Theme Lesson Plan: Key Ideas and Details

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Theme, and supports the standard of determining the theme and supporting details. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

What do you think might be the lesson, or theme, of “Little Red Riding Hood?”

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

Read aloud the description on the Theme topic page
Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS

Assign the Theme Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about the story element, theme while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

Make-a-Movie: Create a movie that retells your favorite story. Challenge a classmate to identify the theme of the story. In your movie, answer this question: How can you use details to figure out the theme?
Make-a-Map: Make a concept map that states the theme of a favorite story and then identify details from the story that support that theme.
Creative Coding: Code a Theme sorting game. Think of two themes that are common to many fairy tales. Then think of tales that fit in one of the two categories and challenge players to sort them by theme.
Primary Source Activity: Read the fable and cite details to answer the questions.

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of key ideas and details with these topics: Plot, Story Conflict, and Main Idea.

Teacher Support Resources:

Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas.
Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1

Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.4

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1

Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7

Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.1

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.2

Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.9

Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series)

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2

Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.9

Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.2

Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9

Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.9

Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grade: 08

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

Grade: 03

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6

With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Grade: 04

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.9b

Apply grade 4 Reading standards to informational texts (e.g., “Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text”).

Grade: 05

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.9b

Apply grade 5 Reading standards to informational texts (e.g., “Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point[s]”).

Grade: 06

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.9b

Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not”).

Grade: 07

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.9b

Apply grade 7 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g. “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims”).

Filed as: 3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7

Theme Lesson Plan: Key Ideas and Details

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

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