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English · Grade 6

Theme and Literary Structure

Learners follow an original story about a girl who refuses to explore her new neighborhood until a tree survey changes her mind, and study Robert Frost's public-domain poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” They map plot episodes and character change, trace how details develop a theme across a text, explain what particular sentences, scenes and lines contribute to the whole, and write objective summaries.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 95 minutes
  • Theme and structure check: 9 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, highlight a text, match pairs, put in order, sort into groups and write a short answer
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What learners will discover

  • Determine a theme and explain how it is developed through particular details over the course of a text.
  • Write an objective summary that leaves out personal opinions and judgments.
  • Describe how a plot unfolds in a series of episodes and how a character responds or changes as it moves toward a resolution.
  • Analyze how a particular sentence, scene or line fits into the overall structure and contributes to the theme, setting or plot.

Lessons

  1. How the plot unfolds 6 steps3 practiceabout 24 min
  2. How details build a theme 6 steps3 practiceabout 24 min
  3. What each part contributes 6 steps2 practiceabout 24 min
  4. Objective summaries 5 steps3 practiceabout 23 min
  5. Theme and structure check 9 questions at the end

Keep exploring

Games to practice with

More 6th grade reading

Guide for grown-ups