Lesson length30 min 45 min 60 min

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English lesson plan · 4th grade (Year 5 in England) · 30 minutes

Theme

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RL.4.2CCSS RL.5.2England: Y5/6 Reading (themes)England: KS2 SATs Reading

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Theme.

I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
I can explain each step and say why it works.
I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: The lesson or moral

Leads to: Literary analysis: theme, symbol, ambiguity; What does the symbol represent?; Poetry forms: sonnet, haiku, limerick, ballad, free verse…

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

Quick retrieval from earlier learning (The lesson or moral). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

Zack teased Mo for being slow at reading. Later, Zack got stuck on a maths problem, and Mo kindly helped him. What is the lesson? (Mo is better than Zack. / Reading is not important. / Everyone has different strengths, so don't tease others. / Maths is easier than reading.) → Everyone has different strengths, so don't tease others.Prompt: What did the main character learn by the end?
A little ant worked hard all summer, storing food. A grasshopper just sang. When winter came, the ant had food and the grasshopper was hungry. What is the lesson? (Winter is cold. / Ants are stronger than grasshoppers. / Singing is bad. / It is wise to prepare for the future.) → It is wise to prepare for the future.Prompt: What did the main character learn by the end?
A crow was thirsty, but the water in the jug was too low to reach. It dropped in pebble after pebble until the water rose, and then it drank. What is the lesson? (Crows like pebbles. / Never drink from a jug. / Water is heavy. / Clever thinking and patience can solve problems.) → Clever thinking and patience can solve problems.Prompt: What did the main character learn by the end?

Hook · 3 min

Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
Share the objective: Theme. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
Example: The king had gold, jewels and a hundred rooms, yet he was lonely. The poor shepherd had only a hut, but his family filled it with laughter. What is the theme?
Step 1: A theme is the message about life that the story explores.
Step 2: So the answer is: Love matters more than wealth.
Answer: Love matters more than wealth.
Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

The king had gold, jewels and a hundred rooms, yet he was lonely. The poor shepherd had only a hut, but his family filled it with laughter. What is the theme? (Huts are small. / Shepherds are poor. / Love matters more than wealth. / Kings are cruel.) → Love matters more than wealth.Prompt: What big idea about life does the text explore?
The old fisherman had caught nothing for days. Still, every morning he rowed out. On the ninth day, his net came up full. What is the theme? (The sea is dangerous. / Old people should rest. / Fishing is boring. / Perseverance can pay off.) → Perseverance can pay off.Prompt: What big idea about life does the text explore?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

The old fisherman had caught nothing for days. Still, every morning he rowed out. On the ninth day, his net came up full. What is the theme? (Old people should rest. / The sea is dangerous. / Perseverance can pay off. / Fishing is boring.) → Perseverance can pay off.Prompt: What big idea about life does the text explore?

Watch out for

Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

Review first: The lesson or moral.
Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

Move on to: Literary analysis: theme, symbol, ambiguity; What does the symbol represent?; Poetry forms: sonnet, haiku, limerick, ballad, free verse….
Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-4.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Theme

Name

Date

Score/ 6

The Gardener's Ledger

My father kept two books. The first was the ledger in which he recorded every coin that passed through the shop: the price of flour, the cost of the new awning, the debts that customers swore they would settle by Friday. He wrote in it every evening, in a small, upright hand, and he never let anyone else touch it. The second book I did not discover until after he died. It was a cheap school exercise book, its cover soft with handling, hidden at the back of the shed behind the seed trays. Inside, in the same upright hand, he had recorded something quite different: the date the first snowdrop appeared each year; the night a fox had dug up the tulips; the morning, in 1987, when "M. laughed at the robin on the spade and said it was the bravest bird in England." M. was my mother. I had never heard my father mention her laugh. For forty years, it seemed, he had been keeping accounts of another kind – of small, unprofitable things that added up to a life. The shop ledger balanced to the penny. The garden book did not balance at all. There were gaps of months, sometimes years. In 1993, the year my mother died, there is only one entry: "Rain." I used to think my father was a man who cared only for what could be counted. I sat in that cold shed until the light went, reading his small, careful sentences, and understood that I had been reading the wrong book.

1
Question 1
Read "The Gardener's Ledger". What does the final phrase "I had been reading the wrong book" mean?
- A. He had misread the shop accounts.
- B. He should have studied gardening.
- C. He had borrowed the wrong library book.
- D. He had judged his father by the wrong evidence.

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

The storm had been building all afternoon. By the time the sun set, waves as tall as houses were hurling themselves against the rocks below Gull Point Lighthouse, and the wind screamed around the tower like a wild animal. Nell pressed her face to the window of the little cottage. Her father had rowed to the mainland that morning to fetch the doctor for Mrs Penrose, and the sea had turned before he could return. Now, for the first time in her twelve years, Nell was alone at the lighthouse. She knew what that meant. Every night at dusk, the great lamp at the top of the tower had to be lit. Without it, ships would have no warning of the rocks. Nell grabbed the lantern and her father's oilskin coat, which hung down past her knees, and pushed open the door. The wind nearly knocked her flat. Bent double, she stumbled across the yard and into the tower. There were one hundred and twelve steps to the top. Nell had climbed them hundreds of times, but never in the dark, never with the whole tower trembling. Halfway up, her lantern flickered and almost went out. She stopped, cupped her hand around the flame and whispered, "Not now. Please, not now." At the top, her fingers were numb with cold. She trimmed the wick the way her father had shown her, filled the oil and struck a match. Nothing. A second match. Nothing. With the third, a tiny flame caught, grew and then blazed, and the great lens began to turn, sweeping its beam across the furious sea. Far out in the darkness, a ship's horn sounded twice. Nell did not know whose ship it was. But she knew that, tonight, it would find its way home.

2
Question 2
Read "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter". What does the ending suggest?
- A. The storm will last forever.
- B. Nell's father is on the ship.
- C. The lighthouse will close.
- D. Nell's brave action has probably saved a ship.

The Kite Festival

Amara had spent three weeks building her kite. She had bent the bamboo sticks, stretched the paper tight and painted a fierce golden dragon across the front. It was going to win the prize for best design at the town's kite festival. She was sure of it. On the morning of the festival, the field was crowded with families. Kites shaped like fish, birds and boats bobbed in the breeze. Amara's little brother, Kofi, trailed behind her, clutching a small diamond kite he had made from a plastic bag and two straws. "Mine's not very good," Kofi mumbled. Amara ran, and her dragon rose beautifully – until a sudden gust snapped one of the bamboo sticks. The kite twisted, spun and crashed into the grass. The paper ripped right through the dragon's face. Amara's eyes stung. Three weeks of work, ruined in three seconds. Kofi tugged her sleeve. "You can fly mine with me," he offered. At first Amara shook her head. Then she looked at Kofi's hopeful face and took the string. Together they ran, and the little plastic kite shot up higher than any other kite in the sky. People pointed and cheered. That afternoon, the judges gave Kofi a ribbon for "Highest Flyer". Amara clapped louder than anyone. She realised she was smiling more than she would have if she had won the prize herself.

3
Question 3
Read "The Kite Festival". What is the theme of the story?
- A. Expensive kites always fly best.
- B. Sharing someone else's success can bring real happiness.
- C. Little brothers are annoying.
- D. You should never enter competitions.

Message in a Bottle (a poem)

I am a bottle, empty and light, tossed from a boat on a bright summer night. No note inside me, no secret to tell, just plastic and air and a sea-salty smell. The ocean is patient, the ocean is wide; it rocks me and rolls me from tide to tide. A turtle swims near me and stares at my shine. I am not a jellyfish. Please, don't you dine! I'll drift for a lifetime, I'll drift for a few, I'll crumble to pieces too tiny for you. But somebody somewhere could carry me back, a hand on the beach and a bin in a sack. So here is my message, though no one wrote it: the sea keeps whatever we throw. Don't forget it.

4
Question 4
Read "Message in a Bottle (a poem)". What is the main message of the poem?
- A. Bottles make good homes for turtles.
- B. Litter we throw into the sea stays there and causes harm.
- C. Everyone should send messages in bottles.
- D. Summer nights at sea are beautiful.

The Drone at the Marsh (a play)

CAST: NIA, a young volunteer · AMIR, her older cousin · MRS HOLT, the nature reserve warden SCENE: A wooden bird hide at the edge of a marsh. Early morning. (NIA peers through binoculars. AMIR carries a small drone and a controller.) AMIR: (cheerfully) Watch this, Nia. I'll fly it over the reeds and film the whole marsh. NIA: (lowering the binoculars) Wait! The terns are nesting out there. AMIR: It's only a little drone. They won't even notice. (MRS HOLT enters, holding a clipboard.) MRS HOLT: Morning, both. Is that a drone? AMIR: (proudly) It has a 4K camera. MRS HOLT: (gently) Birds may think a drone is a hawk. If the parents fly off their nests, the eggs can get cold. NIA: So filming them could hurt them. (AMIR looks at the drone, then at the marsh. A pause.) AMIR: (quietly) I didn't know that. Could I film the car park instead, and show people where the hide is? MRS HOLT: (smiling) That would be very helpful.

5
Question 5
Read "The Drone at the Marsh (a play)". What is the main message of the play?
- A. Think about how your actions affect wildlife.
- B. Birds do not need eggs.
- C. Never listen to older people.
- D. New gadgets are always bad.

My Grandmother's Hands

My grandmother's hands are brown and wrinkled, like a map of rivers that have been flowing for eighty years. When I was small, I used to trace the lines with my finger and ask her where each one went. "This one," she would say, pointing to a deep crease across her palm, "goes back to the farm where I grew up, where I picked cotton until my fingers bled." Then she would point to a thin white scar on her thumb. "And this one leads to the night I learned to cook for eight brothers and sisters." Her hands have kneaded thousands of loaves of bread. They have stitched every quilt in our house and plaited my hair before every first day of school. They once caught my baby brother when he slipped from the top of the slide, faster than anyone thought an old woman could move. These days her hands shake a little when she holds her teacup. Sometimes she drops a stitch and has to start a row again. But when she takes my hands in hers, they are still the strongest hands I know.

6
Question 6
Read "My Grandmother's Hands". What is the main message of the final paragraph?
- A. Her hands are now useless.
- B. The narrator is angry with her grandmother.
- C. Although she is growing weaker, her love and strength remain.
- D. Old people should stop sewing.

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Answer key: Theme

1. D. He had judged his father by the wrong evidence.
2. D. Nell's brave action has probably saved a ship.
3. B. Sharing someone else's success can bring real happiness.
4. B. Litter we throw into the sea stays there and causes harm.
5. A. Think about how your actions affect wildlife.
6. C. Although she is growing weaker, her love and strength remain.