Theme Tree

A theme graphic organiser

The theme goes in the root; every branch has to carry a piece of the book that proves it. Children find naming a theme easy and proving one almost impossible - a tree with one branch is a theme they made up.

A branch without evidence is a guess. The shape makes an unsupported theme look as thin as it is.

Two trees on one sheet. Big enough to write on every leaf, so a pair can compare two themes.

Theme, not plot. The commonest error, and the structure catches it immediately.

Build the tree on the whiteboard · printing two blank ones is free to try

The sheet it prints

The printable theme tree sheet - two trees, each with a root box for the theme and six leaves to write evidence on.

What is the theme of a story?

The theme is what a story is about underneath what happens in it. The plot of Holes is boys digging holes in a desert; the themes are fate, friendship and injustice. A theme is usually a single abstract noun, it is never stated outright in the book, and the same story can carry several at once.

Why do children confuse theme with plot?

Because the plot is the thing they can see and the theme is the thing they have to build. Asked for the theme of Charlotte's Web, a child will very reasonably say "a pig and a spider" - that is the answer to a different question, and nobody has shown them which question they are being asked.

Two tests sort it out quickly. A theme should be sayable in one word or a short phrase with no character names in it. And a theme should be portable: if it could not possibly apply to any other book, it is a plot summary. "A boy is sent to a camp" fails both. "Loyalty is repaid" passes both.

How do you find evidence for a theme?

The branches are the hard part and they should be. Four kinds of evidence worth teaching, in roughly increasing order of sophistication:

An event that shows the theme happening.
A line of dialogue where a character says something close to it.
A choice a character makes that cost them something - strongest of the four, because it shows the theme mattering.
A repetition - the same idea returning in different chapters. If a child spots one of these unprompted, make a fuss of it.

From the classroom

I stopped asking "what is the theme of this book?" and started asking "which of these three is the strongest theme, and prove it?" - giving them three plausible candidates up front. The open question produced a guess and then a hunt for anything that fitted it. The closed one produced comparison, and comparison produced actual evidence. It also means every child starts, which the open version never managed.

What themes work with primary books?

Five themes that appear clearly enough in primary texts for children to actually prove them, with the books where each is easiest to find. Keep the list on the wall and make children choose from it before they are allowed to invent one:

Theme	Where it shows up clearly
Friendship and loyalty	Holes, Charlotte's Web, The Boy at the Back of the Class
Courage, and what it costs	Kensuke's Kingdom, Wolf Brother, The Firework-Maker's Daughter
Belonging and being an outsider	Wonder, Varjak Paw, The Iron Man
Fairness and injustice	Street Child, Holes
Growing up and letting go	Goodnight Mister Tom, Tom's Midnight Garden

Keep the list on the wall and make children choose from it before they are allowed to invent one. Free choice of theme, too early, produces thirty versions of "being kind".

How do you make it harder or easier?

Supply the theme and let them find the evidence to begin with. Then offer three themes and make them choose. The hardest version is proposing their own and defending it, at which point the tree becomes the plan for a Point, Evidence, Explain paragraph. Watch for theme collapsing back into moral - "be nice to people" - which is not wrong but is not the skill; that is the sign to model another one before letting them loose.

Try it now

Give three groups the same book and three different themes, then let them present. The class arguing about which theme the evidence actually supports is a better lesson than any of the trees.