I find that teaching theme is one of the most challenging tasks I do during the year. Theme in literature is a very abstract idea which means it is hard for students to grasp. Yet if you are an AP® Literature teacher it is one of the most important concepts you can teach. It is key to helping students understand the meaning of the work as a whole.
What is Theme in Literature?
Theme in literature is a universal truth. It is a big idea. I tell my students it is what the author wants them to know about humankind.
There is quite the debate on the interwebs about whether themes in literature can be identified in one word or whether it should be a short universal statement. Regardless of where you come down on this idea, students will have more success if they identify a theme in a short broad sentence.
Teaching theme as a broad statement will give students more to work from as they are writing about a text especially if they are writing on the AP® Literature exam where they have to write about the meaning of the work as whole which can be accomplished in a couple of ways, but the easiest way is to discuss the theme in the work.
Help Students Identify Theme in Literature
Since teaching theme in literature is best taught as short sentences, I teach my students a “formula” they can use: Theme= topic + what the author is saying about it.
So if the topic is love and the author wants you to know that it differs from relationship to relationship, the theme might be love comes in many forms.
Or if the topic is friendship and the author wants you to know that it is not without work, the theme might be that friendships come with obligations. Or friendships have consequences.
3 Activities for Teaching Theme in High School English
One: Theme Card Sort
I found the theme card sort was particularly effective when teaching theme in a play by Shakespeare. Give students a topic and a pile of index cards or sticky notes. Then have them find quotes in 1-2 scenes. When they have the quotes, have them sort theme by criteria which they establish.
Once they sorted the cards they can write a broad statement about the topic. The statement should not include any specifics about the text. Instead it should be a statement that they can apply not only to the text at hand, but other texts as well.
I then had them pull it together into a poster, but you could instead have them write a paragraph in which they identify the theme and use their quotations as evidence.
Two: Scenes to Themes
I first saw this on the Much Ado About Teaching Website. Brian Sztabnik writes about 8 Things to Know for the AP® Literature Exam. One of the 8 things is to identify Six Scenes to Themes. He gives an example there.
Three: Big Idea Tracker
I often have students track ideas in a text. They can do this in a variety of ways. Annotate on the text, annotate with sticky notes or keep an idea index.
If they are annotating right on the text we use symbols. For example in Of Mice and Men if students are tracking references to animals, they might draw a quick rabbit head. Or if they are tracking friendship they might use a star or a heart.
You can do the same with sticky notes. Or they can write out the words or other notes to themselves. If you want to help them to make this annotation style less “intrusive” (which is one of the complaints I often hear about annotating longer work), you could have them label a bunch of sticky notes before they begin. Then all they have to do is pull it off the pile and add it to the page when they see the idea.
My favorite way to have students annotate big ideas is with an idea index. If students can write in the book, they would do this on the last blank pages of a text, but if they can’t you can give them big sticky notes (I like 3×5). They list out the big ideas and each time they see a reference, they can just write the page number down.
When you want them to identify the theme in that piece of literature, they already have the big ideas and the examples so it is easy for them to begin to make connections about what the author wants them to see about humankind.
The Power of Teaching Theme
These ideas for teaching theme can all be found in my Teaching Theme Anchor Charts set. So if you are looking for ready to use theme activities for high school you will find it all right here.
Related Resources
Practice teaching theme with 20 Short Short Stories for AP Lit
