homework language structure and theme

Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Inferences Worksheets
Context Clues Worksheets
Theme Worksheets
Main Idea Worksheets
Reading Games
Summary Worksheets
Online Tests
Figurative Language Worksheets
Short Stories with Questions
Nonfiction Passages
Genre Worksheets

BECOME A MEMBER!

The theme of a story is a message that the author is trying to express. The author does not explicitly state the theme. To discover the theme, the reader must make some deductions concerning events in the story.

Identifying the theme of a story can be challenging. Fortunately, as with all reading skills, practice makes perfect. These theme worksheets will help students achieve mastery of this essential reading skill. I recommend starting with the theme PowerPoint lesson posted below. Also, you may be interested in my advice on teaching theme .

This is a preview image of Theme Lesson 1. Click on it to enlarge it or view the source file.

I hope that these theme resources help students meet learning goals.

This is a photo of a young woman reading a book. She appears to be in deep concentration. Letters are pouring out of the books and surrounding her.

Theme Common Core State Standards

188 comments.

Thank you so much for all these resources. I find them very useful when it comes to teaching my students.

Genevieve G

I love your site. Thank you for the free resources to use with my students. I really appreciate you providing them.

Thank you! during my winter break I have been reading your worksheet and powerpoint which will help me when I return. I am a beginners teacher. ELA/ICR teacher. Again thank you. Just what I needed.

editha galo

Thank you very much, you relly of big help to us

And – to add – this is an awesome resource. Thank you so much for sharing it!

How do you find the students’ results? Not sure where to find report if there is one? Thanks!!

They have to send them to you. I will look into the Classroom API again soon, but last I checked, I couldn’t do what you and I both want it to do.

Stephanie Hampton

I really appreciate having a resource like this! It makes lesson-planning so much easier, especially when you can edit the resources to differentiate for students. Thank you so much for all of this!

The useful website

Lily (Student)

I love this site because it tells you everything we need. I think this is a pretty neat website, thank you.

Hi, I was wondering could you send me a full sample essay about the theme so I could get a better understanding of it. Thank you.

Quintrell Williams

fourth grade Time for themessage Key-theme

Analie S. Canete

Thank you so much for helping me be ready to teach my students. It’s a big help that makes my work easier and more effective! God Bless!

Thank you for the blessings!

Alan Chacon

could you please provide an answer key to these lessons because I can’t tell if I am correct with my inferences. I understand how to identify them a little better, but if I knew I was correct it would help me and maybe some others with how they should think and if they are in the correct mindset It would help them indulge in positive reinforcement please read this and consider others learning process in your decision.

There are answer keys. Click the links that say “View Answers” underneath the assignment sheets.

mariecel reynes

the objective of my lesson is to explain how the elements build its theme, would you mind to please provide me materials for the evaluation of my lesson.tnx much

I loved these passages and powerpoint! I used them for my fourth grade class and they were right on target for their level. Thank you!

I want to express my gratitude to you for providing these wonderful resources-free of charge! I love visiting your site.

In our lessons we are studying the difference between moral and the theme but in your pdf s it kinda says that there are the same thing. so what is the difference between them. Thank you 🙂

They are similar, but a moral is usually explicitly stated, where a thematic statement is implied.

Antonio Soto

at first i thought this would be a bad website, but now i stand corrected this site has helped me and my classmate with numerous amounts of classwork and homework

Mourad Romdhani

A very helpful course for both student and teacher. Thank you very much for such high quality lessons.

Thank you very much for the great resources. I’ve been engaged with searching for such materials very long! and they are helpful for me and my class at school. And thank you for the great website!!

Nick Muzekari

I will be teaching an online short story class this summer for the first time. I’m new to this and so am looking for material to help myself and the students. I believe I will get paid for teaching the class so I am asking permission to use EReading materials since I really love them and want to use them in the class. May I have permission?

hi Mr.Morton. i am having trouble on a theme packet that my teacher assigned me for homework . i do not understand what a theme is. can you help me??????

Theme is the message of a story, the lesson that the author intends to impart through his or her story. So, read the story and ask yourself, is there a lesson to be learned here? Put that lesson into words, and you can say that you have found a theme in the story. Best wishes!

Jennifer Reed

After reading the comments, they struck home for me. My colleagues and I are always discussing the definition of theme. For me, I think it is fair to differentiate for the student between universal and literary theme.

I make sure to talk to students about the definition of Universal Theme, one word, and the literary theme described here. Sometimes my at-risk students have to zero in on the one word before they can get to the generalization. If not, I end up with a main idea or plot summary instead.

I hope this helps, or adds to the discussion.

Great contribution. Thank you.

Denise Ramos

I appreciate these lessons and the guidance you provide! I am a beginning teacher, and I feel frazzled at times about how to put things, but your resources are very helpful. I was wondering, how did you become so good at creating lessons? Were there any books that helped you? Or was it time and practice that helped you organize your plans and lessons so well?

I like to think that I have a way of getting to the point. I can’t recommend any books or resources that helped me out in any significant way. I can only point to the amazing teachers who inspired me and helped me grow. I’ve worked at some pretty messed up schools, but no matter how bad things were at times, there were always amazing people doing amazing things. I will never be the superb disciplinarian that Mrs. Smith, Mr. Dillard, or Mr. Tang were, but I’ve taken a little piece of them with me. I will never be as organized or as motivating as Mr. Phoenix was with his students, but I carry a little piece of him with me.

Find the teachers that inspire you. Fight to observe them. Take what you can.

That’s pretty much the best advice that I can give you about that topic.

Thank you for visiting my site and posing such an interesting question.

Best wishes!

I, too, love this site and appreciate the information and activities. It is so helpful… I was wondering if you could add some expository writing activities.

Like these expository writing prompts or did you have something different in mind?

Karen Schonewise

THANKS so much. This site is great. I almost lost it on a student today who was trying to tell me theme was one word after I have spent a month teaching these juniors in high school that it is a sentence!!! This site is awesome!!

Ha ha. It’s funny you say that. I’ve gone back and forth with terminally educated adults about this. I think a Common Core ELA glossary (like the one that they have for mathematics) would go a long way in resolving this debate. I also think that the word motif better fits the “a theme is one word” thing. Anyway, thanks for visiting the site and taking the time to comment. Best wishes!

You are the best. I am at a loss of words oh how to express my gratitude to you and this website that you have created. AWESOME-RIFIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the word that you invented. Thank you for visiting.

Theme Definition

What is theme? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

A theme is a universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature. One key characteristic of literary themes is their universality, which is to say that themes are ideas that not only apply to the specific characters and events of a book or play, but also express broader truths about human experience that readers can apply to their own lives. For instance, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (about a family of tenant farmers who are displaced from their land in Oklahoma) is a book whose themes might be said to include the inhumanity of capitalism, as well as the vitality and necessity of family and friendship.

Some additional key details about theme:

All works of literature have themes. The same work can have multiple themes, and many different works explore the same or similar themes.
Themes are sometimes divided into thematic concepts and thematic statements . A work's thematic concept is the broader topic it touches upon (love, forgiveness, pain, etc.) while its thematic statement is what the work says about that topic. For example, the thematic concept of a romance novel might be love, and, depending on what happens in the story, its thematic statement might be that "Love is blind," or that "You can't buy love . "
Themes are almost never stated explicitly. Oftentimes you can identify a work's themes by looking for a repeating symbol , motif , or phrase that appears again and again throughout a story, since it often signals a recurring concept or idea.

Theme Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce theme: theem

Identifying Themes

Every work of literature—whether it's an essay, a novel, a poem, or something else—has at least one theme. Therefore, when analyzing a given work, it's always possible to discuss what the work is "about" on two separate levels: the more concrete level of the plot (i.e., what literally happens in the work), as well as the more abstract level of the theme (i.e., the concepts that the work deals with). Understanding the themes of a work is vital to understanding the work's significance—which is why, for example, every LitCharts Literature Guide uses a specific set of themes to help analyze the text.

Although some writers set out to explore certain themes in their work before they've even begun writing, many writers begin to write without a preconceived idea of the themes they want to explore—they simply allow the themes to emerge naturally through the writing process. But even when writers do set out to investigate a particular theme, they usually don't identify that theme explicitly in the work itself. Instead, each reader must come to their own conclusions about what themes are at play in a given work, and each reader will likely come away with a unique thematic interpretation or understanding of the work.

Symbol, Motif, and Leitwortstil

Writers often use three literary devices in particular—known as symbol , motif , and leitwortstil —to emphasize or hint at a work's underlying themes. Spotting these elements at work in a text can help you know where to look for its main themes.

Near the beginning of Romeo and Juliet , Benvolio promises to make Romeo feel better about Rosaline's rejection of him by introducing him to more beautiful women, saying "Compare [Rosaline's] face with some that I shall show….and I will make thee think thy swan a crow." Here, the swan is a symbol for how Rosaline appears to the adoring Romeo, while the crow is a symbol for how she will soon appear to him, after he has seen other, more beautiful women.
Symbols might occur once or twice in a book or play to represent an emotion, and in that case aren't necessarily related to a theme. However, if you start to see clusters of similar symbols appearing in a story, this may mean that the symbols are part of an overarching motif, in which case they very likely are related to a theme.
For example, Shakespeare uses the motif of "dark vs. light" in Romeo and Juliet to emphasize one of the play's main themes: the contradictory nature of love. To develop this theme, Shakespeare describes the experience of love by pairing contradictory, opposite symbols next to each other throughout the play: not only crows and swans, but also night and day, moon and sun. These paired symbols all fall into the overall pattern of "dark vs. light," and that overall pattern is called a motif.
A famous example is Kurt Vonnegut's repetition of the phrase "So it goes" throughout his novel Slaughterhouse Five , a novel which centers around the events of World War II. Vonnegut's narrator repeats the phrase each time he recounts a tragic story from the war, an effective demonstration of how the horrors of war have become normalized for the narrator. The constant repetition of the phrase emphasizes the novel's primary themes: the death and destruction of war, and the futility of trying to prevent or escape such destruction, and both of those things coupled with the author's skepticism that any of the destruction is necessary and that war-time tragedies "can't be helped."

Symbol, motif and leitwortstil are simply techniques that authors use to emphasize themes, and should not be confused with the actual thematic content at which they hint. That said, spotting these tools and patterns can give you valuable clues as to what might be the underlying themes of a work.

Thematic Concepts vs. Thematic Statements

A work's thematic concept is the broader topic it touches upon—for instance:

Forgiveness

while its thematic statement is the particular argument the writer makes about that topic through his or her work, such as:

Human judgement is imperfect.
Love cannot be bought.
Getting revenge on someone else will not fix your problems.
Learning to forgive is part of becoming an adult.

Should You Use Thematic Concepts or Thematic Statements?

Some people argue that when describing a theme in a work that simply writing a thematic concept is insufficient, and that instead the theme must be described in a full sentence as a thematic statement. Other people argue that a thematic statement, being a single sentence, usually creates an artificially simplistic description of a theme in a work and is therefore can actually be more misleading than helpful. There isn't really a right answer in this debate.

In our LitCharts literature study guides , we usually identify themes in headings as thematic concepts, and then explain the theme more fully in a few paragraphs. We find thematic statements limiting in fully exploring or explaining a the theme, and so we don't use them. Please note that this doesn't mean we only rely on thematic concepts—we spend paragraphs explaining a theme after we first identify a thematic concept. If you are asked to describe a theme in a text, you probably should usually try to at least develop a thematic statement about the text if you're not given the time or space to describe it more fully. For example, a statement that a book is about "the senselessness of violence" is a lot stronger and more compelling than just saying that the book is about "violence."

Identifying Thematic Statements

One way to try to to identify or describe the thematic statement within a particular work is to think through the following aspects of the text:

Plot: What are the main plot elements in the work, including the arc of the story, setting, and characters. What are the most important moments in the story? How does it end? How is the central conflict resolved?
Protagonist: Who is the main character, and what happens to him or her? How does he or she develop as a person over the course of the story?
Prominent symbols and motifs: Are there any motifs or symbols that are featured prominently in the work—for example, in the title, or recurring at important moments in the story—that might mirror some of the main themes?

After you've thought through these different parts of the text, consider what their answers might tell you about the thematic statement the text might be trying to make about any given thematic concept. The checklist above shouldn't be thought of as a precise formula for theme-finding, but rather as a set of guidelines, which will help you ask the right questions and arrive at an interesting thematic interpretation.

Theme Examples

The following examples not only illustrate how themes develop over the course of a work of literature, but they also demonstrate how paying careful attention to detail as you read will enable you to come to more compelling conclusions about those themes.

Themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald explores many themes in The Great Gatsby , among them the corruption of the American Dream .

The story's narrator is Minnesota-born Nick Caraway, a New York bonds salesman. Nick befriends Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, who is a wealthy man who throws extravagant parties at his mansion.
The central conflict of the novel is Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy, whom he met and fell in love with as a young man, but parted from during World War I.
He makes a fortune illegally by bootlegging alcohol, to become the sort of wealthy man he believes Daisy is attracted to, then buys a house near her home, where she lives with her husband.
While he does manage to re-enter Daisy's life, she ultimately abandons him and he dies as a result of her reckless, selfish behavior.
Gatsby's house is on the water, and he stares longingly across the water at a green light that hangs at the edge of a dock at Daisy's house which sits across a the bay. The symbol of the light appears multiple times in the novel—during the early stages of Gatsby's longing for Daisy, during his pursuit of her, and after he dies without winning her love. It symbolizes both his longing for daisy and the distance between them (the distance of space and time) that he believes (incorrectly) that he can bridge.
In addition to the green light, the color green appears regularly in the novel. This motif of green broadens and shapes the symbolism of the green light and also influences the novel's themes. While green always remains associated with Gatsby's yearning for Daisy and the past, and also his ambitious striving to regain Daisy, it also through the motif of repeated green becomes associated with money, hypocrisy, and destruction. Gatsby's yearning for Daisy, which is idealistic in some ways, also becomes clearly corrupt in others, which more generally impacts what the novel is saying about dreams more generally and the American Dream in particular.

Gatsby pursues the American Dream, driven by the idea that hard work can lead anyone from poverty to wealth, and he does so for a single reason: he's in love with Daisy. However, he pursues the dream dishonestly, making a fortune by illegal means, and ultimately fails to achieve his goal of winning Daisy's heart. Furthermore, when he actually gets close to winning Daisy's heart, she brings about his downfall. Through the story of Gatsby and Daisy, Fitzgerald expresses the point of view that the American Dream carries at its core an inherent corruption. You can read more about the theme of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby here .

Themes in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart , Chinua Achebe explores the theme of the dangers of rigidly following tradition .

Okonkwo is obsessed with embodying the masculine ideals of traditional Igbo warrior culture.
Okonkwo's dedication to his clan's traditions is so extreme that it even alienates members of his own family, one of whom joins the Christians.
The central conflict: Okonkwo's community adapts to colonization in order to survive, becoming less warlike and allowing the minor injustices that the colonists inflict upon them to go unchallenged. Okonkwo, however, refuses to adapt.
At the end of the novel, Okonkwo impulsively kills a Christian out of anger. Recognizing that his community does not support his crime, Okonkwo kills himself in despair.
Clanswomen who give birth to twins abandon the babies in the forest to die, according to traditional beliefs that twins are evil.
Okonkwo kills his beloved adopted son, a prisoner of war, according to the clan's traditions.
Okonkwo sacrifices a goat in repentence, after severely beating his wife during the clan's holy week.

Through the tragic story of Okonkwo, Achebe is clearly dealing with the theme of tradition, but a close examination of the text reveals that he's also making a clear thematic statement that following traditions too rigidly leads people to the greatest sacrifice of all: that of personal agency . You can read more about this theme in Things Fall Apart here .

Themes in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Poem's have themes just as plot-driven narratives do. One theme that Robert Frost explores in this famous poem, The Road Not Taken , is the illusory nature of free will .

The poem's speaker stands at a fork in the road, in a "yellow wood."
He (or she) looks down one path as far as possible, then takes the other, which seems less worn.
The speaker then admits that the paths are about equally worn—there's really no way to tell the difference—and that a layer of leaves covers both of the paths, indicating that neither has been traveled recently.
After taking the second path, the speaker finds comfort in the idea of taking the first path sometime in the future, but acknowledges that he or she is unlikely to ever return to that particular fork in the woods.
The speaker imagines how, "with a sigh" she will tell someone in the future, "I took the road less travelled—and that has made all the difference."
By wryly predicting his or her own need to romanticize, and retroactively justify, the chosen path, the speaker injects the poem with an unmistakeable hint of irony .
The speaker's journey is a symbol for life, and the two paths symbolize different life paths, with the road "less-travelled" representing the path of an individualist or lone-wolf. The fork where the two roads diverge represents an important life choice. The road "not taken" represents the life path that the speaker would have pursued had he or she had made different choices.

Frost's speaker has reached a fork in the road, which—according to the symbolic language of the poem—means that he or she must make an important life decision. However, the speaker doesn't really know anything about the choice at hand: the paths appear to be the same from the speaker's vantage point, and there's no way he or she can know where the path will lead in the long term. By showing that the only truly informed choice the speaker makes is how he or she explains their decision after they have already made it , Frost suggests that although we pretend to make our own choices, our lives are actually governed by chance.

What's the Function of Theme in Literature?

Themes are a huge part of what readers ultimately take away from a work of literature when they're done reading it. They're the universal lessons and ideas that we draw from our experiences of works of art: in other words, they're part of the whole reason anyone would want to pick up a book in the first place!

It would be difficult to write any sort of narrative that did not include any kind of theme. The narrative itself would have to be almost completely incoherent in order to seem theme-less, and even then readers would discern a theme about incoherence and meaninglessness. So themes are in that sense an intrinsic part of nearly all writing. At the same time, the themes that a writer is interested in exploring will significantly impact nearly all aspects of how a writer chooses to write a text. Some writers might know the themes they want to explore from the beginning of their writing process, and proceed from there. Others might have only a glimmer of an idea, or have new ideas as they write, and so the themes they address might shift and change as they write. In either case, though, the writer's ideas about his or her themes will influence how they write.

One additional key detail about themes and how they work is that the process of identifying and interpreting them is often very personal and subjective. The subjective experience that readers bring to interpreting a work's themes is part of what makes literature so powerful: reading a book isn't simply a one-directional experience, in which the writer imparts their thoughts on life to the reader, already distilled into clear thematic statements. Rather, the process of reading and interpreting a work to discover its themes is an exchange in which readers parse the text to tease out the themes they find most relevant to their personal experience and interests.

Other Helpful Theme Resources

The Wikipedia Page on Theme: An in-depth explanation of theme that also breaks down the difference between thematic concepts and thematic statements.
The Dictionary Definition of Theme: A basic definition and etymology of the term.
In this instructional video , a teacher explains her process for helping students identify themes.

The printed PDF version of the LitCharts literary term guide on Theme

PDFs for all 136 Lit Terms we cover
Downloads of 1908 LitCharts Lit Guides
Teacher Editions for every Lit Guide
Explanations and citation info for 40,181 quotes across 1908 books
Downloadable (PDF) line-by-line translations of every Shakespeare play
Personification
Climax (Plot)
Rising Action
Formal Verse
Antimetabole
Rhetorical Question
Juxtaposition
External Conflict
Round Character
Rhyme Scheme

Exploring Setting: Constructing Character, Point of View, Atmosphere, and Theme

Resources & Preparation
Instructional Plan
Related Resources

Typical lists of literary elements include the concept of setting somewhere near the end, subordinate to the more central concepts of character, plot, conflict, and theme. Though many texts do not rely heavily on setting for meaning, students need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to read for setting, especially as it relates to the construction of other elements of a short story or novel. After an in-depth discussion of how setting works at different levels, they read, discuss, and compare and contrast elements of setting in Stuart Dybek's "Blight," Dickens' Great Expectations , the lyrics for "The Town Is Lit," from Toni Morrison, and Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Finally, students sketch the two settings for "The Cask of Amontillado," before a closing discussion in which students reflect on the ways they have seeing setting function in all four texts.

From Theory to Practice

Calling attention to the crucial interplay between reader and text, Brian Moon and Bronwyn Mellor note that "character and other narrative elements [including setting] are highly selective constructions " that readers need to interpret actively (86). Moon and Mellor stress that the life-like appearance of some fiction is just that-an appearance. An author creates a fictional world from the blank page, and students need instruction, modeling, and applied practice in " analyzing and explaining how texts construct character (and other narrative elements), and with what effect" (86). Examining the language an author uses to create a setting not only allows students to situate themselves in the world of the text but also facilitates a study of the way setting constructs many other elements in the narrative as well.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Audio recording of “The Town Is Lit”
Lyrics for “The Town Is Lit”
Stuart Dybek’s short story “Blight”
Analyzing Language: Setting and "The Cask of Amontillado"
Analyzing Language: Setting and Great Expectations
Guided Reading Questions for “Blight” by Stuart Dybek
Passages for Analysis— Great Expectations

Preparation

Read the Dybek story carefully before sharing with the class. There are several instances of cursing by the narrator and other characters. Determine if the story is acceptable reading material for your students and school. For background information you may wish to read The Morning News interview with Stuart Dybek .
Listen to “The Town is Lit” and determine the amount of preparation students need for listening to an art song by a classical soprano. This style of music is largely unfamiliar to many students, and they may need a bit of prepping for what they are about to hear.
Obtain or make copies of all the literary pieces and student handouts.
Familiarize yourself with the concept of Urban Renewal in Chicago history , particularly the “Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act,” from which Dybek takes the title of his story. You may also find this map of Chicago useful.
Arrange for copies of the lyrics of “The Town Is Lit” from the CD booklet of Honey and Rue .
If you have not read Great Expectations , familiarize yourself with the story of Miss Havisham and her key characteristics.

Student Objectives

Students will

identify words, images, and details that construct setting.
explain multiple significances of setting in a literary piece.
analyze the significance in a shift from one setting to another.

Session One

Choice 1—Ask students to consider the extent to which their “setting”/time and place contributes to their behavior. For example, what are the signals that they are in a classroom? What behaviors seem appropriate for them as a result of these signals being present? If these signals were replaced by another setting (say, a party in a friend’s basement on a Friday night), how many of their current behaviors would still seem appropriate?
Choice 2—Ask students to discuss areas of their community that are known “by name.” These could be official or unofficial names of neighborhoods, names of streets that imply a certain part of town, etc. What do those place names suggest about the people who live there and the lives they lead? Why is this connection between place names and stereotypes both powerful and dangerous?
Bridge the discussion to the literary concept of setting, the time(s) and place(s) during which a story takes place.
Point out that setting works on macro- and micro-levels. Macro-elements of setting include features such as historical period and nation or city; micro-elements include specific times of day, locations within a house or room, etc.
Introduce the short story “Blight” by Stuart Dybek. Point out that the author foregrounds setting in this story in three ways: It comes from a collection of stories entitled Coast of Chicago ; the name of the story refers to the narrator’s neighborhood; the first sentence of the story suggests both the time and place of the action of the narrative.
Provide background information on the “ Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act .”
Distribute the Guided Reading Questions for “Blight.” Point out how each question will help the students focus on setting and make meaning of the text as a whole.
Model for students the connections you make as a reader between setting and meaning as you begin reading “Blight” aloud in class. Use the Guided Reading Questions as the focal point of your modeling.
Ask students to continue reading the story for homework. They should take notes on the Guided Reading Questions sheet in preparation for the next class session.

Session Two

Arrange the class into four small groups, and assign each group a question from the Guided Reading Questions for “Blight,” focusing on questions 2–5.
After groups have had time to share and reflect on their responses, bring the class together for a full-class discussion on the story.
Make sure students are making clear connections between details and elements in the story and their impressions and interpretations of it as they discuss the short story.
Close class by telling students that during the next session, they will be reading excerpts from one of the most famous “Blights” in literature, the home of a character in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations .

Session Three

Introduce the activity by pointing out that one of the authors Dybek mentions near the end of “Blight” is Charles Dickens, an author known for his attention to detail in a setting.
Review the concept of setting and announce the objective of focusing carefully on how an author uses language to create a setting.
Distribute copies of the excerpts from Great Expectations and the Analyzing Language handout.

Pip, a poor and inquisitive young boy, is being sent by his sister to visit Miss Havisham, the richest woman in their small town, with hopes that she will begin supporting Pip financially. These passages are some of his first impressions of the interior and exterior of Miss Havisham’s house.

Read the first excerpt with the class and model the use of the Analyzing Language handout.
Assess your students understanding of the process and either continue modeling with the second passage or allow students to work in groups or on their own to continue reading and analyzing the text.
Ask students to complete the analysis activity by synthesizing their impressions in the center box of the Analyzing Language handout.
Facilitate a discussion of their analyses and ask them what kind of person they expect Miss Havisham to be.
Provide validation and/or clarification of their responses by discussing the character of Miss Havisham.
Reinforce the idea that Dickens uses setting to create Miss Havisham’s character. The house is more than a reflection of her state; it is both a cause and an effect of it.

Session Four

Provide students with a copy of the lyric for “The Town Is Lit,” from Toni Morrison’s song cycle Honey and Rue .
Guide students through a reading of the text, asking them to focus on details related to setting.
Ask students to describe the atmosphere each setting establishes. Students should notice that the song contrasts two different settings.
Next ask students to predict what music reflecting those settings should sound like.
Play the song for the class, and ask students to share their impressions. Ask students to describe the music they heard and evaluate how effectively did music conveys the settings and atmospheres the text describes.
Bridge to the session’s text by pointing out to students that the Morrison lyric employs a technique many authors rely on for creating meaning in text: contrasting settings and using setting to establish atmosphere or mood.
Make connections back to previous readings as appropriate.
Read the first three paragraphs of Poe’s story , and ask students to clarify the narrator’s persona and his attitudes toward Fortunato.
Beginning with the sentence “It was about dusk . . . , ” ask students to identify the details Poe gives readers about the first setting of the story. Ask students what kind of atmosphere these details suggest.
Connect to the session opener by asking them to describe what kind of music would reflect the scene being described.
When you get to the paragraph ending “the catacombs of the Montresors,” stop and remind students of the activity you did during the previous session with the passages from Great Expectations .
Pass out copies of the Analyzing Language: Setting and "The Cask of Amontillado."
During the remaining class time and for homework, have students continue reading the story , stopping frequently to record their observations about the language of the text and its effect on characters and conflict. They should complete this activity as homework for the next session.
Remind students that while they are focusing on setting—and study of setting in this story is valuable—they should read for other elements such as character, conflict, and theme as well.

Session Five

Begin the session by asking students to get out their Analyzing Language handouts. Spot check for completion if desired.
On the reverse of the handout, ask students to sketch or draw a the two settings for “ The Cask of Amontillado .” Their drawings do not need to be perfect; they are simply to represent the two settings of visually.
After they finish their sketches, ask students to justify their choices.
Facilitate a discussion of the story by guiding students to note how integral setting is to Montresor’s method of duping Fortunato; how setting contributes to atmosphere; and how the surprise shift in setting—the events in the story took place 50 years prior to the narrator sharing the tale in the story—contributes to characterization and theme.
If desired, enhance discussion of the story with additional focus on other elements or issues of your choice.
Be sure to close the session by allowing students to reflect on the ways they have seen setting function in the four texts in this lesson.
Watch the opening scene of Dickens' Great Expectations as adapted for MASTERPIECE on PBS .
Using the Persuasion Map , ask students to write short analytical essays on the use of setting in either of the short stories studied in this lesson.
Using the Compare and Contrast Map and Guide , analyze the authors’ use of setting in the two short stories studied in this lesson.
Using “Blight” as a model, but relying on the examples of Dickens and Poe as well, tell a story from your life in which your neighborhood or city setting matters. See the lesson It’s My Life: Multimodal Autobiography Project for details on autobiographical writing.
Write a review of a film you’ve recently viewed in which setting figures prominently. The lesson Lights, Camera, Action...Music: Critiquing Films Using Sight and Sound provides resources that can supplement this writing project.
Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the functions of setting in “The Town Is Lit” to that in Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “ A Song in the Front Yard .”
Assessing Cultural Relevance: Exploring Personal Connections to a Text
Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing
Style: Defining and Exploring an Author’s Stylistic Choices
Developing Characterization in Raymond Carver’s ‘A Small, Good Thing’

Student Assessment / Reflections

Formative assessments in this lesson include the lesson opener (observation of discussion); assessment of the Guided Reading questions for “Blight” and the subsequent discussion; and evaluation of the Analyzing Language handout for Great Expectations and the handout for “The Cask of Amontillado.” Be sure to gauge student understanding at each of these points and adjust the level of support accordingly. At the end of Session Five, give students the opportunity to quick write on the different ways they have seen setting contribute to meaning of the works they read during the sessions.

Professional Library
Calendar Activities

Add new comment

Print this resource

Explore Resources by Grade

Kindergarten K

Science & Math
Sociology & Philosophy
Law & Politics
Understanding Theme

A Theme is a statement of the central idea or message in fiction, narrative or poetry. It is usually not stated explicitly, but rather developed through the characters, plot, narrator’s point of view, and language. It differs from a Topic which is the subject matter being written about, and a Thesis which is an contentious argument based on the topic. A thesis is often stated explicitly, and can be argued.

Example from Hamlet :

Topic: Revenge

Theme: Revenge consumes the mind of all of those who are obsessed with it, and, ultimately, it destroys them. (This is never stated explicitly in Hamlet , but it can be deduced form the actions of the character and the outcome of the plot.)

Thesis: For a thesis, you might argue how and why this theme of revenge is developed and expressed through the play.

Theme Statement: Put your ideas about theme into one or two clear and concise statements. The following structure is fairly straightforward:

“With regards to _____ [topic] _______, the author is saying that…”

A theme statement can be used as a thesis in literary evaluations. You should easily be able to pick out details from the story or poem with respect to a theme.

Write a theme statement that clearly expresses what you think Heron Jonse’s main message is in the poem. Quote and explain 2-3 examples of figurative language that reveal theme. Any explanation of figurative language needs to include:

An identification of the specific passage being looked at.
An identification of the specific type of figurative language used.
If there is a comparison, (metaphor, simile, personification, analogy), clearly explain what 2 things are being compared.
A clear explanation of why the fig. lang. is used, and an explanation of how it relates to the purpose or meaning of the passage.

John Updike’s A & P: Analysis & Theme
Theme of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
Romeo and Juliet: Theme of Death
English Literary Terms & Definitions
Hamlet: The Theme of Revenge

Author: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

13 Entertaining ESL Homework Ideas to Keep Your Students Engaged

Homework may not be many students’ favorite thing, but research says it’s truly an effective learning tool that teachers should use .

The trick is assigning great homework.

To help you do this with ease, we’ve compiled an awesome list of 13 homework assignments that will have your ESL students begging for more.

1. Read a Short Story

2. share a passion, 3. start a chat group, 4. listen to a podcast, 5. write a letter, 6. write an amazon review, 7. do a wikipedia edit, 8. write a short story or poem, 9. share their culture, 10. catch a movie, 11. meet new people, 12. analyze a song, 13. go on a photo scavenger hunt, what makes homework effective.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Have students read a short story for homework and then ask them to tell the class about the story in the next session.

I would recommend giving students some suggestions on what short stories to read, depending on the level of your students.

Here are some suggestions of short story collections for each level of ESL learner:

“The Very First Americans” by Cara Ashrose: This collection of short stories features Native American culture and history, written in simple language.
“Oxford Bookworms Library: Starter Level” This series offers simplified versions of classic stories, such as fairy tales, adventure stories and more.
“Classic Tales for ESL Students” by L.A. Hill: This collection of classic stories from literature is retold with easier vocabulary and sentence structure.

Intermediate

“The Best American Short Stories” This series features contemporary short stories from a wide range of American writers, so there’s something for everyone here.
“Short Stories in English for Intermediate Learners” by Olly Richards: This collection of engaging stories is designed specifically for intermediate ESL students.
“Roald Dahl: The Collected Short Stories” This delightful collection of quirky and imaginative tales has become a favorite of many of my students.
“Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri: This Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories explores the immigrant experience, something which many ESL students can relate to.
“Dubliners” by James Joyce: This classic collection of interconnected stories captures the essence of Dublin in 1914. But it still feels modern to many students.
“Nine Stories” by J.D. Salinger: This classic collection of short stories is a class favorite when I’ve used it.

What do your students really care about? Give them a chance to talk about it in front of the class.

Have each person choose something they’re passionate about, something they might consider themselves an expert on.

Challenge students to think of a creative way to present five must-know facts about that subject. They might make a movie, create a poster or brochure, write a song or even put on a skit.

Have each person present their creative project to the class, and then give the class five minutes to ask questions of the presenter.

Set certain parameters like students must speak in complete sentences or require that every student ask at least two questions at some point during the presentations.

Students will love sharing about their passions, and they’ll get some great speaking, listening and discourse information in the process, as well as teach the rest of the class some interesting vocabulary.

Ask for class for a volunteer to start a class WhatsApp chat group. They can also decide to use another messaging app like Telegram, Viber, Voxer or any other app that has a group chat function.

Encourage them to send at least one message and to respond to a couple others for their homework.

This text group has the added advantage of students being able to make friends with one another, and a place to ask about missed homework assignments on days when they can’t make it to class.

Note that if a student doesn’t want to be included in the chat group, you should have a back up assignment prepared for them.

Listening is one of the ESL student’s most difficult skills to acquire, so listening to a short podcast episode is ideal homework.

You can ask students to write a little about the podcast to turn in to you, or you can ask them to briefly summarize what they heard for the class in the next session.

Here are some suggestions for well done podcasts:

The English We Speak : Produced by the BBC, this podcast focuses on teaching commonly used phrases and idioms in conversational English.

The Moth : A storytelling podcast where real people share their personal experiences and anecdotes in English.

Stuff You Should Know : Though not specifically designed for ESL students, this podcast covers a vast array of interesting topics, providing exposure to diverse vocabulary and subject matters.

Ask your students to write a letter . The letter can be written to a friend or family member (which they could then actually mail or email), or it could be a fan letter to a favorite musician or actor. They could even write a letter to Santa Claus or a historical figure.

For example, a student might choose to write a letter to Marie Antoinette, asking her what it was like to be the queen of France at such a young age.

You can also choose to have students write letters to one another. Then the next homework can be writing that letter writer back.

Ask you students to review a product on Amazon (or any other shopping website that has reviews). Ask them to select a product they have really used, so they have a genuine opinion on the quality of the product and whether it lived up to their expectations.

Then, in the next session, show the reviews on the overhead projector to the class and ask a student to read the review.

You can then go over any errors in vocabulary, grammar or sentence structure and revise the review together as a class.

Since anyone can edit a Wikipedia article, it’s a great place for ESL students to hone their writing and editing skills, and they’ll have a built-in readership, too!

Ask students to select a person that they know a lot about—a well-known figure from history, pop culture, music or film would all work. Then ask them to read the Wikipedia entry to see if they can add anything else to the article.

Perhaps the article on Ryan Gosling is missing a key detail about his recent Ken performance. If so, the student will revise and edit the article. They should take notes on what they changed, so they can explain it to you or the class the next day.

Ask your students to get creative. Have them write a short story or a poem . This can get them to use descriptive language that they don’t always have a chance to use.

One good activity to do before you assign this homework is an adjective bubble chart. For this, you start with one adjective. For example, write “moist” on the board, circle it and then draw 4-5 lines coming off of the”moist” bubble.

Ask your students to come up with other adjectives that are related to “moist” and so on. They may come up with “wet,” “watery,” “soaked” or “damp.” Then draw lines from each of those. This can lead to words that you never expected to come up.

Have your students select 3-4 adjectives from this introduction activity that they’ll use in their story or poem.

Ask your students to prepare a short presentation on an aspect of their home culture to tell the class about in the next session.

For example, a student from China may explain the Lunar New Year, a student from Vietnam may explain Tet or a student from El Salvador may tell the class about their quinceañera .

They can use photos, art, a PowerPoint presentation or they can just explain in their own words.

Then open the class up for questions.

Can you legitimately send students to the movies for homework? You can when you’re teaching ESL.

Your students don’t have to commit to a full-length movie. Instead, you can use the videos on FluentU to screen mini-lessons using clips from TV shows and movies, movie trailers, news segments, vlogs or music videos.

Use these videos in the classroom or assign homework to watch a few and complete the subsequent quizzes. You can also ask students to complete flashcard quizzes based on vocabulary words you want them to pay special attention to. These quizzes are adaptable so every student will have a unique experience catered to his learning level.

There are plenty of ways to use a movie for language development. And whether students watch a new release or catch an old Elvis flick on TV, they can do any of the following activities as homework:

Summarize the plot.
Describe a main character.
Note new or interesting vocabulary (particularly slang) they hear while watching.
Write an interview with one of the characters in the movie.

I’m sure you also have your favorite movie-related language activities and many work as homework assignments. So get creative with how you have students share about what they watched.

For the most part, people are willing to help someone in need, and that is doubly true for someone who needs to complete an assignment for school.

That’s why sending students out to interview native speakers on campus is such a fun homework assignment.

Start by helping your students write a list of questions they’ll use for their interviews. Students can choose a topic or you can assign one, like leisure activities or celebrity news.

Tell students to list five to ten questions they might ask on that topic that will elicit specific answers.

As a class, discuss how students might introduce themselves to a potential interviewee.

Then send students out to their interviews after class. They can share the answers they got in the next session.

Music is great for English learners since it stresses many aspects of language that can otherwise be hard to isolate, like the emotion of language, intonation and stress.

Have students choose their favorite English language song to listen to for homework and then ask them to do the following:

Practice the lyrics to learn intonation and rhythm.
Note slang and cultural references in the songs.
Summarize the theme of the song, or just what it’s about.
Have students share their favorite lyrics and what a particular song means to them.

Give individual students or groups of up to three students a list of items to find on their homework scavenger hunt. But instead of being specific in your list (for example, including items such as cat), be descriptive in your list.

You might include items such as something frightening, something beautiful, something quiet, something cool.

Students find items they think fit the description. For example, someone who is claustrophobic might choose an elevator for something frightening. They then take a picture of it.

The next day, have each person get with a partner and show them the pictures they took for each item on the list.

If the connection is not obvious, students should ask their partner to explain why they chose a particular item, such as the elevator.

Assigning homework that works isn’t as hard as you might think, especially if you focus on the following points.

Put your homework in writing. It can be tempting to just announce homework assignments to students at the end of class, but language learners benefit when you reinforce what you say with what they can see. So take a minute to write any homework assignment on the board so students can read it as well as listen to it.
Let students know what goals you have for a particular assignment. Is it practicing a certain grammar point ? Improving their listening skills ? Pronunciation practice ? When students know why they’re doing something, they’ll be able to tell on their own when they’ve successfully completed their homework assignment.
Keep your homework practical . Your students may not find themselves planning out a menu for Thanksgiving when they leave your ESL classroom, but odds are they’ll have to order food at a restaurant at some point. Think about realistic ways students will have to use English in the real world and try to make your homework practical.
Let your students be creative . Give your students choices on how they express themselves or present information. It’s okay for students to make a home movie, put on a one-man play or paint a picture to present to the class. Just because you prefer a particular type of creative expression doesn’t mean your students do, so give them choices and let them express themselves.
Make homework fun! Every class has its own personality, so what’s fun for one might not be fun for another. Tailor your assignments to the personality of your class. Think about what they would think is fun, and go with that.

No matter what you believed in your student days, homework doesn’t have to be boring. With a little creativity when assigning homework, you might find that the activities you assign for outside of class become the highlights of your students’ days.

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

ELT Concourse home
A-Z site index
Teacher training index
Teacher development
For teachers
For trainers
For managers
For learners
About language
Language questions
Other areas
Academic English
Business English
Entering ELT
Courses index
Basic ELT course
Language analysis
Training to train
Transcription

Theme and rheme

Theme and rheme are considered elsewhere on the site because the concepts are applicable in a number of areas (genre-based approaches, the use of the passive, academic writing, fronting, markedness and much more). There are links below to some of these guides. This guide is concerned with investigating the idea a little more thoroughly and is based on a functional linguistics approach, primarily the work of Halliday (1994 and elsewhere) and subsequent authors. Within that approach, language is a social semiotic which means that it is the key way in which we human beings acquire knowledge, express experience, attitudes and values and construct our view of reality. Semiotics is the branch of linguistics and philosophy which is concerned with signs and symbols and language is, above all, a system of signs.

is defined by Halliday (1994: 38) as:

what the message is concerned with: the point of departure for what the speaker is going to say

For example in sentences such as:

The man told me where to go The theme is The man because that is what the sentence is all about.
My house in London is valuable but not for sale The theme is My house in London .

We should not, however, confuse theme with subject, which is a grammatical rather than a communicative category, or agent, which is a different grammatical category present in passive expressions, because, for example:

in a sentence such as: Yesterday afternoon , we went to the park The theme is Yesterday afternoon , because, in communicative terms, that is what the speaker is talking about. It is not, however, the grammatical subject but an adverbial noun phrase. The subject is we but that does not occur as the theme because it is actually part of the rheme.
in a sentence such as: Spending time at the zoo is just what the children like best The theme is Spending time at the zoo which is also the grammatical subject but formed by nominalising a non-finite verb phrase.
in a sentence such as: Because it was raining , we stayed in and watched TV The theme is Because it was raining and that is a clause in itself and not the subject of anything. It is, however, also a subordinate clause which cannot stand alone and make sense.
in a sentence such as: The grass is kept short by the sheep The theme is The grass which is a noun subject but not the agent (it is the patient in a passive sentence).
in a sentence such as: The people who wanted a refund went to the manager's office The theme is The people who wanted a refund because that relative clause structure is the starting point from which the rest of the utterance may be understood.
in a sentence such as: Over that hill and across the bridge is where you need to go The theme is Over that hill and across the bridge which is a combination of two prepositional phrases. In functional grammar, the prepositional phrases would usually be described as location Circumstances, by the way, but, in this case, Circumstances functioning as themes.
in a sentence such as: The car has been repaired The theme, rather obviously, is the car because that is what the rest of the clause is concerned with. It is not, however, the subject of the verb, it is, in grammatical terms, the patient (i.e., the entity on which the verb acts) and the agent (perhaps the workshop or the mechanic ) is absent in this case because it is of no importance or already known to the hearer / reader and need not be made explicit.

There is a good deal more on the meaning of markedness later in this guide. For now we'll just consider it in relation to the communicative purpose of an utterance or written text.

It is true that in most simple declarative utterances the theme and the subject are often the same thing but that is not always the case and things can become more complex, as we shall see. So, for example, in: My mother did the work on Tuesday we have the theme ( my mother ) which also happens to be the subject of the verb, do . That sentence is unmarked. However, in: The work was done on Tuesday by my mother the theme is the work which is grammatically still the subject but functionally the patient in a passive clause. In this case, the sentence is marked because the speaker / writer has deliberately chosen to place the work in theme position. And in On Tuesday , my mother did the work the theme is on Tuesday because it is raised to mark it for emphasis.

The important point here is that when the theme and the subject are the same, the word order, in English, is described as unmarked, i.e., it carries no special communicative force. This is only true for declarative sentences. In interrogative sentences, the theme is the finite verb: May we come in? and in imperative constructions, it is usually the Predicate because the subject is generally absent: (You) stop that! When the subject is present, that becomes the theme: You try!

It is also the case that the theme can be made up the whole of an adverbial, a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase including any modification.

All of these examples are of what is called, for obvious reasons, a topical theme and that may be defined as

the starting point from which experiences are unfolded in a clause (Butt et al , 2001: 136)

Topical themes such as the ones identified here are also all simple themes because they consist of one element only, although that element may be quite complex grammatically as the examples reveal.

When a topical theme is the only theme in a clause, it is normally just called a theme. There are, however, two other types of theme that this guide will consider (eventually).

The rheme may be defined as:

everything else that follows in the sentence which consists of what the speaker states about, or in regard to, the starting point of the utterance (Brown and Yule, 1983: 126/127)

So, in all the examples above, the rheme is what follows the theme (all of it).

The term rheme is another communicative category, not a grammatical one. The grammatical term with which it is sometimes confused is predicate which is defined as the part of the sentence which says something about the subject. So, for example the underlined parts of these sentences are the predicates: Yesterday , Paul went for a walk Surprisingly , she refused the job because they tell us about the subject of the sentence. However, seen communicatively, the rhemes of these sentences are: Paul went for a walk and she refused the job because raising the adverbial to the front of the sentence has marked it as the theme and all that follows, including the subject of the verb is the rheme. In this case, we actually have a different sort of theme in the second sentence, called an interpersonal rather than topical theme (realised with the word surprisingly ) because it expresses how the speaker feels. More on that later.

If you have followed the guide to genre, this will be familiar ground.

Here's a short example text which we will use to show the way in which themes and rhemes contribute to a cohesive paragraph:

On Monday , I have to get to the office early because I need to prepare for a meeting . This will be with two of the firm's most important clients and they are very particular and demanding . So much so that all of us, including the CEO will be there. She doesn't often attend meetings of this sort.

In what follows, we'll look at the functions of the parts which are underlined to demonstrate the relationships.

The first theme is the prepositional phrase (or locational Circumstance) On Monday because it the scene-setter for all that follows. It is the jumping off point for the rest of the text.
Part of the first rheme is a meeting and that becomes the theme of the next sentence, replaced by a demonstrative pronoun, this .
Part of the rheme which follows is two of the firm's most important clients which forms the theme of the next part of the compound sentence (following and ), replaced by the pronoun they .
Part of that rheme is the adjective phrase particular and demanding and that, replaced by a modified pro-form with so much so , forms the theme of the next sentence.
Part of the rheme of that sentence is the CEO which forms the final theme of the last sentence, replaced by the pronoun, she .

It would be somewhat surprising if the text did not go on to say something more about the CEO because that has been set up as a cohesive link in the final theme.

It is not always as simple as this because rhemes can appear in a sentence but not become themes in their own right until much later in a text so, although rheme 1 may become theme 2, rheme 6 may have to waits its turn until sentences 12 before it is elevated to the status of a theme. For example:

Even from an unrealistically simplified scheme like this, low-level learners can be encouraged to produce simple texts in which each theme has a rheme which forms the theme of the next sentence and so on. The text may not be terribly sophisticated but it will be coherent and, with a little training, cohesive too because rhemes often contain noun or prepositional phrases which can be substituted by various pro-forms. So, for example, we can set up what is called a shell noun (because it encapsulates one or more propositions) by having a sentence such as:

The number of students who are using the kitchen and leaving a mess behind them as well as stealing from the fridge is becoming a serious problem.

and in that sentence we have used a shell noun ( problem ) which encapsulates the whole of the first part of the sentence. We have also made it the rheme. Now, in what follows we can refer back to that shell noun with a pro-form such as this or it or a synonym such as issue and make the pro-form or the synonym the theme of each sentence as in, e.g.:

This cannot be tolerated much longer or it will result in ... This issue has to be tackled by ...

In that way a simple noun can be used to set up a cohesive text efficiently. For more, try the guide to shell nouns on this site, linked below.

We should note here that, of course, we are dealing with the relationship between the text and its context because that lies at the heart of social semiotics. And text can, naturally, be spoken as well as written. In spoken texts, because of their nature, themes may come and go quite rapidly and some rhemes may be discarded and never be elevated to themes at all. Nevertheless, in any transcript of a conversation, it is usually possible to spot the themes of each participant's contribution and the rhemes that follow them as well as seeing which rhemes are taken up as themes by subsequent speakers.

In the final utterance in that dialogue we have an example of an interpersonal theme rather than a topical theme of which more in a moment.

Most of the examples that were used to illustrate the definition of theme were topical in the sense that the theme functions to set the scene for what follows in the utterance. We saw that topical themes can be:

Nominal elements (nouns and pronouns which are usually referred to as Participants), e.g.: John and his mother went home He made dinner
Complex nominalised non-finite clauses or noun phrases, e.g.: My being ill so often has meant I can't work The real reason for the breakdown in communication was lack of listening skills
Adverbials and prepositional phrases (Circumstances): Secretly , she's quite pleased In the event , I was surprised On the following Thursday , we went again
Clauses: After we had lunch , we went for a walk So that he could identify the ship , he fetched his telescope

The key issue is that all these sorts of theme form the leftmost constituent but that is not to say that they are necessarily the subjects of any following verbs. In some clauses, the topical theme can be preceded by another theme and then we have a multiple theme. Themes that can precede the topical theme are of two sorts, considered next.

Alert readers will not have missed the fact that when subordinate and main clauses are reversed, so are the associated themes and rhemes. So, for example: Because she wanted to meet his mother , she travelled up to London and She travelled up to London because she wanted to meet his mother are not simply alternative ways of saying the same thing as the themes ( in black ) show. Theme and rheme are identified by word order and word order is not selected at random. Speakers and writers will select the word order to match what they perceive as the theme of the sentence. The first sentence would be followed naturally by something about London such as: While she was there, she took the opportunity to visit the British Museum and the second sentence would be more naturally followed by something about the mother such as: She was delighted to see her If we follow the first sentence with something more appropriate to the second we get: Because she wanted to meet his mother she travelled up to London. She was delighted to see her in which we are left in a state of ambiguity regarding who was delighted to see whom. If we follow the second sentence with the theme appropriate to the first, we get: She travelled up to London because she wanted to meet his mother. While she was there, she took the opportunity to visit the British Museum which is only marginally coherent.

The phenomenon of dative shifting (or dative alternation) is another simple trick with which people can mark the rheme to allow it naturally to form the theme of the following clause or sentence. Here's an example: He told his mother a lie ... is naturally followed by: which she saw through immediately but He told a lie to his mother ... would more naturally be followed by: ... and she was upset about that. In the first case, the lie becomes the theme of the following clause and in the second case, it is the mother which forms the theme.

See below for a discussion of how intonation affects the communication of information in such circumstances.

We saw that the theme-rheme structures with the latter becoming the former are a prime mover of coherence in a text. Textual themes are an element of cohesion rather than coherence. Textual themes are frequently conjunctions or conjuncts (go elsewhere for the technical difference [new tab]). Here are some examples: When Mary arrived at the hotel, she checked in and went directly to her room Nevertheless , this is important But I couldn't see anything I checked into the hotel. There , I called my wife.

In spoken language, textual themes are often quite simple and often repeated so stretches of text may be held together with no more than a succession of ... and ... and ... so ... and ... etc.

The issue to note is that textual themes are followed in many cases by topical themes, making a multiple theme. In the examples above, the topical themes are Mary, this and I , respectively, and they all follow the textual theme which is, conventionally, left positioned in the clause. It needn't be, of course because most conjuncts can take the medial or end position in a clause so we could have, e.g.: This is, nevertheless , important or This is important, nevertheless and we still have a topical theme ( this ) and a textual theme ( nevertheless ). Some conjuncts are, in fact forbidden from the initial position but that does not affect their function. For more see the guide (linked below).

Wh -words also function as textual themes and are less mobile, almost always occurring on the extreme left of the clause as in, e.g.: Where he found the energy I don't know. What is she doing? When can you come? etc.

You can often tell the nature of a text from the textual themes it contains. For example: A Narrative or Recount will often contain conjunctions and conjuncts which link events in time such as and then, afterwards etc. A Discussion text will more likely contain subordinating conjunctions such as if, although, unless, becaus e etc. which serve to link ideas logically rather than in temporal sequence. It may also contain conjuncts working in the same way such as however, nevertheless, consequently and so on. A Procedure text will often contain explicit enumerative conjuncts such as firstly, lastly, next, after that etc. An Exposition will also contain textual themes designed to show the connection between ideas (such as because, it follows that, so etc . ) and may also contain enumerators which serve to make distinct points in order and lend an air of development of an argument. Expositions are also indicated by the inclusion of rhetorical questions as textual themes setting up an issue before offering a solution. An Explanation or an Information report on the other hand, will focus more on textual themes which link ideas additively and include, for example, and, additionally, furthermore, in order to, therefore, and so etc.

These concern

the kind of interaction between speakers or the positions which they are taking (Butt et al , op cit.: 138)

A common example is the interrogative in English in which the auxiliary verb precedes the subject or the operator do is required to complete the utterance. For example, in: Can she go now? we can analyse the theme as a multiple one, with an interpersonal theme ( Can ), plus a topical theme ( she ). and in Perhaps they will arrive we have an interpersonal theme expressing the speaker's attitude ( Perhaps ) and a topical theme ( they ) forming a multiple theme.

The interesting point here is that English allows various positions for interpersonal themes (which do not have to be left positioned) so we allow: They will perhaps arrive She has, apparently , left already They will be here, I think and so on.

Interpersonal themes occur also in the imperative, e.g.: John , be quiet in which we have the interpersonal theme followed by the topical theme be.

There is a separate guide to markedness on the site but, briefly, if something is unmarked, it is the most unremarkable or normal way of expressing something whereas a marked element is distinguished in some way. Compare, for example: The electorate don't like him which is unmarked and simply the canonical ordering of Subject, Verb and Object in English with Him the electorate don't like which is marked to emphasise the object pronoun. In the first case, the theme is the electorate and in the second, it is him both conventionally left positioned as themes usually are.

Why should this be? If all the examples above express the same propositional content: helping happened Peter did the helping Jane got the help why does a language (any language) need so many possible syntactical resources to express the same content? One answer is that speakers need to make choices about what they consider the jumping off point for the clause, Halliday's point of departure , and it is this that determines how the syntax is arranged.

Placing an element, other than the subject, in theme position (i.e., on the left of the clause) often marks it in some way because it raises its significance to a theme for the sentence. For example: They ate the meal is unmarked with the theme they but The meal was eaten is marked because the theme is now the meal . The speaker / writer's intention concerning markedness is often the stimulus for the selection of a passive formulation. This also happens with other elements, for example: All over town I looked which, by virtue of placing the prepositional phrase in theme position, makes it heavily marked. Only in emergency, switch this computer off which heavily marks the contingent phrase.

This is a phenomenon usually confined to literary works (hence novel titles such as Cry, the Beloved Country [Alan Paton, 1948]) but which also occurs in informal speech. It concerns an item appearing to take the theme position in a sentence but which is not, in fact, intended as the theme. For example, A: Have you seen Pedro? B: Pedro, I saw him upstairs in which the theme of B's utterance is, in fact, not Pedro (that's the rheme of A's utterance) but is I and the rheme of B's statement is saw him upstairs . The first item in B's statement may sound like a question and it stands alone to mean something like Did I hear you right? Learners who speak a topicalising language such as Spanish or most Chinese languages may produce utterances like this unintentionally and that can confuse the hearer as to what is intended as the theme.

English links themes and rhemes in a number of ways. Here's a short list with some examples of how the linkage works:

All of these systems have their own guides linked from the syntax, lexis and discourse indexes.

We should pause here to consider how some other languages achieve markedness and how they don't. The first thing to state is that it is word order alone in English which determines whether something is the theme of a sentence. Reverse or manipulate the word order and the theme-rheme structure is reversed or changed. We saw this with the discussion of subordinating conjunctions above. Other languages have freer or different word ordering conventions, of course.

We saw above that, in English, raising an element of a clause to the initial theme position marks it so we can have, for example We ate well in that restaurant in which the conventional topical theme, We , is where one would expect to find it and the elements of the clause are unmarked for any special consideration. However, we can also have: In that restaurant we ate well which raises the prepositional phrase adverbial to the theme and marks it. We can also have, e.g.: That restaurant is where we ate well which raises that restaurant to the marked theme position. We can also, and frequently do, mark the object of a verb as in, for example: Cigars are what she smoked or Cigars were smoked by her and in both those cases the normal canonical word ordering (Subject–Verb–Object) in English is disturbed for rhetorical effect. (That, incidentally, is just one use of the passive in English.)

Other languages do things differently. Tagalog (a language spoken as a first language by some 22 million people and as a second language by three times as many), to take just one example, typically places the theme in the final position in the clause (Lock, 1996: 227, drawing on Martin 1992). Even languages which are similar to English in terms of canonical word ordering such as Italian and Spanish, will often place the object of the verb in the initial position but that does not signal markedness – it is simply a feature of the languages. So, for example, in Italian it is common to find the object placed in what in English would be a marked theme position but which carries no particular emphasis. For example: No, la lasagna l'ha consigliata Elizabeth is literally No, the lasagna it recommended Elizabeth (Lock, 1996: 228, drawing on MacWhinney and Bates, 1984.)

Some languages, notably Chinese languages and Japanese, routinely place the topic (i.e., the theme) in the initial position of the clause but, it bears repeating, this does not carry any particularly significance in terms of marking. They are known, in the trade, as absolute themes, incidentally. So, for example, in Japanese, we find: Sakana wa tai ga ii which is translatable as: As for fish, red snappers are good and in which the particle wa marks the theme and the particle ga marks the subject of the verb.

Many Germanic languages also routinely place the time adverbial in what would be in English a marked initial theme position but which is not marked in those language, so, for example, in German we might encounter: Gestern bin ich nach Berlin gegangen which is, word for word: Yesterday am I to Berlin gone but the initial position of the noun adverbial does not single it out for particular attention as it would in English where placing tomorrow in the initial theme position endows it with more significance than it gets in the conventional final position. Compare: I went to Berlin yesterday in which we have the topical theme, I , and the conventional following rheme (part of which, Berlin , is quite likely to be the theme of the next sentence) with: Yesterday, I went to Berlin in which we have a multiple theme: a textual theme (the locational Circumstance, Yesterday ) and a topical theme, I . The act of inserting the textual theme raises the significance of the Circumstance in a way that it would not in many other languages.

There are two obvious implications:

Speakers of languages which differ from English in this respect may produce utterances in English in which an element appears, to a native-speaker ear, to be marked but is not intended that way.
Speakers of such languages may not grasp the significance of left positioning of elements in theme position in English and may, therefore, misinterpret what they hear or read, missing the communicative effect of marking one of the constituents.

So, for example, in response to: Can you do it next week? we might have: Next week I'm going on holiday which, in English clearly sets Next week as the marked theme (and implies No, I can't ). A speaker of a language which routinely places the time adverbial in the leftmost part of the clause may well miss the special emphasis that has been placed on the adverbial and assume that the holiday is the important element when it is the timing which the speaker wishes to mark by raising next week to the theme position.

Equally, a speaker of such a language may produce: Next week I'm going on holiday in the mistaken belief that it is equivalent to the English I'm going on holiday next week which it isn't, so a native-speaker listener may well spend a little time trying to work out what is so important about next week .

These differences are unlikely to result in full communication breakdown but they may well disturb the expected theme-rheme progression and disorientate the reader / hearer.

The positioning, in English, of given and new information parallels the organisation of theme and rheme insofar as the given generally occurs in the theme and the new in the rheme. For example, in A: Where did John go? B: He went to London to see his kids The opening textual theme is Where and the rheme is did John go . The rheme of the first speaker's comment forms the given theme of the response and the rheme of that response is the new information ( went to London to see his kids ). The exchange might go on in the same manner with each rheme taken up as the theme of the next speaker's utterance, like this: A: Are his kids with his ex-wife, then? B: Yes, she always has them over the summer holidays. and so on.

An allied conceptualisation is that English is strongly end focused in that new information is conventionally placed towards the end of an utterance but that has, arguably, less explanatory force than analysing conversational, and written, information ordering as the workings of theme and rheme. For more on end focus, see the guide to extrapositioning linked in the list of related guides at the end.

We have seen so far that:

Themes in cohesive texts, whether written or spoken, are conventionally formed from elements of the preceding rhemes. Introducing unassociated themes generally results in incohesive or incoherent speaking and writing.
Textual themes serve to add a layer of cohesiveness in addition to the coherence offered by logical theme-rheme relationships.
Placing any element other than the subject in theme position, in English, marks it as remarkable in some way, especially if its normal or canonical ordering is not to appear in the leftmost position.
Topical and textual and interpersonal themes may be combined to make multiple themes.

Knowledge of these four phenomena can contribute very positively to helping learners of English construct and comprehend texts.

In particular:

It is sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly what has gone wrong in learners' production (whether written or spoken) although it is clear that what they are saying or writing is obviously faulty but the grammar and lexical choice are good. The answer often lies in looking at how they are linking theme and rheme and what they are placing in the theme position based on the structures of their first languages.
Textual themes need attention in the classroom because they will vary significantly depending on the generic nature of the target text type. This means making sure that learners have, for example, mastered textual themes associated with consequences and logical connections before asking them to talk about or write about topics which demand them.
At first, the focus of almost all teaching is on the unmarked forms of the language, so that the canonical or normal ordering of elements is acquired. Sooner or later, however, all learners will need to know how to depart from the learned ordering to mark some elements as more important than others. How this is done varies greatly from language to language and has explicitly to be the focus of the teaching.
It denies the learners the opportunity to see how theme-rheme organisation affects markedness and communication
It is false information which will not help the learners
It will result in false intonation patterns across the sentences
Understanding that fluent and skilful writers and speakers will produce texts which are linked by thematic connections allows comprehension to proceed because the reader / hearer will be alert to the theme-rheme connections in a well-formed text.

One approach to helping learners to recognise and produce cohesive and coherent writing and speaking is to take a genre approach to skills work. This normally follows this kind of pattern:

I like the village where I live but I recognise that living here has both advantages and disadvantages. On the negative side, the place is quite remote and there are not many of the services that people who live in larger towns naturally expect. For example, there is no post office or bank and only one small minimarket. There is also no doctor or dentist. This means that we have to travel 10 kilometres to the local larger town to do our banking and most of our shopping, post letters and access healthcare. That's inconvenient and expensive. Another disadvantage of living in a village is that it is quite boring for my children because there is very little to entertain them. There's no sports field at all and neither of the cafés is really very interesting for them (although the older people meet up to gossip and chat in them). Consequently, most of the kids in the village take a bus to town in the evenings or at the weekend to meet their friends and drink coffee with them. That all costs money. Transport, too, is a problem because the local bus service is not very good and there are no trains. The bus only goes to and from town twice a day and the last bus at night is gone by 9 in the evening. This means that we often have to act as a taxi service for my children, taking them into town and bringing them home. On the positive side, village life is very relaxing. There’s almost no noise, especially after dark and getting to sleep is not a problem. It’s waking my children up that is the most difficult part! They have to catch the early school bus and they hate early mornings. Because the village is quite small, there are no parking problems. I just leave my car outside my front door and that’s not something you can do in most towns. The village is very friendly, too. There is a real sense of community because everyone knows everyone and looks out for them. People meet outside their houses or in the café and sometimes they just walk in for a chat and a cup of something. There’s always something to talk about. Living here is cheaper, too, because house prices are lower than in towns and most of our neighbours grow their own vegetables and keep chickens. Free vegetables and eggs are always welcome. There also isn’t so much temptation to spend money! Finally, although transport is not good, we can be in the countryside in a 5-minute walk from our front door. All our family enjoy that and in the winter, we go skiing almost every weekend. In the summer, having lazy picnics is what we like most. All in all, I wouldn’t change where I live. I think there are more advantages than disadvantages to living here.

Staging and structure This is a discussion and it follows quite a simple set of stages. Here, you could get learners to identify each of the following sections: Statement of the issue Arguments against Arguments for Coda and personal statement of preference This is not too challenging but it may be worth pointing out that we could reverse the ordering of the arguments or entwine disadvantages and advantages in separate paragraphs.
A textual theme: On the negative side
A topical theme: the place
Types of themes We saw that this topic sentence contains two themes and it is worth spending a little time identifying them although there is little need to use the meta-language of topical and textual themes. It is enough if the learners can identify that the first signals the type of discussion which follows (a minus point) and the second signals the subject (communicatively and sometimes grammatically) of what follows.

Textual themes Because this is a Discussion text, focusing on both sides of an issue, the important textual themes to look for are those which present contrasts, examples, alternatives, additions and consequences. Providing some examples and eliciting or explaining their functions is the place to start before asking the learners to locate the others. For example: Paragraph 1: but Paragraph 2: and, also, On the negative side, This means, For example Paragraph 3: because, although, Consequently and so on. A little work distinguishing between conjunctions and conjuncts would be helpful here if the learners are capable of it. Some work categorising the devices in terms of whether they introduce example, consequence or contrast is also needed. Sequencers, too, can form a separate category.

Writing themes and passing them on to a classmate to write the rheme. For example: The school is next to the station ... ... which is easy to find
Speaking a theme and getting a classmate to provide a relevant rheme. For example: I've just had a call from my brother Oh, what did he say?
First clause: She and her mother have taken the early train to London ...
A: ... because they need to be there before 9
B: ... and they like travelling together
C: ... and her mother will go shopping
Skeleton or gapped sentences to expand by inserting textual themes and other elements. For example: Put these words in the right places: consequently, surprisingly, so __________ she gave up her holiday willingly. __________ the work was managed in time __________ the boss gave her an extra week off in the autumn.
Reordering paragraphs or sentences so they are coherent as well as cohesive.
Matching points to examples by, for example, removing the examples in our model text above and getting the learners to put them in the right places depending on the topic sentences of each paragraph.
Finding synonyms of rheme elements which form the themes of following statement such as problem-issue inconvenience-difficulty advantage-plus point printer-machine hobby-pastime etc.
Finding hypernyms (superordinates) and associated hyponyms such as: car-vehicle means of transport-train place-town hall walk-saunter etc.
Tracing lexical cohesion by lexical sets and fields. The model text has, for example: services: bank, post office, minimarket, doctor, dentist etc. positive adjectives: relaxing, quiet, friendly etc. activities: skiing, chatting, meeting up, acting as a taxi service etc.
Starting with simple sentences and adding adverbials to make them more information rich. For example, expanding: We went to London into: Last Tuesday we, my whole family and I, went by train to London in the morning
Combining simple sentences to make compound, complex and compound-complex sentences. For example, combining: We saw the hotel. My sister got married in the hotel to make: We saw the hotel where my sister got married

After a series of lessons like this (about 8 hours' work depending on the learners' abilities) you are ready to take a different genre, such as Narratives, Procedures or Information reports and repeat the process.

Up to now we have focused on written texts but the concepts of theme and rheme are also important in the practice of speaking skills because the ability to identify a speaker's topical and textual themes but especially any interpersonal themes is key to understanding intentions. The ability to signal such meanings is also, of course, an aid to being correctly understood. A beginning can be simply awareness raising of what the speaker is signalling in something like this:

Once learners are alerted to the nature of the three types of theme in these little examples (and it is not too difficult to make up or find lots more of the same kind) some practice can be done with role plays in which the participants are told:

what their topic is
how they feel
what they are connecting together

For example:

Carefully controlled but also semi-free exercises like this are, again, not too difficult to invent providing one bears the three sorts of themes in mind.

References: Brown, G and Yule G, 1983, Discourse Analysis , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Butt, D, Fahey, R, Feez, S, Spinks, S and Yallop, C, 2001, Using Functional Grammar: an explorer's guide, Sydney: NCELTR Halliday, MAK, 1994, An introduction to functional grammar : 2nd edition, London: Edward Arnold Lock, G, 1996, Functional English Grammar , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

7th Grade Common Core Worksheets

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts (ELA) provide a framework of educational expectations for students in reading, writing, and other language skills. The goals of the CCSS ELA are broken out by grade and subject area, including Reading: Literature, Reading: Informational Text, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language, as well as expectations in additional subject areas such as science and technology, history, and further writing areas. Seventh and eighth graders are expected to master reading and analyzing fiction and non-fiction books, be able to execute complex writing and grammar skills, branch out into new technologies and collaborations in their oral presentations, and continue to deepen the complexity of their reading choices. See the subheadings for each ELA category for more information on the specific expectations for students.

7th Grade Language

7th grade reading: informational text, 7th grade reading: literature, 7th grade speaking and listening, 7th grade writing.

Homework for ESL Students – 10 Ideas for Teachers

Meet David De’ Ath , founder, editor, and writer at Wonderful World English. With his extensive background as an English teacher, David provides valuable insights and practical tips on ESL for students and teachers alike.

Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) is an enriching venture and offers students the ability to access global opportunities.

Homework in ESL is crucial, serving as a bridge between classroom theory and practical language use.

It’s essential for reinforcing learned concepts and enhancing general language proficiency.

To make this learning journey both effective and enjoyable, it’s important to craft homework tasks that are engaging and tailored to diverse learning styles.

This approach helps to maintain students’ interest and motivation, which are key to successful language acquisition.

These ESL homework ideas are designed to enhance language learning and engage students both in and out of the classroom: Daily journaling, vocabulary flashcards, reading comprehension, listening to podcasts/songs, video diaries, role-play scenarios, grammar worksheets, online games, book club discussions, and a pen pal program.

I am an experienced ESL teacher, and I can attest first-hand to the importance of self-study, homework, and review.

Our carefully selected ten homework ideas aim to transform routine learning into an exciting adventure.

These activities are more than just assignments; they’re interactive experiences designed to deepen students’ understanding of English.

From creative writing to practical exercises, these tasks are intended to make learning English a dynamic and enjoyable process, paving the way for a richer, more confident use of the language.

Homework Ideas for ESL Students

ESL students need more than just traditional classroom lessons.

Homework is a vital part of their language development and serves as a bridge between acquired knowledge and practical application.

The following homework ideas are designed to captivate students’ interest, deepen their understanding, and enhance their fluency in English in the classroom and real-life situations.

Let’s dive into these creative and effective homework strategies that promise a richer, more interactive language learning experience:

1. Daily Journaling

This is a great idea to engage students by embracing the habit of maintaining a daily journal.

Writing about their daily experiences, emotions, thoughts, or selected topics can sharpen their writing skills while learning to articulate their feelings and ideas in English.

This journaling process serves a dual purpose: it strengthens their grasp of the language and provides a personal space for self-expression.

As they regularly engage with this practice, English becomes an integral part of their daily routine and will facilitate a more natural and fluent use of the language in their everyday lives.

This activity bolsters their linguistic abilities and fosters a deeper connection with English as a medium of personal reflection and expression.

Writing is a huge aspect of mastering a language.

For a guide on how to improve writing skills for yourself or your students, click the link below!

Related Article: How to Sharpen Writing Skills – Full Guide

2. Making Flashcards

Students can develop their vocabulary skills through the classic and effective method of creating flashcards.

This exercise involves students writing down new words and their meanings on individual cards.

They can add illustrations or use words in sentences to make the learning process more engaging and impactful.

This visual and contextual approach helps better retain and understand new vocabulary.

By regularly reviewing these flashcards, students can gradually build a robust vocabulary base, which is essential for fluency in English.

This method will reinforce their word knowledge and encourage active engagement with the language, making vocabulary learning a more interactive and enjoyable experience.

Flashcards are suitable for students of all ages and can be fun.

For some great insights on effectively teaching ESL students vocabulary, the guide below is for you!

Related Article: How to Teach Vocabulary to ESL Students – The Guide

3. Reading Comprehension Exercises

Immerse more advanced students in the world of English reading by assigning short stories or articles complemented by comprehension questions.

This exercise is pivotal in enhancing their reading skills and deepening their understanding of various contexts in English.

Students encounter different writing styles, vocabularies, and themes by engaging with diverse texts, enriching their language experience.

The follow-up questions serve to test their understanding and encourage critical thinking about the content.

This approach bolsters their ability to comprehend English texts and stimulates their analytical skills, making them more adept at interpreting and engaging with the language in its written form.

Such reading exercises are fundamental in helping students gain confidence and proficiency in navigating English literature and media.

4. Podcasts and Songs

Teachers can offer listening exercises in their curriculums by using English podcasts and songs.

This method exposes students to a variety of accents, speaking speeds, and vocabulary in a natural context.

After listening, students can engage in activities like writing summaries or answering questions about what they heard.

These post-listening tasks are crucial for enhancing their comprehension and retention.

This approach is great at improving listening skills while making the learning process more enjoyable and relatable.

By regularly interacting with authentic English content, students develop a better ear for the language and learn to appreciate its rhythm and nuances in different forms of media.

This not only aids in language acquisition but also connects them culturally to the English-speaking world.

Check out the guide below for a list of the BEST English podcasts!

Related Article: Best Podcasts to Learn the English Language in 2024 (Top 10)

5. Video Diaries

This one encourages students to create short video diaries as a regular assignment.

This task provides them with a platform to practice speaking about a variety of topics in English.

Whether they choose to talk about their daily life, share opinions on current events, or discuss their hobbies, these video diaries offer a unique opportunity for students to engage actively with the language.

This activity not only improves their spoken English skills but also significantly boosts their confidence in using the language.

It helps them to overcome any hesitation or fear of speaking by providing a safe, personal space to express themselves.

The process of recording and watching their own videos can also be a powerful tool for self-evaluation and progress tracking.

This innovative approach to language learning empowers students to become more fluent and self-assured English speakers.

6. Role-play in Real-world Scenarios

Ask your students to prepare role-plays that mimic real-world scenarios, such as shopping, ordering food, or making appointments.

This practical approach to learning takes them beyond the confines of traditional classroom exercises and immerses them in everyday situations. T

Through role-playing, students get to practice conversational English in a structured yet dynamic context.

It allows them to apply their language skills in practical situations, enhancing their ability to communicate effectively in real-life settings.

This method is particularly effective in familiarizing them with common phrases and vocabulary used in daily interactions.

Additionally, role-playing can be a fun and interactive way to learn, helping to reduce the anxiety often associated with speaking a new language.

By engaging in these simulated experiences, students gain confidence and fluency, which are crucial for their overall language development.

7. Grammar Worksheets

This is a classic form of homework for ESL students, to offer them worksheets that concentrate on specific grammar points, such as verb tenses, sentence structure, or prepositions.

Regular practice with these worksheets is instrumental in solidifying their understanding of English grammar.

This methodical approach allows students to focus on one aspect of grammar at a time, ensuring a thorough grasp of each concept.

Such targeted exercises help correct common mistakes and deepen their comprehension of the language’s structure.

By consistently working through these grammar worksheets, students build a strong grammatical foundation, which is vital for effective English communication.

This foundational knowledge enhances their writing and speaking skills and boosts their confidence in correctly using the language in various contexts.

For some tips on how to teach grammar to ESL students, we’ve put together a guide to help teachers everywhere!

Related Article: How to Teach Grammar to ESL Students – Teacher’s Guide

8. Online Games

Motivate your students to engage with educational language games available online.

These games offer a fun, interactive way to learn and practice English.

Students can improve various language skills through game-based learning, including vocabulary, grammar, reading, and even listening comprehension.

The interactive nature of these games makes the learning process more enjoyable and less intimidating, especially for younger learners or beginners.

As students play, they receive immediate feedback on their performance, which helps reinforce correct usage and understanding.

This approach enhances their language skills and keeps them motivated and engaged in their learning.

Online language games provide a dynamic and enjoyable way to supplement traditional learning methods, making language practice an activity that students can look forward to.

For some ideas of classroom games, both traditional and digital, check out the guide below!

Related Article: Fun Classroom Games to Play – Teacher’s Guide

9. Book Club

Another great idea is to start a book club in your class, where students can read and discuss a common book.

This collaborative activity enhances their reading skills and promotes critical thinking and group discussion skills in English.

Choosing books that are appropriate for their language level, the book club encourages students to dive into stories and themes, expanding their vocabulary and comprehension.

Discussing the book with their peers allows them to share perspectives, articulate their thoughts, and engage in meaningful conversations in English.

This interactive and social approach to learning also builds a sense of community among the students, making English learning a shared and enjoyable experience.

The book club thus becomes a platform for growth, not just in language proficiency but also in cognitive and social skills.

10. Pen Pal Program

The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world.

This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers.

Through exchanging letters or emails, students practice their writing skills in a real-world context, learning to express their thoughts and ideas clearly in English.

This regular interaction not only improves their language proficiency but also offers valuable insights into different cultures and lifestyles, enhancing their cultural understanding and global awareness.

The pen pal program is more than just a language exercise; it’s a bridge that connects students across cultures, promoting international friendships and broadening their perspectives.

This kind of cultural exchange can be a highly rewarding and motivating experience, encouraging students to apply their language skills in meaningful and authentic interactions.

You can reach out to other teachers on platforms like LinkedIn and see if they would be willing to start a pen pal initiative for both them and your students.

The homework ideas presented for ESL students transcend the traditional concept of assignments.

They are designed as interactive learning experiences that not only build language skills but do so in a way that is practical, enjoyable, and highly effective.

Integrating these varied activities into the ESL curriculum allows teachers to cultivate a dynamic and nurturing learning environment.

Such an approach encourages students to actively engage with the English language, not just within the confines of the classroom but in their everyday lives as well.

Promoting this kind of immersive learning experience makes students more likely to develop a lasting proficiency and a genuine appreciation for the language.

These activities, therefore, play a crucial role in shaping confident, competent English speakers who are prepared to navigate the global landscape.

We hope you find value in this article; let us know if you require any assistance.

Have a wonderful day!

Image Attribution: All images licensed via canva.com

Don’t miss out!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

EL Education Curriculum

You are here.

ELA 2019 G8:M3:U2:L4

Write an Informative Essay: Plan Body Paragraphs and Conclusion

In this lesson, daily learning targets, ongoing assessment.

Technology and Multimedia

Supporting English Language Learners

Materials from previous lessons, new materials, closing & assessments, you are here:.

ELA 2019 Grade 8
ELA 2019 G8:M3
ELA 2019 G8:M3:U2

Like what you see?

Order printed materials, teacher guides and more.

How to order

Help us improve!

Tell us how the curriculum is working in your classroom and send us corrections or suggestions for improving it.

Leave feedback

Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

RL.8.2, RL.8.5, W.8.2b, W.8.2f, W.8.4, W.8.5

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

RL.8.1, RL.8.10, W.8.10, SL.8.1, L.8.5
I can identify the structure and purpose of each part of a Proof Paragraph and use this understanding to plan the Proof Paragraphs of my own literary analysis. ( W.8.2b )
I can identify the purpose of each part of the conclusion of a model literary analysis and plan the conclusion of my own literary analysis. ( W.8.2f )
Work Time A: Analyze a Model: Proof Paragraphs 2a and 2b ( W.8.2 )
Work Times A and B: Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer ( W.8.2, W.8.2f, W.8.5 )
Closing and Assessment A: Informative Writing Checklist ( W.8.2 )
Analyze a Model: Proof Paragraphs 2a and 2b
Strategically pair students for the peer critique in Closing and Assessment A with at least one strong reader per pair.
Review the Informative Writing checklist ( see the Tools page ).
Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

Work Time A and B: Convert Informative Writing Plan graphic organizers and invite students to complete them in an online format—for example, http://eled.org/0158 .
Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 8.I.B.6 and 8.I.B.8.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

To support ELLs, this lesson follows a structure similar to the previous lesson. Students continue to analyze a model essay and then apply their learning to the planning of their own informative essays on the similarities and differences in theme and structure in Maus I and "Often a Minute" and the way in which these contribute to meaning. The lesson also includes time for peer feedback and collaborative discussion to help students improve their writing while also practicing oral skills.
ELLs may find it challenging to understand portions of the model essay. While Summer of the Mariposas will be quite familiar to students, the poem that this text is compared to in the model is not something students will have a deep understanding of. Encourage students to focus on the structure of the essay and the way in which the author crafts points about similarities and differences. Remind students that for their own essays, they are working with texts that they know well.
Homework: Structure and Meaning: "The Owl" (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Homework A)
Model Literary Analysis Essay: Relationship of Structure to Meaning (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
Structure anchor chart (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Closing and Assessment A)
Structure anchor chart (one for display; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Closing and Assessment A)
Literary Analysis Informative Essay: Sample Student Response (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Work Time B)
Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Work Time B)
Characteristics of a Literary Analysis Essay anchor chart (one for display; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
Homework: Structure and Meaning: "The Owl" (one per student; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Homework A)
Model Literary Analysis Essay: Relationship of Structure to Meaning (one per student; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
Maus I (text; one per student; from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
Close Read: "Often a Minute" note-catcher (text; one per student; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 2, Work Time A)
Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer (one per student and one for display; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 3, Work Time B)
Informative Writing checklist (one per student; from Module 3, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time B)
Analyze a Model: Proof Paragraphs 2a and 2b (for teacher reference)
Homework: Structure and Theme: "In Flanders Fields" (answers for teacher reference) (see Homework Resources)
Analyze a Model: Proof Paragraphs 2a and 2b (one per student and one for display)
Homework: Structure and Theme: "In Flanders Fields" (one per student; see Homework Resources)

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Get updates about our new K-5 curriculum as new materials and tools debut.

Help us improve our curriculum..

Tell us what’s going well, share your concerns and feedback.

IMAGES

Language and Structure
PPT
Structure, language & word class GCSE English
Worksheet Identifying Text Structure 1
Structured Literacy
Language structure and use activities • Teacha!

VIDEO

English homework Danna Jami Theme: My favorite food
Mastering HTML: A Beginner's Guide to HTML Structure
[VOCALOID] Kagamine Rin Lost One's Weeping [Japanese Romanji English Lyrics]
Theme of Communication in Waiting for Godot
How does the language that we speak shape the way we think?
Teacher Tips for Encouraging Student Reading and Literacy

COMMENTS

Collaborative Discussion: Structure, Language, and Theme in Poetry and
To support ELLs, this lesson provides teacher-led and peer-collaborative analysis of the structure, language, and themes in the poem "Hope" by Georgia Douglas Johnson. While analyzing poetry may be challenging, the teacher and peer support throughout the lesson will help ELLs successfully participate in the analysis.
Close Read: "Often a Minute"
Homework: Language, Structure, and Theme (one per student; see Homework Resources) Assessment . Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students ...
Unit-at-a-Glance Detail
A. Group Discussion: Structure and Theme: Maus I - RL.8.5 (10 minutes) 4. Homework. A. Read a Poem and Answer Questions: Students complete Homework: Language, Structure, and Theme to answer questions about "Often a Minute" and Maus I. I can determine the theme of a new poem and analyze its development over the course of the text. (RL.8.2)
Theme Worksheets
The theme of a story is a message that the author is trying to express. The author does not explicitly state the theme. To discover the theme, the reader must make some deductions concerning events in the story. Identifying the theme of a story can be challenging. Fortunately, as with all reading skills, practice makes perfect.
Theme
A theme is a universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature. One key characteristic of literary themes is their universality, which is to say that themes are ideas that not only apply to the specific characters and events of a book or play, but also express broader truths about human experience that readers can ...
Exploring Setting: Constructing Character, Point of View, Atmosphere
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts. 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. 12.
Understanding Theme
A Theme is a statement of the central idea or message in fiction, narrative or poetry. It is usually not stated explicitly, but rather developed through the characters, plot, narrator's point of view, and language. It differs from a Topic which is the subject matter being written about, and a Thesis which is an contentious.
13 Entertaining ESL Homework Ideas to Keep Your Students Engaged
12. Analyze a Song. Music is great for English learners since it stresses many aspects of language that can otherwise be hard to isolate, like the emotion of language, intonation and stress. Have students choose their favorite English language song to listen to for homework and then ask them to do the following:
What are the theme, language, sound, rhythm, and structure of "The New
Expert Answers. The Statue of Liberty provides the context for Emma Lazarus 's poem "The New Colossus.". Lazarus wrote the sonnet in 1883 to raise money for the statue's pedestal. Now ...
Analyze Structure, Language, and Theme: "Hope"
RL.7.4 - Work Time A: Students analyze the figurative language in the poem "Hope.". RL.7.5 - Work Time A: Students analyze the poem "Hope" to determine how structure contributes to the meaning. SL.7.1 - Closing and Assessment A: Students use new Conversation Cues to engage in a collaborative discussion about "Hope" and their ...
ELT Concourse: theme and rheme
The first theme is the prepositional phrase (or locational Circumstance) On Monday because it the scene-setter for all that follows. It is the jumping off point for the rest of the text. Part of the first rheme is a meeting and that becomes the theme of the next sentence, replaced by a demonstrative pronoun, this.
Common Core Worksheets
7th Grade Common Core Worksheets. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts (ELA) provide a framework of educational expectations for students in reading, writing, and other language skills. The goals of the CCSS ELA are broken out by grade and subject area, including Reading: Literature, Reading: Informational Text ...
Write an Informative Essay: Plan Introduction and Body Paragraphs
Refer to the Homework: Language, Structure, and Theme (example for teacher reference). Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as in previous lessons.
What are the language, tone, structure, themes, imagery, and symbols in
Get an answer for 'What are the language, tone, structure, themes, imagery, and symbols in "The Migrant" by A.L. Hendriks?' and find homework help for other Poetry questions at eNotes.
Homework for ESL Students
10. Pen Pal Program. The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world. This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers.
Analyze Structure, Language, and Theme: "Calling Dreams"
RL.7.5 - Work Time A: Students engage in a whole class discussion about the poem "Calling Dreams" by Georgia Douglas Johnson, focusing first on how the poet structures the poem to create meaning. RL.7.4 - Work Time B: Students work as a class to analyze the figurative language of "Calling Dreams.". L.7.5c - Work Time B: Students ...
Pointers to setting effective homework
The EEF is clear that setting homework for primary learners has minimal impact. This has been gleaned from numerous studies, reviews and meta-analysis across a range of schools. However at secondary, the impact of homework, set appropriately, has an increasing impact for students and beyond and can add between five and eight months' progress!
Write an Informative Essay: Plan Body Paragraphs and Conclusion
4. Homework. A. Read a Poem and Answer Questions: Students complete Homework: Structure and Theme: "In Flanders Fields" to answer selected and constructed response questions about language, structure, and meaning. Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson
Full article: The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework
Abstract. Two special issues of PRIMUS focus on The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework Assignments. In this introduction to the first issue, we discuss the tensions facing instructors today surrounding homework design and implementation and provide an overview of recent PRIMUS articles published on the subject. Using the notion of "learning goals" as an organizing theme, we ...
Could you analyze the language, structure, tone, imagery, symbols, and
Get an answer for 'Could you analyze the language, structure, tone, imagery, symbols, and themes in Imtiaz Dharker's poem "These Are the Times We Live In"?' and find homework help for other Poetry ...