Digging Deeper with Themes

As teachers we often are in a time crunch and in such a hurry to move on to the next objective or book that we don't stop to really think and reflect on a book that we have just read. Rereading and discussing a book before, during, and after reading are essential to digging deeper and really understanding what was read. This may mean that you are reading less books as a class, but the quality of instruction is so much deeper. To help students have a deeper understanding with the theme of a story try the following activity:

• Before reading, try giving students a keyword as to what the theme is.
• During reading students reflect on how the keyword are captured throughout the book by the events that are happening. They will have to reread and take notes in their reading journal or on sticky notes citing evidence. As teachers, this allows you to guide the students thinking as they are reading or listening to a story.
• After reading students are able to define the theme in terms of what it is and brainstorm what it is not by looking back at their journal entries.  This allows students to have meaningful conversations about the book that was read.