For this tenth grade class, this novel study is intended to teach students that themes are

not only generated by authors, but by readers. Students will work to identify and track a theme in
Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, while learning about other literary elements that
could impact the development of their theme. The class will receive a review in how to read
closely and how to make inferencesskills they have already been taught and skills they have
been practicing in this class. Students will be taught what a theme is, how it differs from the
main idea, how it can change and develop as a text progresses, what factors can have an impact
on the theme, and they will explicitly learn about a few of those impacting factors. They will also
learn how to use textual evidence to support their ideas. Additionally, students will have the
opportunity to practice identifying and supporting a theme in the short story, The Lottery. This
practice will assist them in successfully completing the same task within the novel. Literary
factors that students will be learning about include characterization (indirect/direct),
mood/style/tone, and setting. Students will learn how these factors can change and develop
throughout a novel, and how these factors could change and/or help to develop the theme they
identify. Its also important to note that students will receive background on WWII to assist them
in understanding the setting of the story and its overall impact on the novel as a whole.
Throughout this unit, students learning and progress will be assessed, followed by a
summative assessment at the end, in which they must showcase the skills theyve been learning.
Prior to the unit, students will be asked to brainstorm what they know about WWII, and they will
also read an article pertaining to events that took place during the war. This background
knowledge will benefit the students as they read the novel, and try to understand some of the
themes that are present within. While reading, students will provide stop and jot summaries for
each chapter. These summaries will help them when they reach their final essay assessment, but
they will also allow me, as the teacher, to assess their understanding of the reading. Additionally,
these summaries will help students while readingrecognizing important aspects of each
chapter, and preparing themselves to identify a theme. Students will also have the opportunity to
participate in Socratic seminars, class discussions, and partner discussions. All of these
discussions will allow me to assess their understanding of the novel/the short story, the themes,
and the literary factors we have been learning. These discussions are an easy way for me to
correct misunderstandings, and to recognize what needs further instruction. The summative
assessment for these students will be to write an essay in which they identify a theme from Miss
Peregrines and use textual evidence to support the theme. The essay asks students to consider
their organization, grammar, and use of conventions and Standard English. These essays will
allow me to gauge the understanding of how to identify a theme, its development, and the
students ability to use summary, paraphrasing, and direct quotations in order to support their
claim.
As mentioned above, after each chapter, students will be asked to write a stop and jot
summary in their notebooks. These summaries will motivate the students to pay attention while
reading, and it will also assist them in the long run when developing their final essays. When
practicing finding theme in The Lottery, students will be asked to complete an I Witness
worksheet. This worksheet will allow the students to practice identifying a theme, and passages
that will help support their theory. Students will also complete a modified storyboard
worksheet. This worksheet will assist students in understanding how characters develop
throughout a narrative, and the extra section provided will ask students to consider how this
character development can impact the theme. This guided practice will be helpful for the students
when they are brainstorming the ways in which their theme changed and developed throughout

the story. Finally, students will also fill out a modified theme search worksheet. This worksheet
will allow students to visually see the ways their theme has developed throughout the novel, and
the added section will ask students to begin citing passages that will support their ideas. This will
be especially useful when they are developing their final essays. Finally, each lesson on the
literary factors, and the lesson on theme will be accompanied with practice on The Lottery.
This practice will help students to see how these skills really work when applied to a text.
Additionally, being able to practice on a short story will give them even more practice with close
reading, and supporting the inferences they make about the text. All of these activities are
intended to build on the knowledge students already have, while also developing new knowledge
and skills. Each activity works with the other activities in the unit, and will eventually be
beneficial for not only their final essay, but also for future units.