Central Themes Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: RL.7.2

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

Themes of a story are the underlying message of the story that can be found throughout the complete body of work. The themes are the impression that the readers are left with. This is often an emotional connection the readers share. If you talk with other people, you will find that many readers view a story differently. While a story may scare one reader, other readers are excited by it. The impression left by central themes is often a very subjective feeling. These worksheets will help students identify and take away central themes from others works.

Central Themes Worksheets To Print:

What's Going On? – How life changed once email sprang up.

Dumb New World – Are people dumber because they have on demand information every where?

What are Phages? – A little germ science for you.

Janet Guthrie – Have you ever heard of her? Ever heard of the "Indy 500"?

School Prayer – A controversial topic with many differing thoughts.

Central Ideas – Highlight or underline key ideas in each passage.

Apology – I still can't believe that Socrates was ever accused of "corrupting youth".

A Vision for the Country – A look at JFK's thoughts and process.

The Jealous Athlete – What is the central theme of the story?

Tear Down This Wall – Regan's speech centered at the USSR in 1989.

The U.S. President and Power – Power can change people very quickly.

The Music of Tyrtaeus – There are several central themes in this story. Identify the themes and explain how they are developed.

Romance – A little Poe to actually brighten your day.

Advances in Transportation – Many people think that new, innovative technologies drove the Industrial Revolution, but in fact the Industrial Revolution depended heavily on improvements in transportation.

Understanding Theme – Identify the central theme of the passage and discuss how that theme is developed.

Determining the Central Theme of a Reading


The central theme of any content is its idea, main message or any other important information that the writer wants to convey through it. As the central theme focuses on the main idea of the content, one needs to determine the central theme accurately. In case of a simple and easy content, theme can easily be identified but in cases otherwise, it is a little tricky to identify the central theme. Given below are some methods that will help the readers to determine the central theme of any reading easily and efficiently.


Summarization


The first thing that will help many beginners to determine the central theme of a text is its summary. Summarize each part and chapter of the content separately and keep the summary as brief as possible, preferred length of the summary to locate the central theme is about two to three lines. Include all the important information in the summary and then use this summarized text to determine the central theme of your reading.


Identifying the Topic


To determine the central theme, the most important thing is to understand the topic and to find the answer to the question that asks what your content is all about. Use the answer to this question while determining the central theme of a reading. It is also advised to read the foreword of the book as it gives the readers an idea about the content as a whole.


Finding the Characters


After figuring out the subject of a text, try to identify those characters around which the story or content mainly revolves. As the central theme of the content is reflected by its characters, you can use these characters to determine the central theme of the text overall.


Looking for Repetitions


Since a central theme is the most important part of the content, the author is likely to repeat it several times. Look for the information or idea that is being repeated. Determine the central theme based on these repetitions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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