Identifying the theme of a story is a higher order skill and requires the reader to make an inference. Consequently, some students have a difficult time identifying themes. Because this skill is frequently evaluated on state reading tests, it is important that your students identify themes with reasonable reliability. I find that properly teaching students how to identify themes goes a long way toward meeting this goal.
1. Properly Define Theme: students need to know that theme is the life lesson of a story or the author’s message.
2. Prepare Students To Infer: students need to understand that in most stories (with the exception of fables), the author will not tell readers what the theme or lesson of the story is. Readers will have to think about what the characters did wrong or right and what they can learn from the character’s experience.
3. Teach Students To Extract The “Big Idea”: One common mistake that students make when attempting to identify the theme is that they get hung up on the characters or events in the story. They cannot think beyond the small world elements of the story to extract the big world lesson of the theme. I will use the following short story as an example:
Tim hated his old baseball glove. He wanted to play with a new glove, but he didn’t have any money, so he decided to steal it. But when Tim got caught stealing the glove, his parents said he couldn’t play baseball all summer.
A student who understands the concept of theme is likely to give a response like, “The lesson of the story is that if you want something, you should work for it.” A response like this shows that the student is processing the events of the story and extracting a larger idea, one which can be directly applied to someone’s life. A student who doesn’t understand theme will fixate on story level events. For example, “Tim shouldn’t steal.” While this response demonstrates comprehension of the text, it doesn’t show higher order thinking. The student is stuck in the small world of the story and needs to take the mental jump to the big world idea. Teaching students to distinguish between the small world of the story and the big world idea will help them to more accurately express their understanding of story themes.
4. Give Students Practice Identifying Themes: While I encourage you to study and discuss themes in each story that you read as a class, immediately after learning about theme, students need a variety of examples with which they can practice. I have created worksheets and activities where students identify themes in a variety of very short stories. Also, I have uploaded the PowerPoint slide show I used to teach theme to my students this year.
I hope these resources will help your students better understand theme and more consistently identify themes texts.
Thenisha Carter
/ January 9, 2012Thank you for your suggestions. This site is VERY helpful. My students enjoyed every passage written on the worksheet. Your resources made the lesson on themes and main ideas interesting. You did a phenomenal job and I hope to see more worksheets and PowerPoints available.
Mr. Morton
/ January 14, 2012Thanks so much for saying so. I am dedicated to the continual improvement of this website.
Teresa S.
/ January 27, 2012Thanks for the website. The power point really helped my lesson today teaching theme.
Rachel W
/ February 20, 2012Great website!! It really helped my kids with the idea of theme and how it differentiates with main idea!
Mr. Morton
/ February 23, 2012I’m so pleased to hear it.
patrick T
/ February 23, 2012This gave me the perspective I needed to revive my students “higher thinking!”
Thanks, very helpful!
C. Carroll
/ March 3, 2012Thanks for wonderful worksheet covering the subjects that I need. These are the best that I have found!
janet hill
/ March 8, 2012really like this website… great worksheets for my sophomore english class!!
slong
/ March 21, 2012This is exactly how I teach this lesson, but it gives EXCELLENT examples!! Thanks!!
Mr. Morton
/ March 30, 2012Great minds think alike.
Rudylen Anino-dela Torre
/ April 26, 2012Thanks for this Mr. Morton! Extracting Theme from a Narrative would be my topic for my class demonstration. This is indeed a BIG HELP! I hope I would be able to give my best in my demonstration so that I would be hired. Blessings!
Mr. Morton
/ May 3, 2012I hope so too.
Thanks for visiting!
suzanne
/ September 25, 2012This is a terrific resource. The powerpoint is simple, clear, and so understandable for my middle school students. Thank you.
Bgregoire
/ January 27, 2013Great site – and resources! Can’t wait to use these in my class!
Ms. N Clark
/ February 19, 2013How do I access the PowerPoint?
Mr. Morton
/ February 21, 2013Click the link to download the file. Then, open it up. Email me if you need more help.
Nicole
/ March 6, 2013We appreciate your resources, but unfortunately they are incorrect. Author’s Message and Theme get confused very often. The theme is not the author’s message, but the theme is inferred from the author’s message. For example the author’s message for The Tortoise & The Hare could be “Slow and steady wins the race” and the theme could then be inferred as “Patience.” Check your literary definitions please teachers before presenting this confusion. Themes are universal (can cross culture and time) broad topics stated in 1 to words. When defining theme, I encourage students to think of birthday parties. Birthday parties usually have a theme, which everything gives reference.
Mr. Morton
/ March 6, 2013Thank you for your input. This is often a point of contention. As you can see from the Wikipedia page about literary theme, there are two conflicting definitions for theme, one of which you list. I respect your views and encourage you to use my materials anyway they assist you.
In my personal case, however, I go by the definition of theme as listed in the ISAT glossary. The ISAT is the test that Illinois students are required to take, and as a teacher in Illinois, I design many of my materials to prepare my students for this test. According to the ISAT glossary,
So, since I function under the terminology put in place under our state framework, perhaps my resources aren’t “incorrect,” but rather different from the framework under which you function.
Thanks for visiting.