Reading Closely to Develop Themes

Have you ever noticed how “themes” in life change over

time?

What are some themes in your life that have changed over time?

If you rethink the theme you’ve begun to follow, and revisit your text with that theme in mind, you’ll no doubt see things you didn’t see the first time. Among other things, you’ll find that the one theme you were tracking may actually change (or evolve) as the text unrolls.

Themes evolve, they change, not just across a text—they also change across life.

Connection-Evolution of Theme

Charlie’s Story…I started thinking about how I have themes in my life and how the they evolve over time. Like I have this theme of feeling like I don’t fit in. When I look at just one part of my life, I can see things about not fitting in that are different from when I look at another part of my life. By looking closely at certain parts of my life where fitting in was a big deal, I can see so much more than when I just think in general about that issue in my life.

For example, I can see that when I was younger I just plain felt like I didn’t fit—I was the new kid a lot, I was different than other kids, I was shy. Then, when I was a teenager, I wanted so badly to fit in and I tried really hard. So it was like I was fitting in, I had friends and stuff, but inside I felt apart and a little lonely, like I had this secret self. And then in college, I found that by learning to be myself, the right people would fit with me, that I didn’t have to do anything but be me (and have a thick skin). When I look more closely at certain parts of my experience, I see that really what I have learned about fitting in is that while not fitting in is painful, it helps you to define who you are. That in some ways, the pain of not fitting in can be the best thing in the world.

Today I am going to teach you that literary essayist dig deep into texts they are writing about: they go back and “fish out” small moments, complicated moments, and look at them with a fresh eye. They use their insight to analyze the complexity and come up with bigger questions and deeper meaning

This is what's is entailed in writing about theme—reading closely to see how your thinking about the theme evolves and what details you may have missed initially.

Teaching Point

Remember this video?

What I want you to take from this video…

To find deeper meaning you have to practice insight and acknowledge complexity.

Go back to your Book Club novel and fish out small moments, complicated moments and line them up in your mind. Now practice insight, acknowledge complexity, and arrive at big ideas. Deeper meaning is closer than you think.

The ability to arrive at an intuitive understanding of a big idea, using only small clues to get there

Situations are complicated due to social forces like relationships, moral codes, personal desires, and power structures. Multiple factors shape what is true.

Previously, you went through several steps to find themes in your text. You…

found a problem or issues .

reflected on parts of the text that pertained to the issue.

asked yourselves what they story aimed to teach you about the issue.

wrote long to grow your ideas.

The next step is to go back and look a little more closely to see what is hiding in the text.

To do that, it helps to look for multiple scenes in the story where it issue is present.

Teaching

Get out the anchor chart on page 5 of your packet so that we can review and look at the next step.

Teaching

We’ve already collected examples and made personal connections while writing long.

Now…we must go back and do a closer reading and write long again

So if I am thinking about how jealousy hurts people in “All Summer in a Day,” I might list a few scenes that I think are critical scenes for that idea.

What do you all think? Which scenes or moments would you call critical scenes for the idea that jealousy hurts people?

By returning to these details in the text, our thinking about the theme grows.

Watch how my thinking unfolded…

How does this work?

My idea about jealousy was good, but not great, IT WAS A DRAFT TO GET STARTED! YES, EVEN TEACHERS DRAFT!

By starting off KNOWING that I MUST go back to the text and look at details, my idea grows, making it more interesting and making my writing better.

So far…

So let’s choose the scene where they explain why the children don’t like Margot (who has seen the sun, who hasn’t, and why).

I am going to reread this part. While I do, look for details that connect to the idea that jealousy hurts people.

“And then, of course, the biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had been only two years old when last the sun came out and had long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it really was. But Margot remembered.”

Let’s try it together

This passage is making me think that my original idea is off a bit.

In order to make it work, I have to practice the strategies of pushing myself.

I am going to write out some of my thoughts, pushing myself to connect the idea I am having with the details I have pulled from the text.

Thinking

At first I thought the theme was that jealousy hurts people, but I think it is more that that. The kids see Margot’s memory of the sun as almost a crime against them, like she is doing this to them.

I want to write more about this, but I am unsure how to keep going.

I am going to use that chart on page 8 to help me.

I am going to try one of these: “consequently, maybe…, or this is significant because…,” to keep me going.

Thinking

Consequently, their jealousy is so big and so painful that they can’t see that Margot is just a little kid who lived on Earth longer. This is significant because their jealousy makes it so they can’t see anything but their own hurt. Maybe this is something the text is teaching us too—that jealousy makes you blind to other people? Or maybe it is that jealousy makes you selfish.

I like how I went from “jealousy can hurt people” or “can make you mean” to “Jealousy can make you selfish and blind to other people.”

That feels like a more interesting idea to examine.

Writing Long Example:

First I chose a few scenes that were critical to my idea.

Next, I reread one scene closely, thinking about how the theme worked in this one episode.

Last, I wrote long about my thinking in hopes it would go further.

In summary…

Now it’s your turn…

Let’s practice with another scene from “All Summer in a Day”

When you read the next scene, think about the jealousy theme and how it works in this part.

When you are done reading, turn and talk with your neighbor about the theme.

You Try with “All Summer…”

“Will it be seven more years?”

“Yes. Seven.”

Then one of them gave a little cry.

“Margot!”

“What?”

She’s still in the closet where we locked her.”

“Margot.”

They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances.

The scene…

Start with the emotions or traits that the problems might bring out in people.

What does jealousy make people feel in this bit?

Use the thought prompts to push

your thinking.

Turn & Talk…then Share

(page 8 in your packet)

You have some ideas, but I think saying more might help you have better ideas. Let’s see how using thought prompts can make your thinking more powerful.

Let’s look.

Jealousy makes you feel bad.

Let’s look at the chart.

What if I asked you to take the thought prompt, “This is significant because…uh..”

See where it takes you.

Think about why this matters in the story.

How about, it’s significant because at first you think that the jealousy is like, they’re right but then you see that hurting other people doesn’t really make them feel better.

Push Your Thinking…

Remember that themes are a universal issue that we can all relate to:

Coming of age

Love

Responsibility

Hope

Survival

Before you start this work using your book…

Get started right now on your own themes from your selected text. Take a moment right here and right now to work with your partner to choose some scenes that you think are important to a theme you think you want to analyze—and you and your partner can choose different themes. Don’t worry about choosing a whole bunch of scenes—just be sure that you choose 3 scenes that fit with the theme that each of you decide to study.

Choose your own scenes…

Lesson 2 Assignment

List and describe 3 scenes from your book where your theme is depicted.

Go back, find the scenes, and record the page numbers.

Lesson 2 Assignment

Lesson 2a

Today, I want you to start closely examining the scenes that you’ve collected from your novel

Remember to zoom in on these critical scenes to see what they reveal about the theme.

You need at least 2 pages written in your notebook.

Tomorrow we will write more about theme and settle on the a few possible exact theme statements (claims) you’ll write your thematic essay about (include in your thesis).

Once you are done closely reading one scene, move to another scene that is also related to that theme. Once you are done with one theme, see if you’re satisfied with you work…are there other scenes that you could read to collect information on this theme? Should you move to another theme and think of scenes and write about them?

You’ll certainly write another two pages of entries today.

Heads up—by the time you come into class tomorrow, you’ll need to have settled on two possibilities for a claim, a thesis, around which you will write a major literary essays.

The work you do today will help you to clarify a theme that you are sure is embedded in the text, and that matters to you.

The work you have been doing lately has been powerful—sometimes profoundly thoughtful—and it will all culminate in a major essay fairly soon.

The Process

Look at the Teacher Mentor Essay on pages 10-11 in your packet.

I am telling you this because many of you are writing about themes that are big lofty ideas...they aren’t specific enough.

When you use very small and precise details, it brings your issue to light.

Look and see how the essay does this.

Mid-Workshop

You’re writing an essay (1-3 pages long), not a dissertation…

Lesson 2a Assignment

Write long for at least two more pages after you’ve closely examined each scene from your book.

Start to brainstorm about your thesis statement for your thematic essay and

come to class with some ideas.