Rain Player Theme Lesson

Situating the LessonIn both Mrs. Ward’s morning and afternoon classes, students have with identifying the most important information of a text. Students choose the most important details based on what is interesting to them, not necessarily what details are important to the story or what the author intended on being the most important information. This then affects the way accuracy and correctness when students determine the main ideas, themes, or importance of a story. Their answers are often correct, but not the best possible answer that shows their complete understanding of a text. The past week, students have been cloze reading Rain Player by David Wisniewski. Students have read the text for the purpose of making inferences based on text clues and background knowledge. Students have also studied author’s purpose and know that the three main purposes for writing are to persuade, to inform, and to entertain (P.I.E.). This lesson will build off of the previous lessons about Rain Player and identifying the theme of a story. In this lesson, students will work with the text and their peers in order to determine the theme of Rain Player, focusing on the main character’s (Pik) experiences in the text. Students will focus on Pik and based on what Pik learns in the story, students will determine what lesson they can learn from Pik. Students already know how to summarize a story and how to determine the main idea of a story. This lesson was designed and groups were made for Mrs. Ward’s morning block.

Methods of InquiryWhole class discussion, cold calling, differentiated learning, small group work, white board responses, partner work, back-to-back responses, share out, independent work

Instructional GoalsBy the end of the lesson, students will be able to determine the central theme of Rain Player based on the actions of the main character, Pik. Students will use textual evidence to support their claim, using three different examples that best support their reasoning for their chosen theme.

Essential QuestionsWhat is and is not theme?What lessons can we learn from the experiences of others?How can you determine the theme or most important details of a story?What does it mean to infer or make an inference?

State and/or Content StandardsCCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

Instructional MaterialsRain Player by David Wisniewski, cloze copies for each studentTheme cloze & Pik’s Experience cloze handout for each studentTheme Anchor Chart created by Mrs. WardThemes in Our Reading Anchor Chart created by Mrs. WardDetailed Organizer for a Story Summary Figure RL 2.6 (from the Common Core Lesson Book K-5) for assessment for students above grade levelSentence starter assessment for students at grade levelMultiple-choice assessment for struggling or ELL studentsWhite Boards, Markers, and ErasersPencil

Set InductionFirst, I will call all students to the front carpet and ask them to bring their white boards, cloze copy of Rain Player, and the Theme & Pik’s Experience cloze handout, folded in half (they will not need any of these materials until the procedures section). I will ask students to tell me about a time that they learned a lesson from someone else. I will let students share lessons they have learned. Based on student responses, I will give an example to help scaffold student thinking towards lessons. Students may share experiences when they learned how to play a sport from a parent, however for the purposes of this lesson, we will focus on lessons learned about life, not how to do something. I will give students the example that I learned from Nelson Mandela’s actions that you should never give up and always stay strong and fight for what you believe. As a class, we will talk about the purpose for different types of texts. When we think about nonfiction, it gives us knowledge. Fiction teaches us and gives us themes about life that we can apply to ourselves and learn how to move forward.

We will review what theme is and what theme is not, focusing on the fact that theme is the lesson learned in the story. I will then explain to students that today, we will figure out the theme of Rain Player by taking a closer look at Pik and his experiences throughout the book. I will ask students to share some lessons that Pik learned in the story. What can you learn or what did you learn from Pik, based on what he learned in the story? I will give students a minute to think independently and then share with their tables. I will then cold call a few students to share their thoughts. When we are looking at theme, what are the characters in the story doing and learning? What can we learn from them and their actions?

I will explain to the students that we will be looking back through the story and focusing on Pik’s experiences, what he learned from these experiences, and therefore, determining what we can learn from the lessons that Pik learned. Instead of the author telling the reader the theme, it is up to YOU as the reader to infer or figure out the theme. For the purpose of this lesson, students will be given what Pik did in the book, not what he learned, but what he did. It is the job of the students to figure out what did Pik learn, and therefore, what did I learn? Our learning is the theme.

We will discuss that the lessons learned in the story will be different from the lessons that we can learn in our lives in today’s world. I will reference previous folk tales that students

have read and identified the themes of. We will also review the purpose of why folktales were written. What do you notice about the themes in these stories? What about themes in general? I will stress that the theme is a lesson about life, not how to do something. I will also stress that in the end, students should look at all of Pik’s learning and their personal learning and see what themes move across the entire story, not just one part of the story.

Tell students that by the end of today, they will be able to determine the theme of the story based on the actions and experiences as Pik. The central theme does not apply to one part of the story, but rather it applies to the whole story.

Procedures1. As a class, I will show students how to divide their white boards in half. One side will be labeled “Pik’s learning” and the other side will be labeled “My learning”. I will explain to students that they will use their copy of the story in order to go back and determine what Pik learned from his experiences. As they are recording different lessons or things that Pik learned, they also need to have an example of a lesson they learned based on the lessons that Pik learned.

2. Higher and middle ability students will be assigned a pre-determined partner to work with on the given activity. They will find a spot in the room to work together and add examples to their board, making sure that they are using textual evidence about Pik’s experiences and his learning from these experiences. These groups were determined based on the accuracy and correctness of the BCR regarding identifying a theme and using textual evidence to support their claim of the correctness of their theme on the PIA test the previous day. The middle ability students were able to identify a theme and use text evidence to support their claim. The high ability groups were able to develop a lesson learned based on the theme and provided textual evidence to support their claim. The partners will be as follows: Cooper and Joe, Vera and Jermanie, Marie and Benjamin, Ollie and Sierra, and Sam and Chloe. These students will fill out their white boards, detailing Pik’s learning and their learning. After they have completed this, they will determine the theme of the story and then create a sentence based on what they learned from Pik’s experiences and learning, using the cloze handout as a guide of main events in the story.

3. The remaining students will stay on the rug with me. These students will be the lower ability group, including Edgar, Eyad, Robin, Ghirmay, Terrell, Alex, Mattia, Jordan, and Kerubel. It is possible that one or a few of these students may be pulled out during the lesson to work with a regularly scheduled specialist. These are the students who were not able to correctly choose and identify a theme for the story on the BCR of the PIA assessment that students took the previous day.

4. As the groups are working together around the room, I will work with the small group on the front rug. We will first refer back to the text, looking for examples of Pik’s learning. Students will share their ideas and we will add to our list on the white boards. I will guide the discussion questions about Pik’s learning, but require students to think critically and refer back to the text. Our main goal is to determine a theme for the story based on Pik’s experiences. Therefore, it is important to first identify these experiences and instances of

learning. Students will receive the Theme and Pik’s Experiences cloze handout, however it will be folded so that they cannot see the themes, but only Pik’s experiences. This will help scaffold student thinking and allow them to focus on the main experiences in the text. What did Pik learn from each of these experiences? Are there any reoccurring lessons that Pik encounters?

5. After we have created a list of Pik’s learning, I will put up the Theme Anchor Chart, previously created by Mrs. Ward with her class. The theme chart will give students categories and themes to consider. We will discuss the different learning experiences Pik encountered and determine which themes best represent the outcome of Pik’s learning. After students choose a theme, they will be partnered up and asked to sit back to back. Students will create a sentence to represent the theme of the story based on Pik’s learning and experiences. Give students the example that a lesson is not patience. Patience is a theme, but a lesson is that if you are patient and wait, good things will happen to you. I will also show students the Themes in Our Reading Anchor Chart to show students examples of lessons that we read about in other folktales in the past few weeks. After students create their sentences, they will turn around to share and compare their ideas about the lesson learned by Pik based on the theme of the book. Students should identify what theme they chose.

6. All students will return back to the carpet when they begin to complete the activity. As a class, we will share examples of what students learned from Pik in the story. After students have the opportunity to share, they will go back to their seats to work independently on completing the assessment. The assessment will show the students understanding of theme and if they can identify and use textual evidence to support their claim that the theme of the book is a particular theme.

7. Assessments have been differentiated based on student ability to identify theme and cite evidence from the text. The students receiving the graphic organizer assessment are Ollie Sierra, Sam, and Benjamin. The students receiving the multiple-choice assessment are Kerubel, Jordan, and Edgar. All other students will receive the sentence starter assessment. This will be completed independently at their desks.

AssessmentStudents will be informally assessed on their participation in whole and small group instruction. Students will also be informally assessed on their white board responses and ability to take a theme and relate it to their own learning. Students will be formally assessed on their responses to their determined assessment. Students will be formally assessed on their textual evidence and its relation to the chosen theme. Formal assessment will also consider if students chose a theme that is based on the actions of Pik and his experiences and learning in the story. The theme should reflect Pik’s learning and students’ ability to reflect on Pik’s learning in order to determine their own learning.

ReflectionPre-Teaching: I have never taught a completely differentiated lesson before and to be honest, I am a little nervous. I know that I will be okay, but I am concerned with not being

able to walk around, per say, and monitor what all of the students are doing. It is at this point of the year that these students know how to work independently and stay on task, so they should not struggle with this freedom and lack of structure, per say. I am excited to differentiate my instruction in this lesson, although it was extremely difficult and time consuming. I think it is necessary to meet the needs of all students to the best of my ability and I feel as though this lesson does just that.

In addition to differentiating instruction, I am aiming to complete the lesson in 40 minutes, using the 80/20 model. This is something that the principal of Murch stresses that his teachers try to incorporate into their classrooms. This means that the teacher spends 20% of the time directly instructing students and helping them to attain the background knowledge that they need to learn on their own or with a group of studnets for the remaining 80% of the time. I am nervous about staying within the time constraints; find it beneficial to use it as a reminder that the students should be guiding their learning and the discussions. I should rather be just a facilitator of knowledge.

This lesson is extremely hard and a difficult concept for students to grasp. I hope that with the focus of the lesson being on Pik’s experiences, students will have more of a focus on the lessons he learned based on his experiences, guiding their thinking to be more about a common theme based on his experiences.

Post Teaching: I believe that the lesson was much more successful than I anticipated it being. I was initially worried about how to manage the two groups (ones working independently and the ones on the carpet with me) but the students are used to working in pairs and I think this helped the lesson run more smoothly. I was delighted with the way that I taught the students and situated the lesson. They were very responsive and attentive to the questions I asked and made connections to previous lessons. Students were building off of the ideas of their classmates and receptive to working in groups and partners to complete the activity. Students especially benefited from coming back together after everyone finished the activity and could talk about what they learned from the story.

Student behavior was not the best, but the students listened and refocused their attention to their work. Students were engaged by the lesson and I liked that I was able to tie in a current event in order to spark student interest. I was proud that I was able to differentiate this lesson to meet the needs of all of the students in the classroom. It was difficult to come up with each differentiated part for the three groups of students, however it was very much worth it in the end when I could see that the work reflected each students’ level of understanding and allowed for them to focus on my end goal—determining the theme of Rain Player. From creating this lesson, I have learned the value in differentiating each lesson. I know that we stress the importance of differentiation as educators. I am glad that I taught a differentiated lesson prior to becoming a full time teacher. I now know what it takes to teach a lesson like this and how important it is to have great classroom management skills. I also experienced the challenges of trying to stay within a certain time limit per lesson and want to work on teaching lessons while being as concise as possible.

Themes

Kindness and Love—generosity, caring and compassion, importance of family

Acceptance—Respect and accept others’ differences and belief

Friendship—trust, loyalty

Patience—taking your time, being willing to wait for an outcome

Honesty—finding that it is best to always tell the truth

Cooperation—work together to achieve

Perseverance—never give up, even in difficult times

Responsibility—doing the right thing

Courage—bravery, risk, overcome fear

Pik’s Experience in Rain Player

Pik is confronted by Chac for his insults.

Pik and Chac agree to play pik-a-tok to determine if Pik can save the people from the drought.

Pik asks his father, Jaguar, Quetzel, and Cenote for advice and help.

At the match, Jaguar, Quetzel, and Cenote help Pik win.

Pik saves the people from the drought.

Assessment for Students Above Grade Level (Group 1)

Assessment for Students on Grade Level (Group 2)

Pik learns that _____________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________.

The lesson for me is that _________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________.

Therefore, the theme is ___________________________________________________.

Three examples from the text that best demonstrate the theme are___________________________________________________________________________

(You can write to explain or draw a picture with a caption)

Assessment for Struggling Students/Need Additional Support (Group 3)

NAME _______________________________________________

1. Pik learns that _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. I learned that ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

3. Therefore, the theme of the story is (choose one):

a) Even if the odds are against you, you can accomplish your goal.b) Seek the help of others when you face a great challenge.c) Believe that you can face your fears and accomplish your mission.

Three examples from the text that show this theme are…(You can write to explain or draw a picture with a caption)

1.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is an Anchor Chart that Mrs. Ward has previously used in her classroom. I will be using this chart in my lesson to not only connect prior lessons on theme to this lesson, but to help activate students’ prior knowledge about theme, what it is, and some examples. Students

will also use it as a reference to determine the theme in Rain Player and use it to choose a theme in order to complete their assessment. A cloze copy was created for students to use during the lesson as well.

This is an Anchor Chart, created by Mrs. Ward, of themes that students have encountered through reading other Folk Tales this semester. Mrs. Ward created this Anchor Chart in order to help students differentiate between lessons that they have learned and an overarching theme of a story. This anchor chart will be used as a reference for students.

This is the copy of Rain Player that will be used in the lesson. Each student will get a cloze copy to use. The purpose for students to have a cloze copy is so that they can go back to the text to find evidence to support their claims, while detailing what Pik learned throughout the story. The story has text on one side of the page with images on the other for every two-page spread. For the purpose of trying to conserve paper, students only received copies of the pages from the book with text.