Unit Plan 19 (Grade 7 ELA): Finding and Tracking Theme
Grade 7 ELA unit: students identify and analyze how a theme develops across a text, citing evidence to support their ideas. They write precise, objective summaries that explain how key events and details reveal the theme.
Focus: Theme development across a text; evidence-based summaries
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Literature)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Theme isn’t a one-word topic—it’s a claim about life the text develops over time. This week, students learn to state theme precisely, track how it develops through character choices, conflict, setting, and repeated images, and produce objective summaries that highlight how key events and details contribute to the theme.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Determine a theme and analyze its development across a text; write an objective summary (RL.7.2).
- Cite several pieces of textual evidence and explain how each one contributes to the theme (RL.7.1).
- Read and comprehend grade-level literary texts with increasing independence (RL.7.10).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7
- Reading Literature 7.2 (RL.7.2): Determine a theme/central idea of a text and analyze its development; provide an objective summary.
- Reading Literature 7.1 (RL.7.1): Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis.
- Reading Literature 7.10 (RL.7.10): Read and comprehend literature (stories, dramas, poems) at the 6–8 text complexity band.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can write a theme statement (topic + claim about life) and not just a topic.
- I can track how the theme grows or shifts using specific evidence.
- I can write an objective summary (no opinions or evaluations) that shows how events build the theme.
- I can read challenging texts using strategies (reread, annotate, discuss) to reach understanding.