Because Literary Theme is like the Comparing part of Compare and Contrast

Finding the theme of a story is challenging in the same way that the compare half of comparing and contrasting is.  Your students can contrast til the cows come home, 🐄🐄 but finding the similarities?  That's harder.

As students read a book, they most often get the gist of what the author is trying to convey.  It might be about finding love, the journey towards forgiveness, growing up and accepting that their world isn't perfect, choosing between honesty and dishonesty, or a quest for bravery.  But they need help putting that into words, and without words, it's even harder to find text evidence!  

"I know what it is but can't put it into words."  Sound familiar?  I heard that a lot in my classroom!

Here are some ways you might help students get closer to the theme.  You can start by having students compare two characters in a book (or across two books.)  They will most likely find it easier to contrast than to compare them.  Comparing requires them to take a step back to find common threads, and that's harder for students to do.

Explain that you want to go deeper than just the two characters; you want to take a look at actions, settings, and motivation.  

Take a deeper dive beyond comparisons

• Start by looking at the main conflict in the story.  Find the struggle (usually in the rising action) that leads to the climax, and then the resolution (where learning takes place, creating a new normal.)  
• What are the characters doing?  What choices are they making as they struggle and come to that resolution?  What motivates them to act?
• Does the setting have anything to do with the theme?  For example, in Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk, the farms and surrounding woods play an important role in the actions of some of the characters.
• Are any ideas repeated in the plot?  In Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Ha Ma flees Vietnam and lands in Alabama.  She is constantly reminded of what she misses by holidays, the way she used to celebrate holidays back home compared to the new ones now.
• Why did the author write the story?  Sometimes authors write because they want to introduce their readers to a character or a particular way of life.  Sometimes they write because they have a message they want their readers to hold on to.

How to get students closer to the literary theme

• Create task cards, each with a common theme on it.  Put your students into groups and have them discuss the themes, seeing if they can come up with one for the book you're discussing.
• Have students make Text to Self connections with the character(s) in the book.  In what way do they relate to the character?  A personal connection might help them get to the theme.
• In small groups, have students pick a theme and then come up with examples from books they've read.  Text to Text connections push their thinking.  Bonus: have them make a poster for the classroom with the books listed.

I hope these suggestions help you and your students get closer to finding the theme in the books they're reading.  This is a good skill to learn and review!  On more than one occasion, I've seen this kind of question show up on state tests.