Teacher: Meg Strauss Date: January 31th, 2016

School: Holyoke Junior High School Grade Level: 8th

Content Area: English
Title: Themes and Topics Lesson #:_2_ of _16_

Colorado State Standards Addressed:

Standard 2.1.a.ii: 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.
Standard 2.3.a.i: Select and employ strategies to persist when encountering
unknown or ambiguous words or difficult passages
Understandings:
Students will understand the importance of theme and topic within a personal
memoir.
Inquiry Questions:
What is the theme and topic in The Moment of the Sixties by Joseph Duffy? Why is
having a central theme and topic important in writing a personal memoir?

Evidence Outcomes: (Learning Targets)

I can: discover the themes and topics located in The Moment of the Sixties by
Joseph Duffy.
This means: I can understand the importance of having a central theme in my own
personal memoirs.

List of Assessments:
- Students will work in partners to answer the questions about the short
personal memoir The Moment of the Sixties by Joseph Duffy.

Planned Lesson Activities

Name and Purpose of Lesson Name: Themes and Topics

Purpose: Students will learn the importance of having a central

theme and topic within a personal memoir.
Approx. Time and Materials
Duration of Unit: 50 minutes
 Materials: Review sheet on theme vs. topic, The Moment of the
Sixties by Joseph Duffy, questions about the story

Anticipatory Set Writers Notebook-

Prompt: Write about a time in which you learned a life lesson.

Students will have the option to read their writing to the class.
Using the review sheet of topic vs. theme given to the class,
students will decide the topic and theme evident in their
classmates story.

Procedures Teacher Actions Student Actions

1. 5 minutes- 1. 5 minutes-
Announcements Actively listen to
Question announcements.
attendance: Whats Answer attendance question
your favorite color?

2. 15 minutes-
Writers Notebook 2. 15 minutes- Writers Notebook
Have students Write in your writers notebook
write about a time about a time in which you
in which they learned a very important life
learned a very lesson.
importance lesson. Either share your story or
This must be in actively listen to your
story form. classmates stories
Hand out review Using the review sheet
sheet on theme vs. provided, help your peers
topic analyze the theme and topics
Ask volunteers to evident in your classmates
share their writers stories
notebook prompt
With students,
analyze the themes
and topics
portrayed in their
classmates stories
3. 10 minutes-
Pass out the short
story and questions 3. 10 minutes
to A Moment in the Receive the short story and
Sixties by Joseph questions
Duffy Actively listen while I read A
Read the story to Moment in the Sixties by
the students Joseph Duffy
Pair students up Get with the partner assigned
 and tell them to to you
start working on
the questions on
the bottom of the
short story sheet

4. 15 minutes 4. 15 minutes
Walk around the With a partner, use the review
classroom and help sheet to help you answer the
pairs answer the questions located at the
questions located bottom of the short story.
at the end of the 5. 5 minutes
short story sheet Turn in question sheet
5. 5 minutes On an exit slip, answer the
Gather students question, Why is it important
question sheets to have a central theme or
Have students topic in a personal memoir?
write an exit slip
answering the
question, Why do
you think its
important to have a
central theme or
topic in a personal
memoir?

Closure Students will be asked to write an exit slip that answers the
question, Why do you think it is important to have a central
theme and topic in a personal memoir?
Differentiation Students will be put into pairs based on their data-collected level.
More advanced students will be paired with students who are
struggling.

Assessment Students will turn in a question sheet that answers questions

about the theme and topics evident in A Moment of the Sixties
by Joseph Duffy. Students will also turn in an exit slip describing
why having a central theme and topic in a personal memoir is
important.

Notes to Self - In order to further differentiation, maybe have students get

into their writing circles and each writing circle has a
modified version of the short story that better adheres to
their level? I think it is important to read the text to the
class for students who struggle with reading, so Im not
sure how I would incorporate this.
 Themes and Topics

Why are having themes

and topics in a story

important?

Themes and topics

provide centrality to literature
Gives the reader something to take-
away from the reading
Keeps the writer on point

Theme vs. Topic

Theme Topic
Central message Subject discussed
in writing
Explains why text Explains what the
was written writing is about
Not directly stated Most often stated in
in work work
 Often reflects an General as it is a
opinion subject

The First Moment of The Sixties

By Joseph Duffy

I was sure when The Fifties would come to an end. They would end on December 31, 1959, at
the stroke of midnight. I was a young boy of eleven at that moment, and my twin brother Jim
and I were helping my Mom baby-sit for my sister Betty, who lived across tiny Agate Street
from us. It was a big deal, as the decade would be changing, something I had never
experienced, as I was too young the last time this happened. I couldnt wait to see what it felt
like; the end of The Fifties!

Midnight came, and Jim and I ran up and down Agate Street banging pots and pans together to
celebrate the new decade. I awoke the next morning, looked out my window, and...nothing was
changed. I was a bit surprised. Life just went on as if nothing had happened. I began to suspect
that decades were not real; they were an invention, and that one was just like every other. Is that
all there is to a decade? Banging Pots and Pans?

So, even though it was now 1960, The Fifties just...continued. I began High School a couple of
years later, and we had a new President, John F. Kennedy, and an Irish Catholic like me, whom
I had (sort of) met when he was campaigning for President. Freshman year at Northeast
Catholic High went pretty smooth for me, and, for Sophomore year, 1963, I was assigned to the
top section. I had Geometry, Latin II, Spanish II, Biology, World History, Religion, English
Composition, and Gym, three days a week. I also had the 11:30 lunch, which was considered
the best lunch.

After lunch came Religion class, with Father Godley (his real name). The trick in Father
Godleys class was to stay awake, especially after lunch. That went until 1:00, and then Spanish
II, with Father Cleary. 1:45 was English Comp, with Mr. Thaddeus Pianka. That class was held
in Room 114, on the corner of the first floor.

I remember a particularly warm Friday, late that Fall. It was 66 degrees and sunny;
unseasonably warm for so late in November. The windows in our classroom were open, and we
were doing a quiz, or deskwork, for Mr. Pianka. It was very quiet. I sat in the first desk, second
row. Then there was a loud voice, coming from outside our window.

Hey, thats my buddy Mike Dugan out there, I remember thinking. He was yelling to another
student, who must have been standing a hundred yards away.

Somebody just shot Kennedy.

What? said the other kid.

I said, somebody... just... shot... Kennedy!

There was a muffled response from the other kid.

Then Mike said, They dont know yet.

I thought, Wow. What if somebody HAD just shot Kennedy? I didnt believe it. It just didnt
seem like a possibility. Why would Mike say such a thing?

A few moments later our Principal, Father Corcoran, announced over the loudspeaker, May I
have your attention, please? The President has just been shot in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a
motorcade. His condition is not yet known, but reports are that it may be very serious. We
didnt know what to think about this. It was a physical blow.

And nothing was ever the same, from that moment. Something had ended. We were somewhere
completely new and foreign to us. It took only... a moment. We were, briefly, suspended, in
mid-air, between decades; silent, breathless, and peering down into the unknown; but only for a
moment.

And, in that moment, the nation, and the world, leapt the abyss between the decades. It was the
very last moment of The Fifties. The beginning of The Sixties was not about banging pots and
pans together, after all.

Questions on the text:

What is the moral of this story?

Why did the author feel that telling this story was important?

Provide two themes evident in this story:

Provide three topics evident in this story: