To Kill A Mockingbird

Lesson Overview
Students just completed their midterm exam for the To Kill A Mockingbird unit. They are beginning to work with the concept of theme. In this
lesson, I will iden fy student preconcep ons about the theme and then introduce the new informa on that they will need to know. The
lesson will be scaffolded with the teacher giving an example of how to cra and test theme statements. Then, the class will prac ce in small
groups. Work with theme will con nue throughout the remainder of the trimester and lead into students cra ing a theme statement and
wri ng a theme analysis as part of the final exam.

Daily Plans
Outline (You will provide 8 of these for this unit):

Please be sure to LABEL the days with the number (Day 1, Day 2, etc.) from Stage II.

Title of today’s lesson: Finding Theme

Overview: Students will use the popular film Finding Nemo to practice identifying thematic ideas and crafting theme
statements.

Learning Objectives –

● Students will determine a theme of a text (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1).

● Iden fy text evidence to support a theme statement (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2).
Anticipated student conceptions or challenges to understanding: I anticipate that students will struggle to change their
understanding of what a theme truly is.
Instructional Sequence:

Launch: What are some things that you have been told are themes in other English classes?

***write a list on the board

{things like love, courage, family, good vs. evil, coming of age, redemption, etc.}

What if I told you that these aren’t themes? These are a list of topics. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Ms. Mehlberg, last
tri you made us all write papers about the “themes” of hysteria and the power of one. True… true. It is time to build off of
this. Topics and themes are not completely disconnected.

Topics are the basis of themes. Today, we are going to walk through the process of turning a topic into a theme. Then, we
will create a list of topics and the goal is that when we finish reading To Kill A Mockingbird you will be able to identify and
analyze a theme for the novel.

I am going to tell you a story. There once was a clownfish named Marlin. Marlin was married and expecting hundreds of
baby clownfish. This soon to be dad fish was devastated when a Barracuda ate his fishy spouse and all but one of his fish
children. When his small fish son, Nemo, was born, Marlin became very overprotective. Nemo disobeys his father and swims
to the surface to prove himself. He is captured by a diver and is taken far away. Marlin begins to search for his son and
becomes partnered with a blue, forgetful fish named Dory. Along the way, they have complicated encounters with sharks,
sea turtles, and whales. At the same time, Nemo plots to escape the clutches of his captor before being turned over to the fish
destroying hands of a young girl named Darla. An unlikely team of sea creatures work together to escape the tank.
Eventually, Marlin and Dory make it to Sydney and Nemo escapes the tank. Father and son are reunited.

So, step 1: we need to create a list of topics.

Love
Family

Danger

Trust

Obedience

Security

Risk

Now that we have our list of topics, we can move on to step 2:

In step 2 we will write the first draft of our theme sentences. Start with “The author believes that…” and write what the
author seems to believe about your topic.

Let’s take trust, for example.

A theme sentence for trust in Finding Nemo could be

The author believes that a person needs to learn how to trust themselves others.

Be careful. Theme sentences should not contain any details that are specific to the story. Mine has nothing specific about
Finding Nemo. It could be applied to other stories.

Now, step 3 is easy. You just cross out the words “The author believes that” in your theme sentence and make the necessary
revisions to create the final version of your theme sentence.
My final theme sentence is:

A person needs to learn how to trust themselves and others.

This is one theme for Finding Nemo.

Now, for step 4, you need to find some evidence that shows your theme.

For example, some scenes that show “A person needs to learn how to trust themselves others” are:

When Dory remembers “42 Wallabee Way, Sydney” and Marlin realizes that he needs her.

When Dory and Marlin have to blindly trust the sea turtles and everything turns out okay.

When Nemo overcomes his fears and learns to trust himself enough to swim up the tube to jam the filter to make the tank
dirty.

Now you’re going to practice with a new topic. I am going to assign each table a topic. In your table groups, you will
complete steps 1, 2, and 3. Once you finish the first three steps, stop and let me know.