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How to Teach Themes in Your Classroom

If you're a teacher looking for fun and effective ways to teach themes to your students, you've come to the right place. We will explain what we mean, their importance, and how to teach them effectively in your classroom.

Themes are essential for students to understand the context of things and learn how to apply their knowledge and skills in meaningful situations. They can be best taught in schools where students can be taught in a structured manner. This will help them relate things they learn in school to the real world and understand and retain more information.

Let's first look at what they are and the benefits of teaching in this mannerl.

What Are Themes?

They are the central idea that is explored in a piece of writing. For example, the theme is centered on certain elements like the main characters, plot, etc. For students, it is best to keep the definition of themes as simple as a message or idea behind a story.

The author or writer very directly defines themes. They need to be identified by putting the smaller puzzle pieces together to see and understand the big picture.

The process of learning in this way begins at an early age for kids. For example, when they are told stories, parents often tell them the main idea behind it: friendship, loyalty, honesty, courage, acceptance, etc. These are some common examples of themes.

Once kids learn how to identify themes, they will be able to identify the central idea in stories, movies, and even real-life situations.

Why Is It Important to Teach This Way?

1. Teachers Students to Make Deeper Connections

Themes teach students how to make connections between different activities and encourage them to develop new ideas and ways to extend or build on their learning. In the process of learning, students are constantly trying to make connections between their experiences. They encourage and promote this natural learning process.

Students study a wide variety of subjects and topics, some of which can be overlapping. This is where themes come into play. They help students draw deeper connections between themselves. They also encourage students to see how the words around them are interconnected, encouraging creativity and innovation.

2. Helps in Making Discoveries

Themes encourage students to be better thinkers and help them make one thought-provoking discovery after another.

As they make discoveries, their pool of knowledge widens, and they use it and apply it in the real-world context, making more discoveries. This is a continuous process of learning and discovering new things every day.

3. Teaches Meaningful Application of Knowledge and Skills

Themes enable students to apply their knowledge and skills to the real world as they begin to draw connections between them and recognize the interconnectivity in everything around them.

Knowledge without an understanding of its context and application is meaningless. They can be used to bridge this gap, help students relate to the real world and retain their knowledge better.

4. Generates Curiosity and Encourages Learning

Themes encourage students to be more curious, think for themselves, and explore more ideas. They move from one idea to another and build on different topics by asking more questions and making more connections between things. Leaning in this manner is a continuous process of learning.

5. Prepares Students to be Better Researchers in the Future

Themes encourage curiosity and asking more questions which is the essence of research. As students progress, they will be required to do research in a more structured manner, involving drawing from concepts and making inferences between them. Hence, learning themes prepares them to be better future researchers, which is required at all stages of learning.

How To Do It?

Here are some effective ways you can use in your classroom to teach themes effectively and help your students understand the depth of what they are being taught.

1. Focus on Specific and Concrete Details

To teach themes, students need to grasp details of the plot, characters, and story setting. Teach them how to focus on underlying ideas and messages in stories. For example, the themes in “Cinderella” are good versus evil and how good luck changes your life.

While teaching this story, students can be taught to identify the central characters and ideas in the story and outline these elements in drawing or flow diagrams to show sequence.

2. Make Use of Essential Questions

Themes can be taught effectively using essential questions which are open-ending and thought-provoking for students. For example, in Cinderella, you can ask questions like "what makes a character evil?" or "what makes a character good?" As you read more, their answers are likely to evolve.

3. Use Visuals

You can use visuals like anchor charts to help students remember the connections that are found around the stories. Printable anchor charts are readily available online and are a great way to teach.

Click here to download free anchor charts for your students!

4. Encourage Students to Disagree with Themes and Share Their Arguments

While teaching themes, remember that not all students would derive the same message or conclusion. So, to promote learning, you must give students the confidence to discuss their opinions and disagree with things.

5. Assign Books with Specific Themes and Hold Discussions

Encourage and assign books to your students with the specific themes you want to teach! You can also connect different books in much the same way during classroom discussions.

6. Teach Themes Movies

Have movie sessions in the class with some popcorn to teach themes. After the movie is over, you can have activities revolving around the foundations you have explored. For example, you can give a worksheet to students with a list of topics and ask them to tick the themes they have watched in class.

To Wrap Up

Teaching themes is a fun way to teach and learn. It encourages students to understand the deeper meaning of things around them and make connections in their everyday lives. Good Luck!