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Institute for Learning

Analysis of Theme: Degrees of Happiness (Grades 7-8)

Analysis of Theme: Degrees of Happiness (Grades 7-8)

$6.25 USD
$6.25 USD
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Students extend their understanding of theme by focusing on how plot, character, and structure work together to develop themes. A key part of work for students includes studying the methods authors use to develop characters’ perspectives about the complexities of happiness. The unit culminates in a performance task in which student writes across texts by Julia Alvarez and Maurice Kilwein Guevara.
  • Four literary texts
  • 4-6 weeks instruction
  • Literary 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 particular elements, like plot and character, interact to develop the theme as well as how a text’s structure (poem or prose) contributes to its meaning. Students also learn how to write essays about their analyses of themes.

This unit is also about analyzing literary characterizations. Through the course of this unit, students deepentheir understanding of the methods used by authors to develop different characters’ perspectives.

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

  • How do the themes develop in these texts?
  • How do particular elements interact to develop a theme?
  • What methods does an author use to develop and contrast points of view of different characters?

For their final assessment, students will read another narrative poem and short story and be given an on demand task to write an essay that compares and contrasts how a common theme is developed in each ofthe texts.

What content will students learn?

Students will expand their knowledge base about:

  • how various authors develop themes over the course of texts.
  • how various elements of a narrative interact to help develop theme.
  • how a text’s structure contributes to its meaning.
  • how various authors develop and contrast the points of view of different characters.
  • features of essays that provide an analysis of how a common theme develops over the course of two different texts. 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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