Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Comprehensive Questions: Nonfiction [Pdf]
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.
Other
Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]
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...
University of Houston
University of Houston: Extra! Extra! What's the Big Idea?!
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.
TES Global
Tes: Teaching Shakespeare: Themes: Magic and Supernatural
[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,...
TES Global
Tes: Romeo & Juliet Rsc Themes Reference
[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
Utah Education Network
Uen: Memories, a Connection to the Past
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...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Common Themes in Literature
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...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Themes in Literary Texts (English 6 Reading)
Learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Intro to Julius Caesar Using Universal Theme Analysis
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...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Describe Themes in Literary Texts (English 7 Reading)
[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...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Annotate and Analyze a Paired Passage: Practice 1
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.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Annotate and Analyze a Paired Passage: Practice 2
[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.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: There Is Something in Common: Finding Common Themes
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...
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Life and Death
A learning module with short stories, speeches, and poetry exploring the theme of life and death.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: English 4; Loyalty and Betrayal
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...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Exploring the Power of Allusion
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.
Read Works
Read Works: Lesson 2: First and Last Sentences (Passage)
[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.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Compare/contrast Themes and Genres in Literary Texts
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...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Tech/progress/industry: What Are Costs and Benefits of Technology?
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...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Lorraine Hansberry: "A Raisin in the Sun": Analyzing Theme
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...
Thinkport Education
Thinkport: Read Like This: Determining Theme in Literary Texts
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.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Letter to Grandmother [Pdf]
"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...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Mama's Happy Christmas [Pdf]
"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...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: My Cousin's Lesson [Pdf]
"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...