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The RCAS Curriculum Guide outlines two power standards for November/December: 
  • RL.2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 
  • W.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
As you plan upcoming units, you may find yourself asking this question relating to RL.2:

What, exactly, is this thing called theme, and how am I going to communicate it to students?

First, let's talk about what theme isn't. Theme is not the same as topic. Friendship, love, growing up, death; these are topics. As Johnston and Afflerbach (1985) put it, identifying the topic of a text is "only the halfway point."

Now, what is theme? Theme is where all the other literary elements come together to fulfill a text's ultimate purpose. In their book, Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters About Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme, Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm (2010) say, "When we see characters play out various values and perspectives in particular circumstances, when we see situations, perspectives, and values change, we see themes come to life." A theme is more specific than a topic; a theme contains both the topic and a comment.

The theme of a fable is its moral. The theme of a parable is its teaching. A novel's theme is a statement that the author makes about life. Edward B. Fry (2006) states that theme is, "the message about life or nature that the author wants the reader to get from the story, play, or poem." 

Theme reflects the human condition. Although the details of a reader's experiences may be different from the details of the story, the underlying message of the story may be the connection that both the reader and the writer are seeking.

In general, the theme of a narrative can be written as a statement: Friendship can be lost if you don't nurture it; It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all; Death comes for us all.

Theme is usually not presented directly. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

So how do we help kids determine the theme of a narrative? Try having students answer these questions to help guide them in finding the theme: 
  1. What topics or big ideas is the story about?
  2. What do characters say or do that relates to that topic?
  3. What do these things tell you is important to learn about life?

Remember that the standard asks for considerably more than simply identifying the theme - but it is a place to start.

10/17/2012 03:03:30 am

Dave,
This is a great reminder for us all what theme really is, and how we can help students go about finding the theme. I think it is too often seen as the topic, and students need to dig deeper. Thanks for this post! I am going to share your site with my staff here at SWMS!

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Connie Krueger
10/17/2012 03:10:36 am

Dave,
Thanks for explaining theme and thanks for the reference. I haven't seen that book. I'll be forwarding your website to North's ELA teachers. What a great resource!

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