TEKS Based Lesson Plan
Subject: Reading I
Weeks: 3rd Nine Weeks Group 3
Unit of Study: Drama of Life
Essential Questions:
• How can we develop vocabulary skills?
• Can organizing information help us comprehend texts more efficiently?
• How does memory help to “preserve” special experiences?
TEKS/Essence Statements:
9.3) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry. Students understand, make inferences and draw
conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from text to support their
understanding. Students are expected to analyze the effects of diction and imagery (e.g., controlling
images, figurative language, understatement, overstatement, irony, paradox) in poetry.
Critical Skills/Postsecondary Goals: This section needs to be completed based on the students in your
class. Some Ideas: staying engaged in a task or activity, active listening, working independently, share
ideas and opinions
Instruction/Classroom Activities:
Small Group Instruction:
• Introduce the term “theme” to the class. Define theme as a main idea or topic. Songs, stories,
poems, plays, musicals, movies, books, magazines, and even television shows all have themes.
Provide examples of familiar works: the cartoon SpongeBob’s theme is humor, the Star Spangled
Banner’s is patriotism, Harry Potter’s is magic/sorcery, etc. Some works have multiple themes.
• The teacher will read poems to the class and the students will decide on a theme for each poem.
You may choose your own poems or use the ones included with this lesson. You may want to
model the first poem to help with understanding. After you read the poem aloud, ask students for
ideas about the theme. Write the ideas on the board. For the first poem “Caterpillar,” some
possible themes are: the life cycle of a caterpillar, nature, survival, or making a cocoon. Ask
students to explain why they chose the theme and what clues they found.
• Discuss the relationship between the theme and title of the poem. Are there other clues that help
you decide on the theme? Do the titles of books and other works reflect the theme? Does the
cover of a book give you a clue about its contents?
Stations/Centers:
• Writing Station: Choose a theme and compose your own poem about that topic. Illustrate the
poem to give the readers clues about your theme. Choose your title carefully to reflect your theme.
• Literacy Station: Read more poems and try to formulate a theme for each poem. Remember,
sometimes there is more than one theme. You can find poetry at the library or on the internet.
• Vocabulary Station: Make word wall cards using the terms poetry and theme. Include examples
and illustrations.
Individualized Communication Planning: This section needs to be completed based on the
individualized communication needs of the students in your class.
Differentiated Tasks:
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
Given a poem read aloud, the
The student will listen to a poem
The student will respond to a
student will determine a theme
read aloud and match a visual
poem read aloud using a signal
from three possible answer
image or word that relates to the
or communication device.
choices.
poem.
North East Independent School District
TEKS Based Lesson Plan
Materials/Resources:
• poems
• http://www.storyit.com/Classics/JustPoems/index.htm
• art supplies
Assessment Strategies: This section needs to be completed based on the strategies appropriate for the
students in your class.
IEP Connections: This section needs to be completed based on the IEPs documented in the students’
ARDs in your class.
North East Independent School District
TEKS Based Lesson Plan
Caterpillar
~Christina Rossetti
Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.
Tumbling
~Anonymous (circa 1745)
In jumping and tumbling
We spend the whole day,
Till night by arriving
Has finished our play.
What then? One and all,
There's no more to be said,
As we tumbled all day,
So we tumble to bed.
North East Independent School District
TEKS Based Lesson Plan
My Shadow
~Robert Louis Stevenson
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest things about him is the way he likes to growNot at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
North East Independent School District