In our book of the month, The Plot Chickens, the main character was driven. She was driven by a goal and wanted to become a writer. She did not let others who told her she is, 'just a chicken', stop her from achieving her dream. We discussed afterwards what we thought the 'theme' or 'big message' the author was trying to teach us.
Here were several of ideas I threw at them:
-Even chickens can write stories.
-G0 to different places to try to get a story published
-Do everything yourself
-Be happy with what you have done
Now, even though some of those ideas were indeed small lessons the chicken learned, there were LARGER themes and messages. We then discussed what she learned about HER LIFE and how it is changed after this event and came up with these:
-Don't let others tell you what you can/can't do
-Believe in yourself even when no one else does
-Fight for what you want in life and never give up
Now, these were the 25 cents or quarter themes. Often students tend to stick to what we call 1cent or penny themes. There are themes that are either directly stated in the text or are lessons just that character could learn only from that story. We want readers to dig deep in their wallet and find the messages EVERYONE can take from the story. Quarter themes can be related to all situations in life, not just the context of the story.
As your child reads each night, ask them to find the 25 cent theme or discuss some of the messages they have learned from their book.
Here is as a wonderful site that explains common themes in fiction stories. Most books tend to fit under one of these categories.
Theme Site
