Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

Overview of Unit: This unit will focus on the characteristics of the epic hero and students’ comprehension of complex texts. Students will explore theme and main idea within texts which focus on the epic hero through discussions, as well as generating a writing product.

Exploring Movie Construction and Production contains eight chapters of the major areas of film construction and production. The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme. This approach to film instruction and analysis has proved beneficial to increasing students’ learning, while enhancing the creativity and critical thinking of the student.

Fiction is untrue, but it can be an honest reflection of real life. In this seminar, you will make clear connections between the lives of characters in fiction to the lives of people in the real world. This will require a skill called abstracting in which you find patterns in one area and apply them to a new situation. It will also give you the opportunity to reflect on how fake worlds of literature can help resolve your own personal issues that you face currently and in the future.StandardsCC.1.3.9-10.C - Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.CC.1.3.9-10.E - Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it and manipulate time create an effect.CC.1.3.9-10.H - Analyze how an author draws on and transforms themes, topics, character types, and/or other text elements from source material in a specific work.

This Learning Plan was created by Mae Clausen. Educators worked with coaches to create Learning Plans.Brief Overview: Students will analyze and evaluate theme and the purpose it serve to readers as they deepen their understanding/comprehension. Students will read short passages and watch Pixar shorts to determine theme.Grade Level: 3rd gradeLexile Level: 420-820     NDE Standards: LA 3.1.6.d  Summarize a literary text and/or media using key details to identify the theme.  Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify theme and explain its importance to a reader.Duration:  90-120 minutes to complete.

Students will identify theme in various media forms including songs, art-work, and writing.

This lesson can be used by adult learners to gain experience in identifying the strength of themes in writing passages. Upon conclusion of the lesson students will be able to not only identify the theme of an piece of writing but also key details used to support the author’s argument.

 Are you looking for an enticing way to introduce identifying the theme of a story to your students? This lesson on identifying the theme of a text was created by Jennifer Bauer as an introductory lesson to understanding and analyzing a text to identify a common theme within the text. This lesson engages students by using the read aloud "Salt in His Shoes", a storybook on Michael Jordan's struggles as an adolescent, as a way to gain an understanding of the literary element of theme. This English Language Arts lesson is designed for Grades 3-5, but could also be adapted for middle school students as well. This lesson plan addresses the following NDE Standards: LA 3.1.6.d Summarize a literary text and/or media, using key details to identify the theme. LA 4.1.6.d Summarize a literary text and/or media, using key details to identify the theme. LA 5.1.6.d Summarize and analyze a literary text and/or media, using key details to explain the theme.It is expected that this lesson will take students 60 minutes to complete.

Students explore the theme of conflict in literature. They learn the difference between internal and external conflict and various types of conflicts, including self against self, self against other, and self against nature or machine. Stories are used to discuss methods of managing and resolving conflict and interpersonal friction. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

The attached Lesson Plan is designed for Third Grade English Language Arts students. Students will determine story elements and use the elements to write a summary. This Lesson Plan addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 3.1.6.b and NE LA 3.1.6.dIt is expected that this Lesson Plan will take students 90 minutes to complete.

In this resource, students will be asked to use a graphic organizer in order to identify and track the development of theme and character in a literary text. Students will use evidence from the text to construct an evidence based response.

In this resource, students will be asked to use a graphic organizer in order to identify and track the development of theme and character in a literary text. Students will use evidence from the text to construct an evidence based response.

This is a small group lesson plan that gives students practice with name letter recognition and fine motor skills. It would fit great into an apple thematic unit. Enjoy!

A short quiz on CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2, featuring Robert Frost's poem, "The Road not Taken". The poem has a Dale-Chall difficulty level of 7-8, and a Flesch-Kincaid level of 12.8.

This lesson integrates coding and computer science into English Language Arts for the purpose of fostering appreciation of Shakespearean wit and language and to provide students exposure to coding. Students first choose words that carry insulting connotations from a Shakespearean play and then create a program that randomly generates insults based upon those found words. Swift Playgrounds, Scratch, or Raspberry Pi are recommended resources for creating this project, and links to projects are provided for each of these platforms. Sample code and directions are provided. Students who are beginning to learn coding may complete the code while more advanced individuals may modify the program or create their own.

This lesson integrates coding and computer science into English Language Arts for the purpose of fostering appreciation of Shakespearean wit and language and to provide students exposure to coding. Students first choose words that carry insulting connotations from a Shakespearean play and then create a program that randomly generates insults based upon those found words. Swift Playgrounds, Scratch, or Raspberry Pi are recommended resources for creating this project, and links to projects are provided for each of these platforms. Sample code and directions are provided. Students who are beginning to learn coding may complete the code while more advanced individuals may modify the program or create their own.

This is an activity that includes student's own ideas and beliefs about the central ideas and important parts of the text. Students will also do a bit of writing to support their opinions. This activity gets at the heart of a text. I see this as introductory to deeper dives into theme. This lesson could be structured to be online or face to face. This is written as a class activity but an online discussion could easily be created after students had followed the protocol a few times and seen the discussion that results. This could easily work in many classrooms through high school.

This is an activity that includes student's own ideas and beliefs about the central ideas and important parts of the text. Students will also do a bit of writing to support their opinions. This activity gets at the heart of a text. I see this as introductory to deeper dives into theme. This lesson could be structured to be online or face to face. This is written as a class activity but an online discussion could easily be created after students had followed the protocol a few times and seen the discussion that results. This could easily work in many classrooms through high school.

Students will be put into groups to create their own tv show using the vocabulary words provided on the slides.

eview the text we read in class, "Cronus".In this discussion, we will explore theme. A theme is a significant idea or lesson conveyed in a text. It is a message the author conveys through important details or events. Some themes are so universal that they apply to people across time and cultures.For example, a relevant theme from "Cronus" is: Parent-Child Relationships.Using that, here is a thematic statement: A mother will put her love for her children above every other relationship.Note that a thematic statement is a full sentence that conveys a complete idea. In this discussion, you will be writing thematic statements.

This lesson is the first of a unit on themes and central ideas. Information about the overall unit and assessment is also provided.

This is an activity that includes student's own ideas and beliefs about the central ideas and important parts of the text. Students will also do a bit of writing to support their opinions. This activity gets at the heart of a text. I see this as introductory to deeper dives into theme. This lesson could be structured to be online or face to face. This is written as a class activity but an online discussion could easily be created after students had followed the protocol a few times and seen the discussion that results. This could easily work in many classrooms through high school.

Students often struggle to find theme in literature--one that is not a bumper sticker, a "moral to the story," or anything that could be applied to more than one story.  Understanding what theme is, an implicit argument the author is making, is the first step.  Then it gets more complicated as they realize that there are wrong answers (the ones that don't make sense with the story), there are undeveloped answers (ones that don't get far enough past motif but are on the right track), and there are many possible correct answers that can be explained and supported with the text. This activity uses the Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate strategy in small groups to help students focus on the details of the story and how they contribute to the overall point of the story.  It can be used with any piece of literature you deem appropriate for your students.

Students often struggle to find theme in literature--one that is not a bumper sticker, a "moral to the story," or anything that could be applied to more than one story.  Understanding what theme is, an implicit argument the author is making, is the first step.  Then it gets more complicated as they realize that there are wrong answers (the ones that don't make sense with the story), there are undeveloped answers (ones that don't get far enough past motif but are on the right track), and there are many possible correct answers that can be explained and supported with the text. This activity uses the Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate strategy in small groups to help students focus on the details of the story and how they contribute to the overall point of the story.  It can be used with any piece of literature you deem appropriate for your students.

This chapter introduces students to the basics of reading literature. It introduces students to subjective and objective reading, and goes over the basic ideas behind reading for plot, character, setting, and theme. Learning objectives are: Ask subjective and objective questions about what they have read; Learn the meanings of “tone,” “diction,” and “syntax.”; Identify the major elements of a plot; Identify character, setting, and theme; Differentiate between internal and external conflict.