While reading a story in class, ask students to identify one or more themes. The students should understand that an underlying message or moral represents the theme rather than the actual topic or plot of the story. By working as a class or in small groups, the students can brainstorm a list of many possible themes throughout literature. Teachers should explain to students that authors use themes to convey moral, social and personal traditions occurring in humanity.
To help students recognize themes, use every opportunity to point them out. Develop a matching activity that invites students to pair a literary theme or themes with different stories and poems. Students can work in groups to match themes or take home individual worksheets. Drawing a large Venn diagram on the board with two popular themes, such as death and friendship, will allow students to categorize books that include one or both of the themes.
Students will feel more familiar with themes in literature when they incorporate them into their own writing. For a creative writing activity, add some common themes, such as love, nature, journey, sacrifice or revenge, into a bag, and ask the students to choose a theme and use it in a story. By selecting a random theme, the fifth graders will have to adapt their story to reflect that message. Remind the students that the theme should subtly occur throughout the story rather than define the plot.
By doodling on a paper to illustrate poems and short stories read in class, students can creatively express different elements of literature. They might sketch out their visualization of characters or draw the setting of a story. Encourage students to analyze their design, looking for hints of a theme. Students can then create their own theme-based story using only pictures and invite the class to interpret the theme by viewing the image.