Theme
Theme
What is the message the author wants the reader to take from the story?
Setting Includes
What are time period, location, culture, social conditions, weather, and atmosphere
Connotation
What is the emotional feeling attached to a word?
Intentionally Choose
What are where to begin, what to skip, and where to end?
Perspective
What is the author's beliefs, attitudes, or viewpoint about people, society, themes, and events.
Theme Development
What are character decisions, conflict, setting, symbolism, dialogue, plot events, tone/mood
Protagonist
What is the main character that drives the story and experiences the central conflict
Mood
What is how the reader feels about the story?
Structure Affects
What are suspense, theme, pacing, reader understanding, and emotional impact
Perspective Shapes
What is characterization, tone, conflict, mood, and reader sympathy
Questions to Ask
What are what lesson did the character learn or what does the author seem to believe about life?
Antagonist
What is the thing that opposes the protagonist and could be society, nature, fear, guilt, or another character?
Tone
What is how the author feels toward the story?
Starting Point Analysis
What are to avoid unnecessary information, jump directly into conflict, create mystery, or to force reader curiosity?
Perspective Questions
What are who is portrayed positively, who is portrayed negatively, what ideas seem rewarded or criticized, and what emotions does the author encourage readers to feel?
Theme Formula
What is topic + author's message about topic = theme?
Character Development
What is how characters change, grow, or reveal themselves over time.
Things to Notice
What are adjectives, verbs, imagery, figurative language, and repetition?
Ending Point Analysis
What are to emphasize theme, leave ambiguity, create emotional impact, or to force reader interpretation?
Perspective Clarification
What is false? Perspective is not always directly stated.
Example of Theme
Student answers will vary, but this should be a complete sentence.
Character Development Questions
What are what does the character want, what challenges them, and what did they learn?
Important Connection
What is word choice shapes tone and tone shapes mood?
Authors choose what readers . . .
What is see, hear, know, and do not know?
Infer Perspective
What is through tone, word choice, characterization, outcomes, and symbolism?