the Exit Ticket called, “Universal

Themes” on an index card, to define what a universal theme is, and then connect the themes from

the book, Home of the Brave and the book Fly Away Home to their life. Students will then apply

the themes from the two stories in a new way. (Does anyone have any questions about applying

themes? Make sure you connect both texts. Try thinking about the five parts of summarizing a

story) (10 minutes).

6. Closure: To close the lesson, students will participate in a Sketch to Stretch activity where

they will revisit the Fly Away Home text, and find a sentence from the text that helps show the

theme. Students will write on one side of the index card their sentence, and on the back side of

the index card, students will draw a visual representation of the theme. This will be hung up in

the classroom. This will be used as a reference tool as students read more short stories within

their author study unit, and be able to connect other genres and pieces of literature to these

universal themes. (What themes most resonated with you? Why? What are some themes you liked

from Home of the Brave? What themes did you like from Fly Away Home? Can you think of any

new themes that relate to both texts? What makes you say that? Can you connect these books to

any other books you may have read in the past? What is one thing you learned today?) (5

minutes).
 ASSESSMENT (formal & informal)

Informal assessment

Questions posed by the teacher throughout all of the activities, monitoring during group work, questions

before and after the Home of the Brave blurb worksheet, Fly Away Home Text, Think-Pair-Share,

Sketch to Stretch activity,

Formal assessment

Students will be able to come up with how universal themes evident in both the book Fly Away Home

and Home of the Brave can be supported by details from the text and relate to students’ personal lives,

completing the Exit Ticket, correctly answering 2 out of the 3 questions correctly.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Cooperative Learning

Indicator: This will be evident when students participate in their heterogeneous groups

(pre-assigned on the board) to look at certain parts of the text, Fly Away Home to detect how the

theme from Home of the Brave (We all need hope to survive) lives in the text, Fly Away Home.

Students as a group will stop and jot important characters, setting, plot, and objects and or living

things that are symbolic with their group.

Modeling

Indicator: This will be evident when students come up to the board to write one universal
 theme, after the teacher has modeled one example of a universal theme.

Indicator: Students will complete their Connecting Themes worksheet with the teacher as she

models the five parts of summarizing a story (somebody, wants, because, but, so).

Indicator: The teacher will model how to annotate and stop and jot the text, Fly Away Home,

before students look for a common theme between Home of the Brave, and Fly Away Home.

Discussion

Indicator: This will be evident when students participate in a class discussion to talk about

universal themes. Students will get to first participate in a Think Pair Share, to discuss with their

partners the purpose of universal themes.

Indicator: Students will work with their group tables to discuss and provide evidence on how

and why they chose their specific theme for Home of the Brave. Students will then discuss the

theme they chose to the rest of the class.

Indicator: Students will be allowed to talk with their group table members during the Sketch to

Stretch activity where they will be choosing a sentence or paragraph from the text visually

representing the theme they found in the Fly Away Home text.

Independent Work

Indicator: This will be evident when students refresh their memory on their class book, Home of

the Brave by independently reading the blurb of the book.

Indicator: This will be evident when students re-look at their Story Arc worksheets, their writers
 notebooks and their copy of the Fly Away Home text.

ADAPTATIONS

● English Language Learners will be given a modified “Connecting Themes Worksheet” which

will have visuals accompanying each question. English Language Learners will also be given a

vocabulary worksheet, called “Vocabulary”, that has images next to important words. English

language learners will also be given a modified “Story Map” worksheet that includes visuals next

to the important parts of a story. Throughout the Google slides presentation, there will be visual

cues to help students understand important directions and activities.

● There will be a pause in between each activity in order for students with Auditory Processing

Disorder to get a better understanding of the lesson. There will also be pauses between each page

of the Fly Away Home text. The teacher will also ask questions throughout each activity, to

remind students about the information they are learning about. The teacher will ask students to

repeat what is happening throughout the lesson. The “think” portion of the Think-Pair-Share

allows students to process their thoughts before exchanging ideas with a partner and the rest of

the class. Likewise, the pair portion allows students to review their thoughts before sharing with

the whole class and the teacher. Visual aids throughout the presentation will signal what students

should be observing.

● Students with dyslexia will benefit from the teacher reading the classroom directions and

readings out loud. Teacher will read the informal/formal assessments outloud. There will be

visual cues added throughout the lesson to help students understand the content. The Fly Away

Home text will be double spaced for all students. The Connecting Themes worksheet and the

“Find Themes in Your Books” homework worksheet will have enlarged font and adequate space
 for taking notes, so all students can benefit. Students with dyslexia will be able to use their

co-writer extension to complete their homework.

● Students with ADHD will be given audio recordings of the class notes and or discussions so they

can relisten to the class notes to assist with their homework. For students with ADHD, the

teacher will restate what students should be working on numerous times, along with providing

directions on the board. The teacher will provide the students with a verbal checklist of what

students should be working on.

DIFFERENTIATION OF INSTRUCTION

Using Multiple Intelligences to Differentiate

Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence

Students will be engaged by the opportunity to come to the front of the room to write on the

board examples of universal themes. Students will also be engaged by the Sketch to Stretch activity

where they will be using index cards and markers to demonstrate themes in the Fly Away Home text.

Students will be able to move around and discuss with their group table members what they will be

writing and visually representing in terms of the theme.

Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence

Students will be engaged by the Teacher to class discussions, discussions in heterogeneous

groups and during their Sketch to Stretch activity. Students will share their observations from reading

and annotating the Fly Away Home Text. Students will also discuss how the theme from Home of the

Brave lives in Fly Away Home.

Students will be engaged by the Think-Pair-Share activity where they will get the opportunity to

self-reflect on universal themes and their relevance in diverse pieces of literatures, and how they connect

to our everyday experiences.

Visual Spatial Intelligence

Students will be engaged by being able to draw the theme they chose from Fly Away Home,

during the Sketch to Stretch activity. Students will visualize the theme in their minds and then be able to

visually represent the theme through their own drawings.

Struggling Students

For struggling students, they will be given a modified “Connecting Themes Worksheet” and a

modified Story Arc Map. Students will also receive a vocabulary worksheet to assist with any

known words. Students will also be given the opportunity to work with partners throughout the

lesson. There will be visual cues throughout every activity in addition to being incorporated

throughout the Google Slides presentation.

Average Students

For average students, they will not be given any modified worksheets, however they will be

given the vocabulary worksheet to assist with any unknown words. All students will receive

visual cues throughout the Google Slides presentation to assist with comprehension.

Advanced Students

For advanced students, they will not receive any modified worksheets. They will have the option
if they would like to use the vocabulary worksheet throughout the lesson. All students including

advanced students will be given a bonus question on their exit ticket.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

Students will complete the homework worksheet called, “Find Themes in Your Books!”, where students

will read their independent reading books at home and detect any developing themes evident in their

book. Students will then write a paragraph (4-6 sentences) explaining the theme so far in their book, and

provide evidence to support their reasoning.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES:

DIRECT TEACHER INTERVENTION AND ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT

Direct Teacher Intervention

The teacher and the student will work together on a game called “Kid Heroes Theme”

https://www.roomrecess.com/mobile/KidHeroesTheme/play.html to identify themes and provide

evidence to support claims. The teacher will help the student annotate, and record the characters, plot,

and setting. The teacher and the student will answer the questions together while discussing potential

themes.

Academic Enrichment

The following day, to review and prepare for the next lesson, students will be told to open their writing
journals and or use their computers to create their own short story that exemplifies a universal theme.

Directions will be provided on the board.

INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES AND MATERIALS

Google slides powerpoint:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SNCs7CfGc7pwkzpc1SyGpl9q7qQ9od

Google presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zxpaEicTKBWsZLbhmLd_7mYgSHB6zprdci59fsyHB2M/edit
#slide=id.g76cbc6627a_0_91

Exit Ticket/Twenty Two Index cards

Sketch to Stretch Index Cards

Visual Cues

Students’ writing journals

Story Arc Map worksheet

Story Arc modified Map worksheet

Pencils, Pens, Markers

Fly Away Home text

Home of the Brave blurb/text

Homework Worksheet

Vocabulary Worksheet

Connecting Themes Worksheet

Home of the Brave Book

Fly Away Home Book

Bursuck, W. D., & Friend, M. (2011). Including students with special needs.: A practical guide

for classroom teachers, student value edition. Allyn & Bacon Inc.

Free templates - Canva. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.canva.com/templates/

New York Department of Education (2017), New York State next-generation English language

arts learning standards [PDF], Retrieved from

http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/nys-next-ge

neration-ela-standards.pdf

Wisnewski, F., & Giouroukakis, V. (2021). Back to basics of teaching: Best practices for diverse

learners. Kendall Hunt.

Kek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time,

and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He

wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter - cold

and unkind.

In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother.

But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing.

Kek is on his own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster

care; an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and a cow whose

name means "family" in Kek's native language. As ek awaits word

of his mother's fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by

finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories,

and belief in his new country.

My dad and I live in an airport. That’s because we don’t have a home and the airport is
better than the streets. We are careful not to get caught.

Mr. Slocum and Mr. Vail were caught last night. “Ten green bottles, hanging on the wall,”
they sang. They were as loud as two moose bellowing.

Dad says they broke the first rule of living here. Don’t get noticed.

Dad and I try not to get noticed. We stay among the crowds. We change airlines. “Delta,
TWA, Northwest, we love them all,” Dad says. He and I wear blue jeans and blue
T-shirts and blue jackets. We each have a blue zippered bag with a change of clothes.
Not to be noticed is to look like nobody at all. Once we saw a woman pushing a metal
cart full of stuff. She wore a long, dirty coat and she lay down across a row of seating in
front of Continental Gate 6. The cart, the dirty coat, the lying down were all noticeable.
Security moved her out real fast.

Dad and I sleep sitting up. We use different airport areas. “We are we tonight?” I ask.
Dad checks his notebook. “Alaska Air,” he says. “Over in the other terminal.” That’s OK.
We like to walk. We know some of the airport regulars by name and by sight. There’s
Idaho Joe and Annie Frannie and Mars Man. But we don’t sit together. “Sitting together
will get you noticed faster than anything,” Dad says.

Everything in the airport is on the move-passengers, pilots, flight attendant, cleaner with
their brooms. Jets roar in, close to the windows. Other jets roar out. Luggage bounces
down chutes, escalators glide up and down, disappearing floors. Everyone’s going
somewhere except Dad and me. We stay.

Once a little brown bird got into the main terminal and couldn’t get out. It fluttered in the
high, hollow spaces. It threw itself at the glass, fell panting on the floor, flew to a tall,
metal girder, and perched there, exhausted.

“Don’t stop trying,” I told it silently. “Don’t! You can get out!”

For days the bird flew around, dragging one wing. And then it found the instant when a
sliding door was open and slipped through. I watched it rise. Its wing seemed okay.

“Fly, bird!” I whispered. “Fly away home!”

Though I couldn’t hear it, I knew it was singing. Nothing made me as happy as that bird.
The airport’s busy and noisy even at night. Dad and I sleep anyway. When it gets quiet,
between two and four A.M., we wake up.
“Dead time,” Dad says. “Almost no flights coming in or going out.” At dead time there
aren’t many people around, so we’re extra careful. In the mornings, Dad and I wash up
in one of the bathrooms, and he shaves. The bathrooms are crowded, no matter how
early. And that’s the way we like it. Strangers talk to strangers.

“Where did you get in from?”

“Three hours our flight was delayed. Man! Am I bushed!” Dad and I, we don’t talk to
anyone. We buy doughnuts and milk for breakfast at one of the cafeterias, standing in
line with our red trays. Sometimes Dad gets me a carton of juice.

On weekends Dad takes the bus to work. He’s a janitor in an office in the city. The bus
fare’s a dollar each way. On those days, Mrs. Medina looks out for me. The Medinas live
in the airport, too- Grandma, Mrs. Medina, and Denny, who’s my friend.

He and I collect rented luggage carts that people have left outside and return them for
fifty cents each. If the crowds are big and safe, we offer to carry bags.

“Get this one for you, lady? It looks heavy.”

Or, “Can I call you a cab?” Denny’s real good at calling cabs. That’s because he’s seven
already. Sometimes passengers don’t tip. Then Denny whispers, “Stingy!” Be he doesn’t
whisper too loud. The Medinas understand that it’s dangerous to be noticed.

When Dad comes home from work, he buys hamburgers for us and the Medinas. That’s
to pay them for watching out for me. If Denny and I have a good day, we treat for pie.
But I’ve stopped doing that. I save my money in my shoe.

“Wil we ever have our own apartment again?” I ask Dad. I’d like it to be the way it was,
before Mom died.”

“Maybe we will,” he says. “If I can find more work. If we can save some money.” He rubs
my head. “It’s nice right here, though, isn’t it, Andrew?” It’s warm. It’s safe. And the price
is right.

But I know he’s trying all the time to find us a place. He takes newspapers from the
trash baskets and makes pencil circles around letters and numbers. Then he goes to
the phones. When he comes back, he looks sad. Sad and angry. I know he’s been
calling about an apartment. I know the rents are too high for us.

“I’m saving money, too,” I tell him, and I lift one foot and point to my shoe.

Dad smiles. “Atta boy!”

“And if we get a place, you and your mom and your grandma can come live with us,” I
say.

“Yeah!”

We shake on it. That’s going to be so great!

After next summer, Dad says I have to start school.

“How?” I ask.

“I don’t know. But it’s important. We’ll work it out.”

Denny’s mom says he can wait for a while. But Dad says I can’t wait.

Sometimes I watch people meeting people. “We missed you.”

“It’s so good to be home.”

Sometimes I get mad, and I want to run at them and push them and shout, “Why do you
have homes when we don’t? What makes you so special?” That would get us noticed,
all right. Sometimes I just want to cry. I think Dad and I will be here forever. Then I
remember the bird. It took it a while, but a door opened. And when the bird left, when it
flew free, I know it was singing.