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I have been having a Voxer conversation with some teachers on the subject of Writing about Reading #WabtR. Last week we discussed theme and the difficulty students have in identifying the theme of a given story. So I wondered, what if we give them the theme up front? Julianne responded with 5 common themes she had gathered from Cornelius Minor at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project #TCRWP this summer.
Lori tweeted out to authors this question.
The responses flowed in, so I retweeted and tagged some of my favorite authors. I just have to comment here on how cool it is to connect with authors in this way.
These seeds were planted, so I decided that students needed to see all of this in an interesting way. I created an Emaze presentation. As the week went on, I got more advice from the group and added slides. Students can see the 5 common themes, the progression from topic to theme involving a character change or a problem and solution. I added in a student reader response sample from a 4th grader along with some of the author tweet responses.
Feel free to use this Emaze in your classroom to teach, review, or reinforce the concept of theme. (Note: On the slide with the video, you have to pause the presentation to be able to watch the video.) I’d love to hear your results. Tweet @MargaretGSimon with the hashtag #WabtR.
Click on the image to go to Emaze.
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Reflections on the Teche 