1. Understanding Theme
Subtitle

2. Moral, life-lesson, overall message Implied, not stated.
Understanding Theme
What is theme? It is the truth or central idea a story reveals about life.
Moral, life-lesson, overall message
Implied, not stated.

3. Understand a Theme VS a Topic
Is love a theme?
NO!
Love is NOT a theme. It is a TOPIC! So how do we come up with a theme?
IMPORTANT! Any theme can be considered valid IF you can support it with textual evidence.

4. Understanding Theme
Okay, practice time! Let’s start with something most of us are familiar with, Finding Nemo.
Your job is to come up with topics found in the movie. I’ve given you one as an example on your paper: Trust.
Now, list two more TOPICS (one or two words) on your paper that someone will find in the movie.

5. Understanding Theme
Now, let’s take our topics and change them into a THEME.
Let’s try it with my example first. What does Pixar tell us about theme throughout the movie?
Example Theme Sentence:
The author believes that trust is important.  Is this a good theme sentence?
NO! Too vague. Try again.
How can we make it better? What can we add about trust? What about it is important in the movie?

6. Understanding Theme
Any ideas on what we can add to make this stronger?
The author believes that a person needs to learn how to trust themselves and others.  GOOD! We can support this with details from the movie/text.
Now, try it with the topic you have picked on your paper. Make sure it is not too vague and can be supported with details from the movie/text. “The author believes that...”

7. Understanding Theme
Now, we need to revise it a bit to make a solid theme statement. Once you have a detailed sentence, I want you to take out, “The author believes that…” That will leave us with our theme statement. Let’s take a look at my example. Example revised theme statement: The author believes that A person needs to learn how to trust themselves and others. Now revise yours on your paper

8. Understanding Theme
Once you have a theme statement, you are ready to analyze and support your theme. Anything can be a theme as long as it can be supported by details from the text. This is a crucial step to analyzing. Let’s practice. On your paper, rewrite your revised theme statement so it is easy to find for the next person.

9. Understanding Theme
Make sure your name is on your paper and pass it to your right. If there is no one on your right, raise your hand and I will switch your paper with someone. Once you have someone’s paper who is not yours, write your name in the spot for the first person. Read their theme statement. On the lines provided, write down one scene from the movie that supports this theme. BE SPECIFIC.

10. Understanding Theme
Now, pass your paper to the person in front of you. If there is no one in front of you, raise your hand and I will switch your paper with someone.
Once you have someone’s paper who is not yours, write your name in the spot for the second person.
Read their theme statement and the first piece of evidence given by another classmate. On the lines provided, write down a different scene from the movie that supports this theme. BE SPECIFIC.

11. Understanding Theme
Once you get your paper back, read the scenes that were provided as evidence for you theme and answer the questions on your paper.

12. Let’s Practice
Watch the following clip about Christian the Lion. 0 (stop at 2:10) As you are watching, think of the TOPICS that would go well with the story being told that we could turn into THEMES!

13. Practice
On your paper, list two topics that are present in the short clip. Once you have come up with topics, transform it into a theme sentence. “The author believes that…” Make sure it is specific and can be supported by things that happen in the clip!

14. Practice
Once you have your theme sentence, revise it to make it a statement. How do we do that again?
Take out the beginning part of the sentence.
On the spaces provided, come up with three pieces of evidence from the clip that support your theme. Use complete sentences.