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February 11, 2011 at 7:31 a.m.
Beth Newingham

Claudia (comment #5),

Thanks for your comment about topic vs. theme. It is my understanding that
the subject of the literary work is the topic the author writes about, while the theme is a statement about or an opinion on the topic (a lesson or moral underlying the plot). It is an idea that may be expressed by the feelings, thoughts and conversations of the main character. It may also answer the question, "What does the main character learn in the course of the story?" For example, the topic of a fiction story may be football, but the main character might learn a lesson about honesty, perseverance, teamwork, etc.

However, I do understand that you would prefer that the lessons learned/themes be written as statements rather than single words. My original posters (which I reference in the post) are written this way, but I changed them a couple of years ago to match the life skills we teach at our school. Here is a link to my old theme posters, written as phrases instead: http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/indexthemesold.htm

If I get a chance today, I will try to add these posters to this post as well.

-Beth

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