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Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Comprehensive Questions: Nonfiction [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Questions are provided to help students determine the main idea, topic, and fact versus opinion of a nonfiction piece. Students are prompted to write a summary of an informational text.
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Lesson Plan
Other

Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
In this reading comprehension lesson unit, students are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...
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Unit Plan
University of Houston

University of Houston: Extra! Extra! What's the Big Idea?!

For Students 3rd - 6th Standards
Get the feel of running a newspaper by selecting articles and pictures. If you are interested in checking out real newspapers, there is a clickable list of online newspapers for younger readers.
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Unit Plan
TES Global

Tes: Teaching Shakespeare: Themes: Magic and Supernatural

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This collection of resources will help to understand the significance of magical characters and events in Shakespeare's works. Enchantment and the occult fascinated the Elizabethans. It includes videos,...
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Graphic
TES Global

Tes: Romeo & Juliet Rsc Themes Reference

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a printable reference guide for teachers listing the major themes and motifs in Romeo and Juliet and providing examples of scenes and quotes where you can find them. W.9-10.9a Analysis
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Lesson Plan
Utah Education Network

Uen: Memories, a Connection to the Past

For Teachers 3rd
This lesson engages students in reading comprehension strategies related to Elizabeth Howard's Aunt Flossie's Hats, Mem Fox's Wilford Gordon McDonald Partridge, Bill Martin's Knots On A Counting Rope, and Lucia Gonzales' The Bossy...
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PPT
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Common Themes in Literature

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This tutorial focuses on common themes in literature, beginning with a slide show discussing 11 different, common themes and literary examples. This is followed by a 11-minute YouTube video with students acting out common themes in...
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Themes in Literary Texts (English 6 Reading)

For Students 5th - 7th Standards
Learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Intro to Julius Caesar Using Universal Theme Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
In this 4-session lesson, students explore the theme of betrayal from different perspectives in their own lives and in modern scenarios through discussions and activities where they create and talk about comic strip scenarios. They...
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Describe Themes in Literary Texts (English 7 Reading)

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson is about themes, the central messages in literature. Whatever their genre might be, writers have some wisdom, some universal truth or insight to share; this...
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Annotate and Analyze a Paired Passage: Practice 1

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In this lesson, students will read and annotate a pair of texts to make inferences, draw conclusions, and synthesize ideas and details using textual evidence.
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Annotate and Analyze a Paired Passage: Practice 2

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will read and annotate a pair of texts to make inferences, draw conclusions, and synthesize ideas and details using textual evidence.
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: There Is Something in Common: Finding Common Themes

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Students will synthesize information from multiple historical fiction books to find common themes and support them with evidence from the text. Working with a partner who has read a different book, they will share their theme from their...
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Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: Life and Death

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A learning module with short stories, speeches, and poetry exploring the theme of life and death.
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Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: English 4; Loyalty and Betrayal

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A learning module asking students to analyze fiction, examine symbolism and cultural context, read a section of The Kite Runner, practice context clues and Greek and Latin roots, and practice sentence variety with compound and complex...
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Exploring the Power of Allusion

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Something seems familiar here: Students learn how allusion invites more into a text. Using "The House On Mango Street" students will learn about allusion by paralleling events from both the Bible and from Greek mythology.
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Unit Plan
Read Works

Read Works: Lesson 2: First and Last Sentences (Passage)

For Students 2nd - 4th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students comprehension will be reinforced as they reading first and last sentences of paragraphs. Direct teaching, guided practice, and independent worksheets are available for this third grade lesson.
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Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Compare/contrast Themes and Genres in Literary Texts

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Determining the theme is not easy; you have to use the clues the author leaves to figure it out yourself. The author implies information about the story through plot points, setting, and characters. You infer and draw conclusions based...
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Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Tech/progress/industry: What Are Costs and Benefits of Technology?

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a collection of Grade-Leveled texts (3-12) to address the question, "What are the costs and benefits of technology?" Select a grade level and a collection of grade-appropriate reading passages comes up. [Free account registration...
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Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Lorraine Hansberry: "A Raisin in the Sun": Analyzing Theme

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In this interactive lesson, discover how literary techniques like setting, characterization, and conflict contribute to the overarching theme of a text. Through analysis of Lorraine Hansberry's iconic play A Raisin in the Sun, explore...
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Unit Plan
Thinkport Education

Thinkport: Read Like This: Determining Theme in Literary Texts

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In this module you will read a story called "The New Dress" by Virginia Woolf, with the purpose of determining themes and how they develop over the course of the text.
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Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Letter to Grandmother [Pdf]

For Teachers 6th
"Letter to Grandmother" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a family of early settlers who moved west. A boy writes a letter to his grandmother telling her about their new life on the plains. It is followed by...
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Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Mama's Happy Christmas [Pdf]

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
"Mama's Happy Christmas" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about children creating a play for their sick mother on Christmas day. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence from...
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Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: My Cousin's Lesson [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th
"My Cousin's Lesson" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a teenager who stole something from a store and was arrested. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence from the...