anchor chart to teach analyzing story elements

#Anchor chart to teach analyzing story elements professional#

I teach my students that theme is the message or lesson from the story that you can apply to your own life. So you need to define it for students in a language that they can understand.

Students need to know what theme is before they can reliably find it in a text. Step 1: Define It (in student-friendly language) With that caveat, below are the steps I use to teach theme to students. I also teach this definition of theme because it requires students to perform higher-level thinking and engage in a deeper level of reading comprehension instead of just telling me common topics of a story. For some of my research, I went through the glossary of terms of quite of a few state’s standards, which I have highlighted for you in the image below. First, after some extensive research, it’s the definition adopted by the standards in many states. I teach definition #2 for two main reasons. Definition #1 is not technically wrong, but it’s not the definition I teach.

#Anchor chart to teach analyzing story elements professional#

¹ The same professional and academic texts often refer to definition #2 as a work’s thematic statement, or simply, it’s theme. I have seen professional and academic texts call definition #1 several things, including a topic, a thematic concept, a motif, the genre, and even the subject of the story. Instead, I will share my research with you, explain why I teach definition #2, and provide some tools to help you make an informed decision for your students. I’m not here to debate or decide which definition is right or wrong. Definition #2: Theme is a lesson or message from the story that students can apply to their own life (e.g., Honesty is the best policy, It hurts when you exclude others, etc.). You either teach students that: Definition #1: Theme is a single word that explains what a story is about (e.g., love, friendship, jealousy, etc.). I feel compelled to blog about theme because I see that there is a lot of confusion about this concept, and the definition is often debated.

In this post, I will share a step-by-step process to teach theme in the upper grades, and I will also provide you with anchor charts, printable posters, and mentor texts to help your students determine theme.īefore I get into my post, I must include a caveat. Your students must read a fiction story and determine a theme (message or lesson), which is not explicitly stated. In the upper grades, your students are no longer reading fables with clearly stated morals or lessons.