Common Core requires third graders to begin to find the central message of their fictional texts. This means the theme or message will be written in a short sentence.
Instead of “Friendship” students will have to choose a phrase like “Always be loyal to your friends.”
Third grade is the first year when this hard topic is introduced. I begin working on this as soon as my students enter my classroom.
I devote one of my bulletin boards to theme every year.
I cannot preach enough about the importance of your boards being interactive & not just something pretty to look at. See my post here about my figurative language board.
It’s usually easy for kids to attach a story to a word, especially when you give them word choices. For example: In Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, I would show the kids the words friendship, honesty, and responsibility. Usually the kids can quickly connect that story to the word responsibility.
Then, comes the work of writing a theme statement to match the word they chose.
Here are some thinking questions that I would use to guide my students to think deep about the story & discover the theme.
What does this story teach us about responsibility?
What did Alexander learn about money in this story?
How does this story help us make smarter money decisions (even as adults-ha!)
We work together until we agree on a theme statement. For Alexander it would be something like: “If you don’t spend your money wisely, you won’t have any!”
However, it is important to note that theme statements can be different depending on the reader. Each reader brings a unique set of thoughts to each story.
We would have this discussion whole group. Yes, there will be students who immediately know what the theme is. But that usually is only a select few. I always tell my students to keep it to themselves so we all have time to think.
A common quote that I find myself saying in my classroom is, “As soon as you say the answer, no one else has to think.” I begin to preach this as early as DAY ONE! I want my students to know how strongly I feel about EVERYONE’S brain growing! So I create a classroom community where my students give each other a chance to think.
To keep the theme discussion going all year, I use this bulletin board.
My theme/central message board uses hashtags. I came up with this idea while working on my National Board Certification. On one of my components I chose to teach a unit on theme.
I have 10-12 “hashtag” words or phrases displayed on the board. These words include: honesty, responsibility, friendship, be yourself, teamwork, etc.
I always ask the students to refer to the board to select a word that matches the story.
Once we have decided on a word, we work together to expand on that word and write a theme statement.
I add a little photo of the book covers we read together and attach the theme statement under each hashtag. Throughout the year this builds a nice display and serves as a good reminder of the themes we have discussed and the books we’ve read together.
