Understand Theme by Asking Critical Thinking Questions

Theme is a message shown or lesson learned in a text, a universal truth; often it is implicit and needs to be interpreted by the reader.

There are often several themes within a text. One type of theme we will be exploring is a social theme, a truth or idea about a problem or issue in society. To help explore a social theme, choose one of the following questions: 

Critical Thinking Questions: As you read, choose a question to focus on, and take notes to help you answer it.

1.       Is this story fair? Why/why not?

2.       How does this text address the points of view (perspectives) of other groups, especially those who usually don’t get to tell their side?

3.       How does this text make you think about justice in the world?

4.       Whose perspective is missing in this text? What would it be like if we put it back?

5.       How does this text deal with individuals and groups? Are the people acting alone and in competition with one another, or does the text help us imagine people working together?

6.       How does money figure in this text?

7.       Are there groups you belong to in this text? What do they look like here? If your own groups are missing, what would they say if they were in the book?

8.       What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?

9.       How different are people allowed to be in this text? Does it assume everyone is happy and good in the same ways?

10.    If the character in your book has problems, can you see how those problems are about having or not having money, struggling with others for power, or being cheated or helped by society’s rules?

11.    Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown?

12.    At what points do you notice yourself resisting the book, characters, or author? What does your resistance say about the book, and what does it say about you?

13.    How does this book help you to think about social issues you care about or causes you are committed to?

 From For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action by Randy Bomer and Katherine Bomer

Task:

• apply this question to your independent reading book; go back and take notes on parts of the text that relate to the question; continue reading and add more notes
• create a synthesis page based on one or more than one related questions; include focus, evidence, analysis, connections, questions, and new understandings