Previewing Texts and Themes with Wordles

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  General Lesson Plan

• Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?

  
  

  At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

  • Explain what the theme(s) of the story is and how it evolves throughout the story
  • Explain how certain details and events in the story help to further develop the themes
  • Make inferences using evidence from the text to determine theme(s) from the story
  • Provide an objective summary of the story

• Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?

  
  

  Students should have a working knowledge of how to locate and infer themes from a text.

• Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?

  
  
  • What other words come to mind when you think of this story and its plot?
  • What theme(s) is the author trying to convey to the reader?
  • What does it mean to be "handicapped" in this text?
  • How is this different than what you traditionally understand to be handicapped?

• Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?

  
  
  1. As students walk into class, the teacher should pass out entrance slips. Give the students a few minutes to work on the top part of these independently, then have students share what they think for each question.
  2. Once all students have a general understanding of what theme is, how it is presented in a story, and why an author chooses certain themes, explain to them that they will be reading a story that will deal with the theme of equality. Allow students to discuss what they think equality means, and have them use the bottom half of their entrance slip to record information from themselves as well as the class discussion.
  3. The teacher should now project the teacher-made Wordle for the short story "Harrison Bergeron." Explain that this program takes all of the words in a story and makes certain words larger or smaller based on how frequently they appear in the text. Have students identify which words stand out, and make predictions about what this story is going to be about based on the larger words. Keep a list on the board that students can refer back to throughout and after the reading of the story.

• Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?

  
  
  1. Read the short story "Harrison Bergeron" (through whatever reading method you prefer; popcorn reading, reading aloud to students, silent reading, or audiobook if available).
  2. Discuss important topics and themes such as equality, fairness, etc. Have students refer back to their original predictions about the story regularly by asking questions such as:
     1. How have your predictions changed?
     2. What does it mean to be "handicapped" in this text?
     3. How is this different than what you traditionally understand to be handicapped?
  3. Give students a copy of the Harrison Bergeron Reading Questions to make sure they are following along, noticing important details, and are able to answer questions of varying difficulty levels (basic reciting as well as more involved inference questions.) These questions will also allow students to explain, in writing, their thinking and understanding of the text so far, which would help guide them in the word cloud activity later. A key for the questions has been provided to assist teachers.
  4. For this portion of this lesson, I recommend allowing students to work in pairs or small groups. Give each group a piece of colored construction paper and some crayons/markers to work with.
  5. Once students are paired/grouped, the teacher should explain to them that they will be creating their own word clouds like the one they saw before reading the story.
     • They do not have to necessarily choose words that appear most often, but rather should choose words that they think are most important to the story. Explain that words that are more important and related to the theme(s) should be larger, while those that are related to individual details should be smaller and less prominent. Be sure to tell students that they will be presenting these to the class, and must be able to justify the size, placement and inclusion of each word they select.
  6. The teacher should circulate the room and help students who seem to be stuck, or who are just pulling obvious words. If someone is having trouble, have them summarize the story orally for you, and recite back the words that stuck out from their summary so they can see what words were used most often or with most emphasis. Once all groups are finished, the teacher should tape them all up at the front of the room so everyone can see the other group's work. Next, the teacher should have each group get up and explain their choices to the class. If some students are shy, be sure to prompt them to really give a thorough explanation as to why they made the choices they did.

     Take this time while the groups explain their answers to guide the class discussion back to the overall themes of the story, and how those were represented through the language of the text (handicap, fair, strength, equal, etc). Ask guiding questions such as the ones below to help with this.

     • For the presenter:
       • Why is (word a) larger than (word b)?
       • When did we see that (word a) was important in the story?
       • What other words come to mind when you think of this story and its plot?
       • What do you think the author is trying to get the reader to understand? In other words, what theme(s) is the author trying to convey to the reader?
     • For the students viewing the presentation:
       • How many of you agree with this idea as a prevailing theme?
       • What other areas of the text would support this idea?
       • If you disagree, why? What do you think is a better answer?

• Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the lesson?

  
  

  For the independent practice of this lesson (this is also the summative assessment), students should answer the questions on the Harrison Bergeron Exit Slip. They should complete each of these in complete sentences, and should provide evidence from the story to support their analysis of each question.

• Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?

  
  

  Show students the short film "2081." Allow them to explain and discuss the similarities and differences between the video and the text by Kurt Vonnegut.

• Summative Assessment

  
  

  Students will complete the exit slip as the summative assessment for the lesson.

• Formative Assessment

  
  

  During the Teaching Phase:

  1. The teacher will circulate around the room, assessing students' prior knowledge of theme while students are answering the questions on their entrance slips.
  2. When the Wordle example is given, the teacher should guide discussion and elicit responses from as many students as possible.

  During the Guided Practice Phase:

  1. During the reading portion, the teacher should circulate to ensure that all students are following along. The teacher should stop at strategic points in the text to discuss important details that come up.
  2. Students will answer the Harrison Bergeron Reading Questions as they move through the story. The teacher should monitor student progression of these questions as they answer. This could be done either by asking for student volunteers to share their answers, or by checking them at the end of the story.
  3. The teacher will circulate around the room and assess students' understanding of inferring the theme by observing student responses with thewordle. Use questions such as the ones below to prompt deeper understanding:
     • Why is (word a) larger than (word b)?
     • When did we see that (word a) was important in the story?
     • What other words come to mind when you think of this story and its plot?
     • What do you think the author is trying to get the reader to understand? In other words, what theme(s) is the author trying to convey to the reader?
  4. The teacher should be available to students if they are having trouble identifying when certain events take place in the story.

• Feedback to Students

  
  

  During the Guided Practice, the teacher will provide oral feedback to students based on the responses they produce during whole class reading and discussion of the text, as well as their independent work. This feedback should focus on the accuracy of their answers regarding theme, and their ability to pull relevant information from the text. The teacher should also provide feedback to students about the accuracy and quality of their work throughout the Guided Practice portion of the lesson.