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Institute for Learning

Analysis of Theme (Grades 9-10)

Analysis of Theme (Grades 9-10)

$6.25 USD
$6.25 USD
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This unit asks students to work with character and theme in deeper and more nuanced ways than they have done in middle school. Students’ work focuses on analyzing how the characters develop, interact with other characters, and advance the texts’ themes. This unit culminates in an independent performance task in which students analyze the development of a theme in a short story by Kate Chopin that they read independently.
  • Three literary texts
  • 4-6 weeks instruction
  • Literary analysis writing

What is this unit about?
As you might have guessed from the title, this unit is about analyzing theme. Through engaging in the unit, students learn to analyze how themes develop over the course of a text, including how they emerge and are shaped and refined by specific details. Students also learn how to write essays about their analyses of themes.

This unit is also about character. Through the course of this unit, students deepen their understanding of character and learn to analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or theme.

In this unit, students will read, write about, and discuss three short stories to deepen their understanding of the following big questions:

  • How do the characters develop in these texts?
  • How do these characters advance the plot or theme?
  • How do themes develop over the course of these texts?

For their final assessment, students will read an additional short story and be given an on-demand task towrite an analysis of a theme.

What content will students learn?

Students will expand their knowledge base about:

  • how various characters develop in short stories.
  • how various authors use characters to advance the plot or theme of a story.
  • how various authors develop themes over the course of texts.
  • features of essays that provide an analysis of how a theme develops over the course of a text. Features include a statement of a valid theme; an analysis of the development of the theme with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient evidence; appropriate and varied transitions; introduction; conclusion; and a formal style and objective tone.
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