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Comprehension
Lesson 1		 Understanding Theme/Message, and Supportive Details
   Objectives/Vocab/Tips > Examples 1 | 2 | 3 > Practice: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 > Self Check

ALPObjective:

By the time this lesson is finished, you'll have tools to help you identify and understand theme and the details supporting the theme or message. In this lesson you will:

  • Review the meaning of theme or message,
  • Identify and understand theme from a literary passage,
  • Identify supporting details, or examples from literary text relevant to the theme,
  • Score and evaluate your answers.

Vocabulary:

These words will be used in this lesson. They might be quite familiar to you, or you might want some review. For review, just click the Helpful Tools button and open Vocabulary.

  • Theme
  • Main Idea
  • Message
  • Supporting Detail

Tips and Tools:

These words share a similar meaning:

  • main idea
  • theme
  • central idea
  • message
  • most important idea

Theme is a difficult concept. Remember keys to a simple definition:

  • Theme is a message the author wants to share with the reader.
  • It is usually a big idea about life or about people.
  • There can be more than one theme or idea in a passage, but usually, there is one that fits the whole passage.
  • A theme is more than a word; it should be stated in a complete sentence.
How to find the theme, or message, or big idea:

Topic + author's attitude = Theme

  1. Read the passage.
  2. Ask "What big ideas are in this passage?"
    • Big ideas might be love, courage, sorrow, determination, friendship, fear, poverty, hope, forgiveness, humor or many others concepts.
    • A central idea might also be about people, pets, nature, leaders, children, teenagers, adults, wild animals, habits, or many other categories.
  3. Pick the top idea or topic.
  4. Now figure out the author's attitude from the passage.
  5. Make a list of attitudes (ex: satisfied, disappointed, forgiving, helpful, trusting, humorous, miserable, disgusted, angry, joyful, bitter, inspired, proud, ashamed, fearful, hopeful.)
  6. Last, add the big idea to the attitude and create a sentence.
    • Dogs are willful and have a mind of their own, just like people.
    • Real friends respect each other's feelings.
    • Overconfidence can be a handicap.
    • Freedom is more valuable than security.
    • The fastest is not always the real winner.
Other questions to ask when looking for theme:
  1. Has the main character changed?
  2. What lessons has he or she learned?
  3. Does the title reveal anything special about the story?
  4. What is the conflict in the passage?
  5. Does the narrator make any key statements about life or people?
  6. Can this idea be supported by details in the passage?
  7. Are the author's choice of plot, character, conflict connected or controlled by this idea?
And finally, remember the definition of a supporting detail? Let's review:
  • A supporting detail is a fact, a statement, a quote, or event, that holds up a key idea.
  • Supporting details prove the main idea.
  • Think of the theme or main idea as the top floor of the Space Needle. The supporting details are all the metal pieces holding it up.
  • Or if the theme is compared to a soccer uniform, or a new clothes from the mall, the supporting details would be the individual parts of the uniform or clothing: shorts, shoes, jersey, or jeans, shirt, socks.
  • If the reading passage is a completed puzzle where you can see the whole picture, the supporting details are the individual pieces. When they are all put together, we see the theme of the writing.
In the next section, you'll see some examples of how the Tips and Tools just reviewed work to help find main idea, message, or theme in a narrative passage.

Examples >>

 
Assessments Vocabulary

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