Grade One, Theme Five
Elementary English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Template
Grade 1 Comprehending and Composing*
Use this form to plan your comprehension instruction lessons within a unit (several lessons) around a core theme.
What is the theme?
What is the essential question I would like
students to engage at the end of the
theme?
Universal Theme: Communities
First Grade Theme Five: Where We Live
Essential Questions:
Writing Task:
BEFORE READING
Title of Reading Selection:
Genre:
What is the essential sub-question for each
lesson, as it relates to the theme?
Background knowledge: build or activate
students’ related knowledge to the theme
or topic.
DURING READING
What reading instruction is needed? (skills,
strategies, higher level questions)
What is the intended comprehension
objective of student learning?
Lesson Nineteen
“Little Rabbit’s Tale”
Folktale
Lesson Twenty
“Ways People Live”
Nonfiction
Lesson Twenty-one
“Flake, the Missing Hamster”
Play
Essential Sub-Question:
Essential Sub-Question:
Essential Sub-Question:
Focus Comprehension Skill:
Cause and Effect
Focus Comprehension Skill
Cause and Effect
Focus Comprehension Skill:
Problem/Solution
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Recognize Story Structure
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Use Graphic Organizers
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Summarize
Comprehension Objective:
To understand the characteristics
of a folktale
Comprehension Objective:
To understand the characteristics of
nonfiction
Comprehension Objective:
To recognize the characteristics of
a play
AFTER READING
Sub-question: Writing Task
Create the writing task by turning the
question into a prompt. Discuss the
question and answer it orally before
students write.
* This template is for the teaching of comprehending and composing only within the core reading program. Teach other
components of the reading program as you normally would—including phonics and word work, fluency, spelling, writing
conventions, etc.
Grade One, Theme Five
Elementary English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Template
Grade 1 Comprehending and Composing*
Use this form to plan your comprehension instruction lessons within a unit (several lessons) around a core theme.
BEFORE READING
Lesson Twenty-two
Lesson Twenty-three
Lesson Twenty-four
Title of Reading Selection:
“We’re Going on a Picnic!”
“On Saturday”
“Mystery of the Night Song”
Genre:
Fantasy
Nonfiction
Realistic Fiction
What is the essential sub-question for each
lesson, as it relates to the theme?
Essential Sub-Question:
Essential Sub-Question:
Essential Sub-Question:
Focus Comprehension Skill:
Problem/Solution
Focus Comprehension Skill
Draw Conclusions
Focus Comprehension Skill:
Draw Conclusions
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Ask Questions
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Ask Questions
Focus Comprehension Strategy:
Monitor Comprehension: Make
inferences
Comprehension Objective:
To distinguish between fantasy and
reality
Comprehension Objective:
To understand the characteristics of
narrative nonfiction
Comprehension Objective:
To understand characteristics of a
mystery
Background knowledge: build or activate
students’ related knowledge to the theme
or topic.
DURING READING
What reading instruction is needed? (skills,
strategies, higher level questions)
What is the intended comprehension
objective of student learning?
AFTER READING
Sub-question: Writing Task
Create the writing task by turning the
question into a prompt. Discuss the
question and answer it orally before
students write.
Theme 5

Possible Theme Essential Questions
Possible Theme Essential Writing Tasks

How can you help in your community?


Possible Main Selection Sub-Questions
Explain how you can help in your community. Use
examples from the theme.
Compare community helpers in the theme to
community helpers where you live.
Describe how you can help in your community. Use
examples from the theme.
Possible Main Selection Sub-Question Writing
Tasks
Lesson 19
Lesson 20
o
What will little rabbit do next time an apple hits him?
o
Describe what little rabbit will do the next time an apple hits him.
o
o
o
o
Lesson 21
o
o
o
o
o
o
What causes people to dress different in different places?
If you could live in any of the places, where would you live? What kind of
house would you need?
How does the class find Flake?
How would you make Flake come out of hiding?
What is the problem in the story?
What happens to the picnic food?
What clues help you know that Jack loves his community?
What is one thing Jack might do on a pretty day?
Explain what causes people to dress different in different places.
Describe one of the places you would like to live and describe what kind of
house you would need.
Describe how the class finds Flake.
Describe how you would make Flake come out of hiding.
If you are in the story, what is your suggestion to solve the problem?
Describe what happens to the picnic food.
Describe things you do in your community that are the same as what Jack
does in the story.
Explain one thing Jack might do on a pretty day.
Tell how Ann solved the mystery.
Name one clue and describe how it helped the children solve the mystery.
Lesson 22
Lesson 23
Lesson 24
o
o
How do you know when a story is a mystery?
What is one clue that helped the children solve the mystery?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o