Are you looking for an engaging activity to help your students review or practice identifying themes in short stories? Good news! You've found one here. In this worksheet students will practice identifying themes in five short stories. Students will read each story, determine the theme, and explain their answers. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 4-8.
Based on the readability scores for this text, Theme Worksheet 1 is recommended for students reading at grade levels 4 - 8. This text should be accessible to any student reading at a 4th grade reading level or higher.
4th Grade
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8th Grade
Complex
Simple
Theme Common Core State Standards
Theme Anchor Standard
R.2 - Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
RL.1.2 - Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. RL.2.2 - Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral. RL.3.2 - Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. RL.4.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. RL.5.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. RL.6.2 - Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. RL.7.2 - Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text. RL.8.2 - Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. RL.9-10.2 - Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. RL.11-12.2 - Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.