Literature - EC: L.N.2.3.4

Continuum of Activities

The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.

This continuum of activities offers:

Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
Questions/activities that grow in complexity
Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance

Grade Levels

Commencement

Course, Subject

English Language Arts, Literature

Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content

L.N.2.3.4 L.N.2.3.4

Explain, interpret, compare, describe, analyze, and/or evaluate theme in a variety of nonfiction:

the relationship between the theme and other components of the text
comparing and contrasting how major themes are developed across genres
the reflection of traditional and contemporary issues, themes, motifs, universal characters, and genres
the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period

Activities

Identify the major themes of a nonfiction text.
Identify whether these themes are specific to a text, a historical period, a genre, or are instead universal.
Interpret how a theme is developed over the course of a nonfiction text by interpreting at least three specific scenes: one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end.
Explain how a theme is employed by an author to develop a character, conflict or setting.
Develop an argument about the relationship between a theme in nonfiction to a contemporary issue or to the same theme in a work of fiction.
Draw a conclusion about the author’s intended purpose of a nonfiction text given the themes that are developed within it.

Answer Key/Rubric

Students correctly identify themes through close reading of a text. Students pay attention to key events and scenes for this theme, sections in which it is directly stated and explored, or how different characters, settings or conflicts are implicitly linked to the theme.
Students are able to make initial evaluations about whether or not these themes are universal and can apply to any person, place or time, or whether they are specific to a given time period, text or genre.
Students explore how a theme is developed over the course of a nonfiction text by identifying, summarizing and then interpreting at least three specific scenes in which the theme is developed. These scenes should cover the full range of the text (one beginning, one middle, one end) to ensure the students’ interpretation accurately and appropriately analyzes the theme’s full development.
Students are able to draw connections between the development of a theme and its relationship to a character, conflict or setting. Students identify and interpret how a theme is directly connected or implicitly tied to these other textual components.
Students make connections between the text and their world by comparing a theme from a text to the contemporary world in which they live or across genre to a work of fiction. Students draw upon the text, personal experience and any other evidence to base their argument.
Students draw a connection between a theme in a text and the author’s intended purpose.

Suggested Rubric: This rubric may be used to assess a student’s overall mastery of the standard or eligible content.

Literature - EC: L.N.2.3.4