Short Story Analysis

By: Ava Smith

Sixth Grade ~ English Language Arts

Common Core Standards:

 RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text. 
 RL.6.2 Analyze literary text development. a. Determine a theme of a text and how it is conveyed
through particular details. b. Incorporate a theme and story details into an objective summary of the
text. 
 RL.6.3 Describe how a particular stories or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how
the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. 

Lesson Summary:

 This lesson reviews the theme, main idea, plot and the structures of plot, and citing textual evidence.
Students will be using technology based google slide notes to help improve their understanding of
each topic discussed. By the end of the lesson students will create a short story analysis poster to
implement their understanding of a short story and its key details.   

Estimated Duration:

 Five 50-minute class periods 

 
Commentary: 
 The teacher will get students hooked by playing 3 short film clips that will introduce the topic of
theme. I anticipate students mixing up the difference between theme and main idea because they are
similar. Students may also have a challenge with citing textual evidence correctly.   

Instructional Procedures:

Day 1:

 As students walk in, the teacher will have already put the first 3-minute short film “Mike’s New Car”
on the board ready to push play. As students watch the short film the teacher will share or have
already shared a copy of a google slides assignment that they will be filled out during all the lessons
each day as digital notes for the class to refer back to in the future. The teacher will pass out post-it
notes too. After the video, the teacher will have a 7-minute mini lesson on theme of stories and films.
The lesson will start off with the teacher asking the class if they have heard of theme and what it is.
 Students will get 1 minutes or so to write on the post-it note what they think it is and stick it on the
white board. The teacher will then ask the class to open up their chrome books to google Classroom
and open up their slides assignment. The teacher will have the students talk with their peers around
them about what the theme could be for the short film Mike’s New Car and why. Students will get
approximately 10 minutes to talk it over and write down their ideas. While the students are working
together to come up with an answer the teacher will walk around and help guide students who need an
extra push towards the answer to expand their thinking of what the theme might be. After the 10
minutes are up the class will go over the themes that they have come up with. The teacher will bring
up the fact that there could be any themes in a story or film so just because not everyone has the same
theme doesn’t mean they are wrong.  Next the class will watch another 3 minute short film called “For
the birds” and after the film is over students will talk with their peers again for approximately 10
minutes to come up with a theme and why it might be the theme. This time the teacher will walk
around a little less to let students try to come up with their own ideas. The teacher will look around to
see if there are any confused faces in the classroom. Then help those who may be confused. After the
10 minutes are up the whole class will share ideas. There is one last 3-minute short film called Heron
and Joy for the students to watch. When the film is over the students will silently write by themselves
for 10 minutes what they think the theme is and why. When everyone is finished, we will go over the
ideas they got. After the class is done with watching the videos and answering their questions on their
handout slides the teacher will proceed to ask his/her students if they have any questions. As
homework for the students they will read the story “Thank you ma’am” by Langston Hughes and
come up with at least 2 themes for the story.  

Day 2:

  To start off the class the teacher will ask a student to refresh us on what theme is. Then have them get
out their homework while the teacher pulls up day 2 slides. Students will share to the class what they
have come up with for theme of “Thank you ma’am”. The teacher will then ask the students what they
think the main idea and the plot of the story “Thank you ma’am” is. They haven’t gone over what that
is yet in class so the teacher should expect them to not know or get it half correct. After hearing what
students think the main idea and plot is, the teacher will have a 10-minute mini lesson on what it is.
When showing the plot structure, the teacher will use the example of a roller coaster slowly going up
and leading towards the top and when it finally reaches the top you fall down and then it’s over. When
the lesson is over the students will be prompted by the teacher to do the next slide on their assignment
by themselves for 2 minutes. It will be a blank plot structure that they have to label by dragging the
words on the left to the corresponding line. After the 2 minutes is up students will now talk with their
peers around them and come up with the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution  of the story “Thank you  ma’am” by Langston Hughes. Students will have 10 minutes to
do this section on their slides. As students are working together the teacher will walk around group to
group and hear ideas they have come up with. When the 10 minutes are up the teacher will bring the
class back together and have everyone share their ideas. The teacher will ask them why they think
what they think and where in the text does it support their thinking. Students will not have to write
anything down just read straight from the text. This will get them prepared for tomorrow's lesson
about textual evidence. This should lead into the end of class. The students will go home with no
 homework. 

Day 3: 

 The teacher will start off class with a rhetorical question that has to do with a person repeating a
message, but the message is totally different than what the person said. Like the game telephone. Next
the teacher will do a 10-minute mini lesson on textual evidence. The teacher will show some
examples of what signal phrases are and then introduce the acronym R.A.C.E. to help students
remember the order of citing text. Next the teacher will show them a quote sandwich example to help
students better understand where things are placed. Students will help guide the teacher where each
part would go on a sandwich. Students will then have their own quote sandwich on their google slide
with actual examples. They will work by themselves for  2 minutes to put it together. When the 2
minutes is up students will share with their peers where they placed each thing on the quote sandwich.
Students will then work on citing their own evidence. The teacher will ask them to cite correctly why
they think the theme is what they have come up with for “Thank you ma’am”. They will use signal
phrases, quotes and paragraph number, and summarization of their point. The teacher will ask the
students to highlight the signal phrase in pink, the quote in blue, where the quote came from in green,
and why this proves their point in yellow. 

Day 4: 

 This class period will be review over the past 3 days and putting everything together. The teacher will
ask the students if they have any questions on anything covered this week. Students may not realize it,
but over the course of the 3 days they have been analyzing text. Students have already come up with
the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution of  “Thank you ma’am” by
Langston Hughes. Now they will be prompted to find textual evidence to support why they think what
they think. They cited the theme yesterday and they will do the rest of the analysis today. They will
get 30 minutes to work by themselves or with one other person to quote each part. If they do not finish
it will be homework. 

Day 5:

 Students will create a short story analysis poster using a free website called Canva.com. The teacher
will introduce the project and how to use Canva to the class and have everyone follow along on how
to sign up. How to sign up will also be on the teacher blog in case anyone is absent or needs a recap.
Students will be able to choose from 4 short stories (Seventh grade by Gary Soto, Miss awful by
Arthur Cavanaugh, All summer in a day by Ray Brandbury, and The scholarship Jacket by Martha
Salinas)  provided by the teacher. The teacher will show examples of how it can be done. This project
will be due a week from today. Students will get the remainder of time to work on this project. Some
 students may finish it or get halfway done.

Pre-Assessment:

 On day one students will have a post-it note to write what they believe theme is before the lesson. Day
2 students will be asked what they believe the main idea and plot of the story is and will be asked to
share with the calls their thoughts. Once students develop an idea of what the main idea, plot, and
theme of a story is, the teacher will ask where in the text does it lead them to their answers. This will
help guide students to support their answer and get them ready for day 3. 

Scoring Guidelines:

 To score what students know the teacher will be reading over the post it notes answers about theme.
When we discuss topics as a class the teacher will keep a mental note of things they say and how
much student participation I receive. If there are not many hands the teacher will assume that they
have no idea, or they are too shy to speak up. He/she may have to call on a few people to at least come
up with a little something. 

Post-Assessment:

 I will have students use a website called Canva to create a creative short story digital analysis poster
that covers theme, main idea, exposition, rising action, climax, conflict, falling action, and resolution
with citations for each to prove their thinking. They will be able to choose from one the following 4
short stories in which they will create their poster for. (Seventh grade by Gary Soto, Miss awful by
arthur cavanaugh, All summer in a day by Ray Brandbury, and The scholarship Jacket by Martha
Salinas)

Scoring Guidelines:

 The teacher will have a rubric for the poster that contains a checklist of all the criteria. Each
component (theme, main idea, exposition, rising action, climax, conflict, falling action, resolution,
and citations) will be 5 points each. As a total of 40 points.  If students get a 32/40 which is an 80%
accuracy, they will be considered to have master textual analysis. Students will get 5 points extra
credit for creativity.  

Differentiated Instructional Support

  Students who are gifted and need more of a challenge will be prompted to come up with character
details and the conflict in the story and cite them. These students will be strategically placed by the
teacher in groups with people who are struggling and people who are doing a good job with
everything given to them. So, when they work with each other they are able to help each other out.  
 Students who need more help with the lesson will be seated with people who have a good
understanding of the topic. The teacher will have time when students are working so they can pull a
few students into a small group so they can have more time with them. Those students may get a
different layout of notes. Where certain things are filled out or have words to guide their thinking. 

Extension

Main Idea and Theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa3hZPYMI4Y- This youtube video will produce information about the

theme and main idea of a story. Give students tips and tricks to think  about. 

Plot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yzY6buMflo - This YouTube video uses Disney Pixar clips to show

examples of the plot structure. This can help students gain an understanding for each element. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5jlkK4aUI - This YouTube video discusses the definitions of each

element. 

Textual evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTNh4AFnhUU&t=184s - This YouTube video will help students get

in depth detail about textual evidence. It provides the definition and examples on how to do it. 

Homework Options and Home Connections

 The guided notes the students will be using during class will also be a source that they use for
homework. On day 1 they will have to read a digital copy of Langston Hughes “Thank you ma’am”
and come up with 2 of their very own themes for the story. Any day (3 or 4) that students do not finish
their digital notes in class it will be homework for them to finish for the next class.  

Interdisciplinary Connections

The short story analysis could be considered a digital art project. Students have to provide information about
each component, but the layout of their poster is supposed to be creative. Main idea and theme are in text
and videos. This could be incorporated into history based on what the main idea is of the section of reading
and what the theme is. There is often a plot in history. For example, for the wars we have there is a rising
action (events that led up to the war), climax (the turning point of the war), and a resolution (what happened
after the war). 

Materials and Resources:

For  PowerPoint premade 

teachers  Student google slide notes premade
 Paper copy of the short story “Thank You ma’am” by Langston Hughes 
 Guide to help with the themes, main idea, and plot of stories. (like an answer key).
  Seventh grade by Gary Soto
 Miss awful by arthur cavanaugh
  All summer in a day by Ray Brandbury
 The scholarship Jacket by Martha Salinas

For  Chromebook 
students  Guided notes on google slide
 Canva website 

One of these chosen texts. 

  Seventh grade by Gary Soto

 Miss awful by arthur cavanaugh
  All summer in a day by Ray Brandbury
 The scholarship Jacket by Martha Salinas

Key Vocabulary
 Theme 
 Main Idea
 Textual Evidence 
 Exposition
 Rising action
 Climax
 Conflict
 Falling action 
 Resolution
 Signal phrase 

 
Additional Notes
 In this lesson I tried to refrain from having my students do tests because I feel like students always do
 tests. I went a different route and chose a project. 
 For the quote sandwich lesson, I am thinking of actually bringing in Oreos to hook my students and so
they have a delicious treat.