Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template

Reading, Writing, and Oral Language
2007 ACEI Standards

Fly Away Home by. Eve Bunting and Illustrated by Ronald Himler
Problem Confronted: Homelessness
Rachel Stacy

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s)—Student will be able to identify the theme in a work of fictional text.
B. Objective(s)— After completing this lesson, the student will be able to determine the
theme of Fly Away Home and provide supporting textual evidence.
C. Standard(s): 5.RL.2.2 Determine a theme of a story, play, or poem from details in the
text, including how characters respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem
reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
II. Materials:
a. Fly Away Home By. Eve Bunting
b. Guess that Theme (cheach phrase game)
c. Theme matching game
d. Theme vs. Main idea sorting activity.
e. Lined notebook paper.
f. Index cards for the quick write.
III. Anticipatory Set (6 mins)
a. “I want you all to think about a place you would want to live if you could live
anywhere in the world.” Allow time for the student to think of their locations.
b. Ask if any of the students would want to share their location, have up to three
students share their idea.”
c. "Now how many of you thought of living at an airport as your dream location."
See if any student raises their hand. "For many people, this is where they have to
call home, without being able to travel anywhere but just stay at the airport.
d. "In the story, I am going to read a young boy, and his father calls the airport their
home and have to be on constant lookout for not getting noticed."

IV. Purpose Statement (2mins): "I am going to read Fly Away Home by. Eve Bunting,
while I am reading, I want you all to think about the theme or big idea in the story
and have evidence from the text to back up your idea.”

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

Use major concepts, principles, theories, and research to construct learning opportunities that
support students’ development, acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
(ACEI 1.0)
• Foundational Theory: Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that
focuses on the reader (or “audience”) and their experience of a literary work, in contrast
to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content
and form of the work.
V. Adaptation to Diverse Students-
a. I will be incorporating lager text for students that might have vision impairments
and also have either myself or other peers to read aloud instruction for students
that are struggling in reading.
(ACEI 3.2)
VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)
a. Read Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
b. After finishing the story ask student questions that they can respond to naturally
and then work up to more direct questions to the theme of the story.
i. Did you like the story?
ii. What did you like about the story?
iii. What is one thing that stood out form the story?
iv. What is the big idea that you go got from this story?
c. "The big idea of the story is also known as the Theme of the story. The theme is
the lesson the author is trying to teach you in the book. The theme is different
from the main idea in the story which is what the author wanted the reader to
understand; this is often stated in a story."
d. To gain more of an understanding of theme, I am going to break you up into
small groups and have your work at different stations around the class.
e. The Stations are going to be
i. One of the stations will be a matching activity where on the back of
matching pieces there will be common themes in stories and on another
piece, there will be a definition of that theme. The students will work
together to figure out which quote goes with the right theme and then
talk about why. Once the students have all the pieces put together, it
should complete the match.
ii. Another station will be for students to write a message in a bottle from
the perspective of the little boy in Fly Away Home. The student will write
a message based off of the theme that the story is expressing and they
think the character would want to share that with another person.
iii. Then a station will be a sorting activity where the students will work
together to sort the difference between the main idea in a story and the
theme of a story.
iv. The fourth station will be a draw a card and describe the theme activity.
The student will have strips of paper that have different themes listed on
them. Then one student will pick a card and read the theme on the card.
They will have to describe the theme on their card to the group, and then
the group will have to guess the theme.
f. Once the stations are completed, the student will go back to their seats and
complete the closing activity.
 (ACEI 2.1)
(ACEI 3.3)

VII. Check for understanding.

a. While the students are working in their groups, I will be walking around the
classroom and observing the different stations and assisting any student that
might need more support or are confused on the content.

VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

a. As a closing activity I will have the student complete a quick write over the
question, what is the main theme of Fly Away Home and if they can elaborate on
their reason with support from the text.
b. I will then collect these at the end of the lesson.

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

Formative: I will observe student working in small groups and in the grand conversation to
verify or deny if students can identify the theme and find support from the text.
Summative: I will collect the students' quick writes to see what students understand the theme
and what student may need additional support.
(ACEI 4.0)
REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
a. Bloom’s Taxonomy
b. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
7. Did the students actively participate in the small group stations, how could I change
them to make them more engaging?
8. Was the Read aloud a productive part of the lesson, is there a way to make it more
meaningful to the students?
Revision Date: September 12, 2016
2007 ACEI Standard