How to teach theme

Here are the 4 essential concepts that students need to understand when they are determining the theme of a passage. Help students learn how to identify theme with the reading activities and lessons profiled in this "How to Teach Theme" blog post.

This post contains the animated short film "Glued." Download the accompanying handout leveled for upper elementary students to teach theme.

Before I go any further, teaching theme is HARD…like really hard. Why didn’t anyone teach me a sequence or developmental process for learning and teaching theme. When I first started teaching, I would just dive in. I’d find cool activities that practiced theme. Then, a few weeks later, it would come again in our textbook […]

Theme can be a difficult reading concept for students to pick up. It is all too often confused with main idea. Over the years I've tried many different activities and these are the ones that helped my students learn to easily identify the theme from a story, fable or reading passage. Click thru to read these classroom tested teaching tips for teaching theme. #Theme #ReadingComprehension #UpperElementary #ElementaryTeacher

Theme is such an important concept when teaching reading. Students are asked to determine the theme of a text over and over again. However, many students struggle with how to identify the theme. That's why I'm sharing some of my favorite ways to teach theme. You'll find theme lesson ideas, theme activities, and theme passage suggestions to help your students finally figure out how to find theme!

An Upper Elementary Collaborative blog written by 13 teachers. Includes teaching ideas and resources for grades 3, 4, and 5.

Do you find teaching theme in 4th grade difficult because it is so abstract? Grab these 5 fun & exciting tips for teaching theme in fourth grade today.

These best 5 videos for teaching theme will be great additions to your ELA lesson plans for middle school or high school. Theme is a literary element students need practice with, so click to view these helpful visual aids for learning. #teachingtheme #middleschoolela #secondaryela #elalessonvideos

This collection of mentor text recommendations as lesson plan ideas make teaching theme a breeze, and makes learning theme meaningful!

Oh My Goodness! Am I really writing a blog post for ideas in your classroom for MAY?! That is crazy talk..but definitely exciting! This month's book is such a sweet one! If you have never read The Gardener you need to head to Amazon quick (you can see it here) and grab it! I love […]