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Here are 36 questions to help you as you are teaching theme to your 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students. Instead of simply asking students, "What is the theme of this story," use these questions to help them think about different aspects of theme.

The questions are organized based on the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy - there are 6 questions for each category. You can download a free printable of these questions at the bottom of this post.

You can find more activities and resources for teaching students to determine the theme of a story here.

Questions for Teaching Theme

Never Stress Over Sub Plans Again!

higher order thinking questions theme

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Higher Order Thinking Questions for Teaching Theme - Teaching Made Practical

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Here are 36 questions to help you as you are teaching theme to your 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students. Instead of simply asking students, "What is the theme of this story," use these questions to help them think about different aspects of theme.

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Teaching theme is hard. Finding games and centers that help students practice how to determine the theme of a story is even harder.

Most theme practice involves simply reading a passage and answering a multiple choice question about what the theme is. Not only can this be boring and monotonous for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, but it is extremely unhelpful for struggling students that are unsure of how to find the theme of a passage.

Below, find 3 center/game ideas to help students practice theme in a fun and engaging way. Use these ideas to create your own theme centers for your classroom, or buy the extremely low prep version here. (Only 1 center requires prep - a little cutting.)

Theme Game/Center #1 - Theme Mazes

Mazes are a fun way to practice this skill, and they can be used in a variety of ways depending on what aspect of theme your students need practice with.

The theme mazes I have created in my Finding the Theme Games and Centers resource address two different skills.

The first 2 mazes help students practice distinguishing between a theme and a main idea. In order to complete the maze, students must shade in some possible theme statements. Students are required to think about the difference between theme and main idea in order to complete this activity successfully.

In the last 3 mazes of the resource, students are given a theme. In order to complete the mazes, students have to shade in the main ideas that could go along with the provided theme. Students must think about what stories and plots could have a certain theme.

These mazes are good way for upper elementary students to practice skills associated with theme without students having to read a lot of text.

Theme Game/Center #2 - Theme Sort

Having students sort short stories by theme is an incredibly beneficial activity for students that are struggling to determine the theme on their own.

Often, this type of game is played like a matching game, where students read a short paragraph and then have to match up the correct theme to the paragraph. This is easier to create, but not as helpful for struggling students.

Instead, create a game where only 3 - 4 themes are included. For each theme, include several short stories that have that theme. Then, have students sort the stories based on theme.

Having students think about how completely different stories can have the same theme just based on the plot and lessons learned will really help students better understand what a theme is.

Choosing themes that have similar topics, yet are different, will require students to think a little more critically about the differences between themes. For example, the sorting game that comes in my Finding the Themes Games and Centers Resource requires students to think about the themes, "Choose your friends wisely" and, "You can find friendship in unexpected places." Having two similar themes requires students to look more closely at the short stories than they would otherwise.

Theme Game/Center #3 - Writing With a Theme

One of the best ways to have students apply what they know about theme is to have them write stories with a theme! This is a rigorous activity for upper elementary students that requires little prep on the teacher's end - a win/win!

However, this can be an overwhelming task for students, especially if they don't enjoy writing. Some students will benefit from a little scaffolding instead of being given free rein. Provide students with the theme of their story, as well as ideas for characters and settings if they are having trouble coming up with their own. Then, students just have to focus on how to get the theme across.

Never Stress Over Sub Plans Again!

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Games and Centers for Teaching Theme - Teaching Made Practical

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Teaching theme is hard. Finding games and centers that help students practice how to determine the theme of a story is even harder. Most theme practice involves simply reading a passage and answering a multiple choice question about what the theme is.

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Trying to help your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students understand how to determine the theme of a story can be extremely challenging. It is a difficult to concept to grasp, as theme is such an abstract idea that must be inferred. Texts can have more than one theme, and sometimes the theme is subjective. In order to distinguish the theme from the main idea, students must have a solid understanding of main idea as well.

All of this can make theme incredibly frustrating to teach to upper elementary students. Hopefully, the theme resources below will help make teaching theme easier and less stressful.

Thee theme activities and resources below include:

ideas for scaffolding your theme lesson plans so that students will better understand how to determine the theme of a story

higher order thinking questions you can use while teaching theme to help students think theme in different ways

helping students distinguish between main idea and theme

theme games and center activities

a free cut and paste theme resource

a free slideshow to help you teach theme to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade

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Determining Theme Activities and Ideas - Teaching Made Practical

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Trying to help your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students understand how to determine the theme of a story can be extremely challenging. It is a difficult to concept to grasp, as theme is such an abstract idea that must be inferred. Texts can have more than one theme, and sometimes the theme is subjective.

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This bundle contains 50 projects and activities for ANY NOVEL STUDY in secondary English Language Arts. Use these projects, activities, handouts, and lessons to enrich your students' close reading and analysis of any novel unit in your curriculum.
THIS BUNDLE CONTAINS BOTH A PDF VERSION AND AN EDITABLE MICROSOFT WORD VERSION SO THAT YOU CAN ADAPT THESE RESOURCE FOR DISTANCE LEARNING AS NEEDED! This bundle includes the following projects, activities, lessons, and handouts:
1. FreeChoiceReadingChallenge

2. Close Reading Bookmarks
3. Reading Check
4. One-Pager Assignment & Rubric

5. Novel Project Choice Board

6. Character Postcard Activity
7. Plot Map Activity
8. Fill-in-the-blank Reading Check
9. Précis Assignment
10. Character Letter
11. Diction Guide
12. Figurative Language Guide
13. Book Trailer
14. Book Jacket Assignment
15. Character Instagram
16. Character Planner
17. Character Profile
18. Most Important Quote
19. Points of View
20. Fiction Close Reading Choice Board 21. Discussion Generator
22. Book Headlines
23. Topic-Themes List
24. Anticipation Guide
25. Vocabulary Entries

26.Double-EntryJournal
27. Character Flashback
28. Story Map
29. Reading Log Bookmarks
30. Book Exploration & Log
31. Character Obstacle Course
32. What Would the Character do?

33. Character Campaign

34. Character Blog
35. Genre Reading Challenge
36. Book Tasting Pre-Reading Activity #1

37. Book Tasting Pre-Reading Activity #2

38. Debate Guide
39. Debatable Statements
40. Novel Connections
41. Literary Discussion Questions
42. Soundtrack Project
43. Top 10 Lists
44. Novel Theme Park Project
45. Character Body Map
46. Novel Task Stations
47. Wanted Poster
48. Podcast Project
49. Pic Notes Templates for Any Novel

50. Essay Prompts + Rubric

This bundle includes interactive lessons that integrate research and synthesis as well as items such as bookmarks to help students keep track of their reading + literary elements/ techniques.

For example, the Genre Challenge gives students the challenge of reading across genres rather than a traditional reading tracker that only tracks page numbers. For this challenge, students read different types of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama and record the titles of the pieces on the Genre Challenge handout.

For the Novel "TOP TEN," students keep track of their top ten ranking items for a given novel. They can then use their lists to spark debate and discussion in class. This is an innovative type of "reading log" that encourages more interaction rather than a traditional quote log. The bundle also includes other traditional novel study items such as reading checks, character body maps, plot maps, and discussion guides.

The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle also contains several projects to use for any novel unit. These projects include:

-Book Trailer Project

-Book Jacket Project

-One-Pager Project

-Novel Theme Park Project

-Novel PODCAST Project

-Novel Blog Project

... and MORE!

In the Novel BLOG Project, students create a blog dedicated to a specific novel and explore various literary elements across assigned posts. In the One-Pager Project, students create an artistic representation of their interpretation of a novel in order to use visuals and text to convey meaning.

There are enough projects and activities in this bundle to use throughout the entire year. Students will enjoy selecting a book to study by attending a "book tasting" in your classroom and then selecting their own project from the Fiction Close Reading Choice Board.

The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle by Bespoke ELA is sure to make a great addition to your curriculum throughout the school year!
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50 EDITABLE Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL STUDY

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This bundle contains 50 projects and activities for ANY NOVEL STUDY in secondary English Language Arts. Use these projects, activities, handouts, and lessons to enrich your students' close reading and analysis of any novel unit in your curriculum. THIS BUNDLE CONTAINS BOTH A PDF VERSION AND AN EDIT...

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As secondary ELA teachers, there are certain traditional activities that we tend to give our students during a novel study. These activities range from body maps to dialectical journals. After using the same activities over and over, I began to seek out new and innovative ways to target essential reading and writing skills that would interest students while also integrating modern technology.
Here are FIVE Innovative Activities for Any Novel Unit!
Each of these activities and projects can be found in the The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle: 50 Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL.

Novel Task Cards

For this activity, students work in groups and move around the room to visit different task stations that challenge them to analyze the text through different lenses. Here's what students will do:

1. Have students get into groups and give each student the Task Station Record Sheet. Students record their responses and findings at each display on the record sheet. Alternatively, have students record their findings and responses in their notebooks or on their own paper.

2. Give students 5-10 minutes at each "station." Keep time for each rotation. Give students a one-minute warning for the next rotation and then announce when it's time to rotate.

3. After groups have visited all stations, students can share their findings with the whole class and turn in their record sheets for assessment. Consider also having students select one of the task stations to write about either formally or informally.

4. Find this assignment with the Task Cards as part of The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle: 50 Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL.

For this project, students work in a group to design a theme park based upon the literary elements of a selected novel. The various aspects of the park from the layout to the rides to the characters should be inspired by the novel.

Students should consider the following questions:

1. What are the major themes of the novel? How can than these themes be represented in a theme park?

2. What are the major plot points of the novel? How can these be represented by the "lands" in the theme park?

3. Who are the major characters of the novel? How can these characters inspire theme park characters and rides?

4. What is the setting of the novel? How can this setting inspire the architecture of the park?

5. How can the merchandise sold in the theme park relate to the novel?

For the Theme Park Novel Project, students will create:
The purpose of a headline is to simultaneously report key information while grabbing the attention of the reader. A good headline tells what the article is about and makes you want to read it. Therefore, the words within a headline must be carefully and purposefully chosen in order to serve two purposes: report and persuade.

For this activity, students write three headlines for a preselected book that reveal key elements such as plot, character, and setting. They should try to find unique angles into the story that would catch attention while still being relevant to the story. This is also a great lesson to pair with rhetorical devices. Students should try using rhetorical strategies such as alliteration, puns, and repetition to make each headline catch more attention! Students then explain how the headlines connect to the book and how they grab attention.

Find the Novel Headlines Activity as part of The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle: 50 Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL. ﻿

Character Instagram

Instagram is a popular social media platform that allows users to create magazine-like layouts of images, leave comments, and use hashtags to target key concepts and ideas from posts. But- you probably already knew that!

For this assignment, students create a fictitious Instagram account for a book character of their choice. Students should consider the following questions:

What kind of content would this character post?

How would this character explain each post?

What kind of language would this character use?

Who would this character follow on Instagram?

Who would follow this character on Instagram?

What kind of comments would people leave on this character's posts?

How would this character comment on other posts?

Who is friends with this character?

Who is related to this character?

What are key events and issues from the story that might appear on this character's

Instagram feed?

The character's Instagram page should include the following elements:

1. The character's profile

2. A profile pic of the character

3. 2-3 Insta Story Highlight Covers (images, text, etc.)

4. 3+ posts from the character

5. Each post must include a relevant caption that relates to the story

6. Each post must contain 2-3 relevant comments from followers

7. An explanation of how the IG account connects to the book (typed & turned in separately)

Find the Character Instagram Activity as part of The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle: 50 Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL. ﻿

Novel Podcast Project

For this assignment, students work with a group of peers to create a podcast episode on a novel of their choice. They must include:

1. A clever name for the podcast including a catchy introduction.

2. The students' initial thoughts about the novel and how they changed (or didn't over time).

3. A brief biography of the writer with relevant background information.

4. A fun element such as a quiz game or challenge. Students should be creative!

5. A discussion of how the novel connects to other pieces of literature, historical/ current events, and/or the group members' lives.

6. A recommendation of the book. Would you recommend this book to others? Students should create their own rating system for the novel.

7. An interview with someone who is an "expert"on the book or relevant to the book in some way. (optional for bonus points)

This is a great project that integrates modern technology into an interactive format that will resonate with students. After students complete their podcasts, teachers can use them to target listening skills in or outside of class. Find the Novel Podcast Project as part of The Ultimate Novel Study Bundle: 50 Projects and Assignments for ANY NOVEL. ﻿

What activities and projects do you like to do with your students during a novel unit to target essential skills? Leave us a comment! We'd love to hear from you!

Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA. She has taught high school English for 10+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas. An avid tea drinker and anglophile, Meredith enjoys life with her husband, daughter, and sweet pups.

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5 INNOVATIVE PROJECTS AND LESSON PLANS FOR ANY NOVEL UNIT - Bespoke ELA: Essay Writing Tips + Lesson Plans

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This blog post explores innovative and engaging lesson plans for any novel unit... ranging from task cards to book instagram pages to a novel podcast project. Student choice is key here, and students can find something they would like to complete in order to convey their reading, comprehension, and

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Teaching literature in a high school English class? Themes are, no doubt, an important component of any literary study. When English teachers select stories for our curriculums, we should take into consideration how the overall messages of the texts we choose impact our students. Young adult literature is brimming with character-shaping literary themes we can analyze with teenagers.
Let's explore a solid list of themes worth teaching in high school classrooms as eight experienced English teachers share how they approach them in meaningful ways. Within these lesson plan ideas, you'll find a mixture of classic and contemporary texts - covering a wide span of reading levels - that can effectively be used as vehicles for these weighty themes. Read about the first four in this post, and then jump to the second post to be inspired by the rest.
Reading & Writing Haven shares a lesson for teaching students about prejudice using To Kill a Mockingbird.
Many young adult novels deal with themes of racism, discrimination, and prejudice because these issues have historically been so prevalent in our society. To a degree, they haven't gone away. One of the best ways teachers can affect change is by helping students view others with compassion and love instead of prejudice and hate. In my freshman English classroom, I use To Kill a Mockingbird as the vehicle to study this theme.

Before we begin, we always have a discussion about prejudice. I write the word in the middle of a web, and I ask students: What do you know about this word? As students begin to contribute ideas, I write them down...each idea branching off of another. Upon finishing, we watch The Sneetches and analyze some questions that provide a thematic foundation, which is a perfect framing activity for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Even though this cartoon might at first appear elementary, the symbolism and message get to the heart of many serious issues in the world today. While simple in design, this lesson always provides a platform for a rich, meaningful discussion.
Read about how Doc Cop uses critical reading units to teach empathy.
Empathy requires the epitome of higher-order thinking: the ability to create an alternative reality to see life from someone else's perspective. Teaching empathy as a theme, therefore, can be a challenge. The way I approach this theme in my classroom is through perspective-taking practices. When students learn multiple perspectives, they begin the journey to apply those perspectives to new contexts leading to empathetic views and self-reflection. Critical reading is closely connected to this type of higher-order thinking and perspective-taking. Therefore, I use multiple perspectives, also known as a literary theory or lenses, to study literature.

One of my favorite resources to apply multiple perspectives to literature is my Critical Reader's Complete Novel Study. This multiple perspectives resource can be used with any book to give students the tools to build perspective-taking skills and garner empathy. Sound interesting? Read more about critical reading and download a free guide to get started.
OCBeachTeacher has the perfect American literature unit to help students own their identities.
How does being American influence one's identity? As a teacher of American Literature, I love starting the semester with my unit which introduces students to American voices and ideals through poetry, music, and art. It exposes students to diverse American authors such as Barbara Kingsolver, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes. Though these authors are from different time periods, races, and genders, they all create speakers who are greatly influenced by their country and its traditions.

This unit gets students thinking about who they are as individuals and as Americans. In a culminating assignment, "Name Yourself, Sing Yourself, or Proclaim Yourself," students create self-portraits and write poems about themselves; it gives me and their classmates an opportunity to know them better. Moreover, it sets high expectations for close reading and literary analysis while also encouraging creativity.

Engaging and Effective has unique suggestions for using Night to teach students about oppression.

Unfortunately, oppression still happens in various forms around world; one of the ways to help prevent the spread and occurrence of oppression is to understand how and why it happens. This lesson was created for the novel Night - a memoir about a Jewish teenage boy's experiences during the Holocaust. Towards the beginning of my Night unit, I include a lesson on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to help students understand how the Nazi's maintained control at the concentration camps by oppressing their victims.

First, I go over what motivates people and how they move up and down through the different levels of Maslow's pyramid. We discuss how the first chapter of the book includes different examples of oppression coming from the Nazis, and how these forms of oppression resulted in lost levels on Maslow's pyramid.

I then have students closely read the first half of chapter three of Night. This is where Elie and his family are processed at Auschwitz. The students use different colored highlighters to identify instances of oppression that ultimately take away different levels of the hierarchy pyramid: the hair cutting and uniforms takes away their esteem, the killing of babies takes away their sense of safety, and the separation of family takes away their sense of belonging.

By the time the first day at the camp is over, Elie explains: "We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us." Since the students have identified quotes showing how each level is taken from Elie, they can now understand how the only thing that motivates Elie is food and a desire to not be separated from his father. This also helps later in the book as we see Elie and other sons begin to break under the oppression they're enduring and turn on their own fathers. When my students get to the end where Elie does not go to his dying father, they really understand how oppression changed him to react this way.

Take me to the next four themes and accompanying lesson plan ideas for high school ELA!

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8 Literary Themes and Lessons for High School | Reading and Writing Haven

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Teaching literature in a high school English class? Themes are, no doubt, an important component of any literary study. When English teachers select stories for our curriculums, we should take into consideration how the overall messages of the texts we choose impact our students.

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Understanding and identifying theme is a higher-order skill that often leaves many students scratching their heads. In fact, many teachers are struggling along side their students trying to find ways help them understand this challenging concept. It is no easy task to get students to make text connections and think inferentially, but hopefully these tips, examples, and resources will help you along the way.

One mistake that many teachers make is jumping into identifying and analyzing the theme too early after reading a text. Before you ask students, "What is the theme?" they first need to have a solid grasp of the more literal story elements of the text (plot, setting, characters etc.).

Not only that, but identifying and analyzing theme is a skill that requires explicit teaching and practice.While it can be tempting to want to dive into discussing the deeper meaning or purpose of a reading, that should be reserved for a later date when students have a solid grasp on the text they are reading as well as on the meaning of theme.

Before students can analyze theme, they need to have a deep understanding of the meaning of the term.Ask your students for a definition of theme, and you will probably hear one or more of the following responses:

While the main idea, topic, and moral do relate in some ways to theme, they are not correct. Before I define theme for my students, I differentiate between these terms using Little Red Riding Hood as an example:

I teach my students that the theme is a significant idea/statement that the story is making about society, human nature, or the human condition. Theme focuses on the deeper meaning or message that the reader is meant to consider, and it is often a statement that people can apply to their own lives or world in some way.

Too often I hear people use a one-word topic to label a theme.For example, someone might say the theme of a text is freedom, power, family, love etc.Make sure your students know that a theme can never be just one word.These words are topics that are important to the text, but it does not become a theme until a statement is made about the topic!

Start with a simple children's book or film to help your students practice identifying theme (Disney movies or Dr. Seuss books tend to work well). Once students are familiar with the plot, use the following scaffolded approach below to help them develop a thematic statement:

Have students develop a list of topics that are examined in the reading/film and choose one. For example, some common topics in literature are family, loyalty, identity, ambition, guilt, fear, power, sacrifice, love, trust, ignorance, freedom etc.

Have students write a specific sentence about what the author thinks about the topic you chose. (For example, "The author thinks that ... power is a corrupting force").

Remove "The author thinks that" from your sentence and rewrite any necessary parts to form a thematic statement! (For example, "Power is a corrupting force").

Click HERE for a free organizer to help students write a thematic statement using this approach.

After students are familiar with the process with a simple text or film, it will more easily translate when they apply it to a poem short story, novel, or play they are reading in class.

Have students put their thematic statement to the test to make sure that it can be supported with direct evidence from the text. If it can't be supported, ask them to go back and start the process of identifying another theme.

Here are a couple fun activities to help students practice writing thematic statements:

Have 10-15 small booklets with universal theme topics written on the front of each (Courage, Fear, Friendship, Family, Power, Innocence, Justice, Love, Loyalty, Revenge, Pride, Beauty, Fate, Freedom, Prejudice etc.).If students are reading an independent novel that relates to one of the topics in someway, have them respond with a journal about how the theme of their novel relates to this topic.I ask students to complete at least 2 entries per semester.

On the inside cover of each booklet, have the following prompting questions to help students get started:

Students can also read what others have written before them and discuss how their reading relates.

Have students differentiate between topic and theme by having them write a thematic statement in the form of a social media post (140 characters or less) with a relevant topic hashtag.This looks great on display in your classroom and allows students to see a variety of examples of how a topic can turn into a thematic statement. Download this free activity/display HERE.

Take a bit of the pressure off your students by telling them that there is no right answer when it comes to identifying theme.Interpretation is based on the readers' prior experiences and knowledge. As long as their thematic statement can be supported by evidence, it is correct!
Want more ideas for teaching theme? Click below to check out these other ideas from The Secondary English Coffee Shop bloggers.
Main Idea vs Theme from Presto Plans
Theme Focus Lesson for Any Novel from The SuperHERO Teacher
Discovering Theme Learning Stations from Room 213

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Understanding and identifying theme is a higher-order skill that often leaves many students scratching their heads. In fact, many teachers are struggling along side their students trying to find ways help them understand this challenging concept. It is no easy task to get students to make text connections and think inferentially, but hopefully these tips, examples, and resources will help you along the way.

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Theme is slippery. As with irony, we know it when we see it, and though it's easier to define than irony, it still poses a challenge for students. Discussions of theme, then, can be times when students feel they're not up to the challenge of literary analysis-and this is true particularly for students who tend to struggle with reading and writing.

This presents ELA educators with a challenge, since students as early as fourth grade are asked to identify and analyze themes in text.

So what is a teacher to do? How can we teach our students about theme in such a way that we're not skipping over reading comprehension, insisting on a "correct" answer, or unintentionally doing the heavy lifting for our students?

Over the course of more than a decade in the classroom, I developed a methodology for empowering students with a process for not only identifying a text's thematic components but also constructing original thematic arguments.

Thematic Triads

The first thing students need to know is that, generally, works of literature are about ideas that are larger than the actions or events involving the characters, and very often these ideas pop up over and over again. One place to start with thematic analysis is to create ever-growing lists of these ideas, called thematic components-love, revenge, and so on.

The process I came to call thematic triads boils down to this: Have students identify many thematic components in a text, put them into groups of three, turn one of these triads into a sentence, and voilà, they have an original thematic argument.

This gives students a systematic process for identifying thematic components and thematic statements, a process that enables them to build their skills, and one that shifts analyzing theme away from something intimidating to something that is doable.

But what does this actually look like? The process starts with a definition of a thematic component-a large idea present within a text-and a brainstormed list of some common thematic components: love and revenge, as mentioned above, but also power, greed, freedom, corruption, fate, free will, ambition, lust, violence, youth, family, pain, fear, etc. The list of possibilities is probably endless.

It's very useful to have anchor charts with lists of these ideas in classrooms so that students can, as they read, refer to the charts and identify thematic components as they arise in texts. As students read, they can transfer these thematic components to the inside back cover of their book, for instance, ensuring that the themes are always at hand and student-generated.

The next step in the process is to turn these thematic component lists into groups of three, or triads. When beginning this process, it's important to emphasize that there are not correct and incorrect triads, and that the goal is not to find a single correct thematic statement. This can empower students, particularly those who have struggled in ELA classrooms in the past. Let students know that it can be highly instructive to choose a triad at random, see whether it works or not, and then try again.

An Example of a Thematic Triad

For the sake of illustration, let's imagine that we're reading Animal Farm with students, and that a classroom discussion surfaces these thematic components: power, greed, freedom, corruption, law, and camaraderie. Students might decide to group together greed, freedom, and corruption.

The final step is to turn the triad into a sentence-the thematic statement. Students often struggle with this, wondering in particular how to start. I would advise them to start each sentence with the word when, and think of the thematic statement as running along the lines of "When this happens, then that happens." This is a great time to model a think-aloud strategy that gets students to see and hear how a scholar goes about using this process to identify theme.

Let's take a look at what a thematic statement for Animal Farm might look like, using the triad that students chose. One possibility: "When one's greed overtakes one's desire for freedom, it can lead to corruption."

This may not be the most insightful, original thematic statement in the world, and in all likelihood the first few times students go through this exercise, they will struggle and not be satisfied. That's good-it means they're invested in the process and will try again, and improve every time they try.

What all of this requires of teachers is a thorough, insightful, and nuanced understanding of any text they're teaching. We cannot stay one chapter ahead of our students and expect to guide them to an authentic level of analysis-we need to know what thematic components are located in the text, and which thematic statements are viable and which are not. In short, we must be the literary scholars we are grooming our students to be.

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Theme is slippery. As with irony, we know it when we see it, and though it's easier to define than irony, it still poses a challenge for students. Discussions of theme, then, can be times when students feel they're not up to the challenge of literary analysis-and this is true particularly for students who tend to struggle with reading and writing.

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Reading is both an art and a science in so many ways. Once young readers move on from word recognition to reading for meaning, a whole new world opens up. Reading comprehension activities within the ELA block help students develop skills that will deepen the meaning of literature, while also leading to an understanding of material in other subjects. As students learn to make connections within a text, lifelong reading skills are born and cultivated. Check out these ELA anchor charts to help your students analyze the many elements necessary for reading success.

1. Questions To Ask While Reading

Questions like these help students think about the purpose of reading itself. They also encourage kids to consider important basics, like setting and characters.

2. Story Elements

Going over the key components that make up a story will make your students better readers. They'll know exactly what to look out for, and searching for these pieces will make reading seem like a fun scavenger hunt.

3. Read, Cover, Remember, Retell

Stop students from skimming longer texts with this concept. This way, they'll break the text into bite-sized chunks and truly understand what they're reading.

4. Making Predictions

Making predictions is a great way for students to interact with a text. Just introduce them to these three simple steps and watch them succeed!

5. Beginning, Middle, End

Have students look for growth throughout a story by paying attention to the beginning, middle, and end. They should think about where the characters start, what happens to them, and how they're different at the end.

6. Choosing a Just-Right Book

Comprehension is deeply connected to children's current reading abilities, and knowing how to choose a just-right book can help them gain confidence in their skills.

7. Summary Sentences

Make sense of more complicated passages by writing summary sentences for each paragraph or section on sticky notes. They'll be helpful when reviewing for tests or writing a paper.

8. Monitoring for Meaning

Self-monitoring is key for success in reading comprehension at all levels. Giving students some questions to ask themselves as they read is a great first step toward understanding.

9. UNWRAP

Use the UNWRAP method to guide students through a thorough reading. This is an especially valuable technique for nonfiction passages.

10. Understanding What Reading Looks Like

Setting expectations for what reading really looks like can help lay the groundwork for comprehension, as illustrated in this reading anchor chart.

11. Literary Elements

This is like combining four anchor charts for reading comprehension into one! It's the kind of chart that kids can refer to over and over.

12. How To Mark a Text

Use an anchor chart and strategy like this one to teach your students how to properly mark up texts. Afterward, have a group discussion and ask students to utilize the sections they emphasized in their texts to support their individual points.

13. Cause and Effect

Considering cause and effect is an excellent way to improve reading comprehension. Students learn to watch for words like "because" and "so" with this anchor chart.

14. Decoding Tricky Words

Decoding strategies help students step back from a frustrating word or sentence and revisit it from another angle. Especially when they're just starting out, your class (and their parents) will appreciate having access to these tips.

15. Coding Thoughts

Shortcut symbols allow students to annotate texts without slowing down or interrupting the reading flow. Be sure to teach them how and when to use each symbol as they read.

16. Using Context Clues

This anchor chart for reading helps students use context clues, such as synonyms and word parts, to become "word detectives" when they stumble upon a word they don't know.

17. Types of Conflict

Dig deeper into characters by understanding the conflict they face during the story. Remind students that more than one of these often applies.

18. Nonfiction Text Features

If you're doing a nonfiction unit, consider creating an anchor chart as a guide. It can be difficult for some students to understand the differences between fiction and nonfiction, but a chart like this one will immediately orient them within a text.

19. Visualizing as They Read

Visualizing is an important part of achieving reading comprehension. Get kids to see the "movie in their minds" as they read.

20. Figurative Language

Figurative language can be challenging to teach. Make it easier with this anchor chart and a few pieces of text to act as examples. Then, set your students free and see how many elements of figurative language they can find in their individually chosen books.

21. Building Fluency

Fluency is another important part of reading comprehension. When students are robotic in their reading expression and pacing, they have trouble understanding meaning.

22. Overcome Distractions

Even the best readers sometimes have trouble focusing on their books! Make your students more effective readers by going over how to overcome wandering thoughts.

23. Retelling the Story

Retelling or summarizing is an important check on comprehension-can the student identify the main events and characters of the story? Reading anchor charts like this one lend a hand in explaining the concept.

24. Find the Main Idea

Understanding the main idea, or identifying what the text is mostly about, even if it's not explicitly stated, is one of the first higher-level tasks of reading comprehension.

25. Understanding Character

Ask students to distinguish between what's on a character's outside versus a character's inside to help them understand the text.

26. Setting

A story's setting is made up of more than just where it takes place. Help your students fully grasp everything the concept encompasses with a fun and simple visual.

27. Point of View

Understanding point of view in a story can be challenging for beginning readers. This chart will help them pick it up and then implement it in their own writing too.

28. Theme vs. Main Idea

It's so easy for young readers to confuse the theme of a text with its main idea, which is why comparing the two concepts side by side is sure to set up your students for success.

29. Thin and Thick Questions

Teach your students the difference between basic yes-or-no (thin) questions and more involved (thick) questions. When students can answer harder questions about the story, their level of understanding will go through the roof.

30. Making Connections

You can be sure kids comprehend what they read when they can start connecting it to themselves and to the world around them.

31. Reading Conference Guidelines

Implementing one-on-one student-teacher conferences during individual reading time can be really helpful for students, especially when you set expectations and guidelines ahead of time. This will give your students time to think about what they will focus on during their time with you and how it will help them become better readers.

32. Plot Structure

This basic plot anchor chart can help students understand the rising action, climax, and falling action that make up a plot.

33. Making Inferences

To make an inference, students have to differentiate between what's being said on the page and what's not. This anchor chart does a great job of explaining.

34. Writing a Book Review

The key to writing a successful book review is being aware of what to focus on during the reading stage. If you plan on having your students write a book review, go over what they should take notes on or pay close attention to while they are reading with an easy anchor chart like this one.

35. Inference Thinking Stems

Reading is an active endeavor; readers often make predictions based on what they already know. These thinking stems can help students put their ideas about stories into words.

36. Evidence-Based Reading

Students show they understand what they are reading by pointing to evidence within the reading. These words are the key to finding those bits of evidence.

37. Elements of Poetry

Poetry is tricky and reads a lot differently than most other texts students tend to gravitate toward. Nevertheless, it's an important art form to explore in the classroom-so why not use a pretty anchor chart as a primer? We guarantee it will take the fear out of reading poetry.

38. Author's Purpose

Why did the author write this book? Was it to persuade, inform, or entertain? The author's purpose may dictate how students read an article or story, and this chart helps students identify it.

39. Questions and Answers

If your class is struggling with how to find answers to questions while reading, this anchor chart just might help them.

40. Themes in Literature

Another great way to teach theme. Books are like a cream-filled cupcake: You never know what's hiding inside!

41. Vowel Teams

Vowel teams can be confusing for young readers. This chart color-codes each vowel team and incorporates example words with pictures to help students remember these tricky sounds.

42. Stop and Jot

It is always a good idea to have students write about their reading in a Reader's Notebook so they can look back on their thoughts. Anchor charts for reading like this one remind students of great reasons to stop, think, and jot while reading.

43. Using Think Marks to Dig Deeper

Some students are great at remembering to stop and jot as they read, while others are more reluctant. Motivate your students by incorporating these fun symbols that can be placed on sticky notes throughout a text.

44. Thinking Questions To Ask While Reading

Use this chart to help students apply higher-order reading comprehension strategies as they read independently. These also make great conversation starters for whole- and small-group activities.

45. Understanding Why Readers Close-Read

Close reading helps students dig deeper as they read to better understand the text. Give them the background knowledge on this strategy to help motivate them to take a closer look.

46. Steps to Close Reading

Your students will become expert reading detectives with these helpful close-reading tips you can put on anchor charts.

47. Tone and Mood

As students think about their feelings while reading a particular piece, they will learn to build their own opinions of literature and poetry. Help them understand how the author's tone also has an impact by using these anchor charts for reading.

48. Reading Comprehension Strategies Summed Up

This is an excellent summary of multiple reading comprehension strategies used in the classroom all year long. It works well across most grade levels too.

49. ELA Test-Taking Strategies

Help ease the pressure of test taking with these practical reminders. These great tips are well suited for ELA and beyond!

If you like this roundup of anchor charts for reading, subscribe to our free newsletters for more of the latest teaching ideas and tips.

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49 Anchor Charts That Nail Reading Comprehension

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These terrific anchor charts for reading comprehension will help students learn about characters, setting, main ideas, context, and more.

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When students in Becca Morris's class start listening to R.J. Palacio's she looks forward to the discussion it will inspire, with questions like What does it mean to be a true friend? What's the role of the bystander in bullying situations? and Can we tell what a person is like just by looking at them? anchoring the conversation. It is conversations like these that facilitate teaching theme in language arts. And the answers can turn reading a book into a life-changing experience for young learners.

"Studying themes like trust, integrity, and honesty," says Rachel Claff, editorial director for the Great Books Foundation, "builds thoughtful world citizens and friends, the kinds of thinkers you want to have in your classroom."

Each time students read, they're entering into a conversation with the author about what matters, says Jeffrey Wilhelm, distinguished professor at Boise State University and author of Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements. At the core of that conversation, however, is comprehension. To fully explore theme, students must understand what they read and then extract ideas from the text. "You can't think with ideas unless you understand them," says Wilhelm.

Here are 14 tips to help your students understand theme as they read.

1. Meet your students where they are.

Plan reading and discussion around questions that your students are already grappling with, from What does it mean to be a good friend? to What is heroism?

When you connect your literature themes to character development and what's going on in students' lives, your discussions will hopefully resonate deeply with them. One goal with teaching theme, explains Jodi Libretti of the Great Books Foundation, is to encourage students "not only to think about ways that they can live, but the type of person they want to become."

2. Start with concrete details.

Before they can identify and work with the theme of a story, your students need to have a strong grasp of the details: setting, character, plot. When they work with theme, they have to synthesize all that information into an overarching message. Use anchor charts to outline the elements of the story or give students a graphic organizer to follow.

3. Clarify the difference between theme and main idea.

Source: Mrs. Smith in 5th

Many students have difficulty differentiating between the main idea and the theme. The theme is the underlying message that the author wants to convey, whereas the main idea is what the story is mostly about. Teach these concepts separately and together. You might practice identifying themes and main ideas using Disney films or the stories your students read last year in order to have a common reference point. After you review as a class, give students a list of themes and main ideas and challenge them to work in pairs to create matches.

4. Scaffold the learning.

Theme is a difficult concept to grasp. Unlike the concreteness of setting or plot, theme is subtle and subjective. Move from simpler to more complex class assignments to help your students deepen their understanding. Humanities teachers Sara Kaviar and Megan O'Keefe, of the Wildwood School in Los Angeles, invite their students to work in groups to identify the theme of a fairy tale. Next, they create different endings to the tale and work together to identify how the new ending affects the theme. Finally, students write their own plots to match a given theme. Watch a video of how they approach teaching theme here.

5. Use essential questions.

Source: Creating Readers & Writers

Essential questions are open-ended, thought-provoking, and important in helping students develop their understanding of the theme. Questions like Why do people behave honestly? and What makes a good friend? are ones that you can return to throughout the year to analyze how students answer. See how their answers change as you read different authors' takes on the subject.

6. Ask story-specific questions, too.

Specific, targeted questions help focus students on the text. "Asking 'what is the theme?' sometimes strands students because it's too general," says Claff. On the other hand, asking questions that are more explicit, like "Where does friendship play an important part in this story?" can be too leading. Instead, ask questions that draw from the text and require evidence to support theme. For example, if you're reading Tuck Everlasting, you might ask, "Should Winnie drink the immortality water?"

7. Approach theme from different directions.

Be ready to phrase questions about theme a few different ways because you never know which question(s) will resonate with students. Some questions that will encourage thinking about theme are: What did the author want us to think about? What idea stays with you? and What will you remember about the story a year from now?

8. Accept a range of answers.

Of course, for many texts, there are often multiple themes and more than one way to express them. Be flexible when accepting students' answers to theme-based questions. Students will often be grappling with concepts they can't fully own. For example, if a student says the theme of Tuck Everlasting is living forever is a bad idea, you can work with the class to find different ways to express this thought. You might say, "Okay, what are some other ways we can say that?" Guide students toward the theme rather than requiring one right answer, which can turn the discussion into a game of guessing the teacher's thoughts.

9. Allow students to disagree with the theme.

Let students know that they don't have to agree with the theme, just because they read it! Showcase two opposing themes and have students discuss which one they agree with more. For example, you could have a paragraph with the theme of You can always trust your friends and another paragraph with the theme of If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

10. Get away from the obvious.

It's easy to tease out the theme from some stories (think: Aesop's The Ant and the Grasshopper). Challenge students with stories that don't follow a typical pattern. For example, in the Great Books unit on honesty, students read about characters who begin each story by being dishonest. By starting with a character who's lying, students explore deeper issues of honesty from the start. The careful use of stories, says Claff, opens up issues for students in an interesting real-world way.

11. Connect your discussions to other subject areas.

Do you see examples in social studies or current events that connect to your theme? Start a collection or bulletin board around your current literature theme. Students can add examples from pop culture, history, or other reading. Help students connect the theme to their own lives by assigning take-home activities that build personal experiences around each theme. When students study kindness in Great Books, they perform a random act of kindness. And when third graders study gratitude, they give an anonymous gift so they can experience what it's like to not receive a thank-you.

12. Provide a range of reading options.

To engage students at varying reading levels, provide a selection of books on one theme. When teacher and author Laura Robb teaches about obstacles, she fills her classroom library with biographies so students can read about how different historical figures overcame challenges in their lives. Even when each student is reading something different, they are still engaging with the theme in conferences and writing. One way to introduce choice is to have a read-aloud anchor text for all students, with a variety of stories to choose from for independent reading. In conferences, ask students to relate and connect their independent reading to the read aloud.

Teaching theme gets at the heart of what we want for students-authentic, meaningful, and memorable experiences with text. Jeff Wilhelm may have put it best, "If you can read for theme, you can participate in a democracy."

13. Use mini lessons to drive the point home.

These seven quick mini-lessons help for teaching theme and how authors and artists extract a big idea.

Read inspirational words to define a theme and brainstorm stories, movies, or real-life events in which you see this theme played out.

2. View compelling art.

Make art a springboard to discuss themes and how they're interpreted. For example, Edvard Munch's The Scream can inspire a discussion about the theme of fear and uncertainty.

3. Listen to songs.

Songs can lend themselves to a discussion of how artists communicate larger messages through lyrics. For instance, Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" lends itself to a discussion of independence.

4. Pull out the oldies but goodies.

Fairy tales are quick hits in teaching theme-like pulling the theme of envy from Snow White.

5. Review popular movies.

Brainstorm theme ideas from popular movies. For example, The Lion King and responsibility or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and greed.

6. Watch a Pixar short

Pixar shorts are easily found on YouTube. You can watch them as a class and then hone in on a theme discussion. Consider Piper, Partly Cloudy, and Lava.

7. Judge some books by their cover.

Post the covers of books you have read and ask students to discuss whether or not the theme is evident on the cover.

14. Continue to assess theme throughout the year.

As the year progresses, you'll want to know if teaching theme paid off and if students are able to identify theme independently. Here are eight suggestions for finding out if your students are getting it.

1. Use annotation.

Have students annotate a text with details, quotes, and other "golden lines" that highlight the theme. Save and print our free teacher and student infographic posters on annotation.

2. Monitor reader responses.

Writing responses to the essential questions from the start to finish of a unit will help you see how students develop their ideas.

3. Map character growth.

Oftentimes theme comes from the way characters-usually the main character-changes and grows throughout the story. Have students create a growth chart focused on one character, that marks transitions in their development.

4. Compare the theme with that of other stories.

Connecting the theme from one story to another shows that students grasp the theme in a broad sense.

5. Cite evidence.

Ask your students to give concrete examples from the book that demonstrate the theme. This can include quotes, summaries, or title headings, to name just a few.

6. Reflect.

Have students make a connection through writing and discussion on what the theme means to them personally and how their understanding of the theme has changed based on their reading.

7. Search for additional themes.

Many stories have more than just one theme-sometimes, you just have to dig a little. Using a story that students are familiar with, have them identify and support a theme that's different than the one you've already studied. For example, in the story Oliver Button, students may come up with themes of bullying, gender roles, and determination.

8. Listen for theme.

In reading conferences with students, train yourself to listen for specific details and examples about theme. The more students are understanding, the better they'll be at answering questions like What does the author want you to remember?

What are your tips for teaching theme? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

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14 Essential Tips for Teaching Theme in Language Arts

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When students in Becca Morris's class start listening to R.J. Palacio's she looks forward to the discussion it will inspire, with questions like What does it mean to be a true friend? What's the role of the bystander in bullying situations? and Can we tell what a person is like just by looking at them?