Teaching Students to Identify the Theme, Author’s Purpose, and Character Traits

Table of Contents

1. Why Interpret and Reflect on the Reading?
2. How to Teach an Author’s Message and Theme
3. What Teachers Look For When Students Identify a Theme
4. Common Themes for Elementary Readers
5. Deep Questions About Theme
6. Books, Movies, and Songs for Teaching Theme
7. The Purpose of Literature
8. Understanding Author’s Purpose and Point of View
9. Questions to Determine Purpose and Perspective
10. Teaching Character Traits and Character Analysis
11. Positive and Negative Character Traits List
12. How Students Identify Character Traits
13. Why Character Traits Matter
14. Core Character Traits for Students
15. References

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1. Why Interpret and Reflect on Reading

Starting in second grade, students begin to interpret and reflect on what they read. Learning to identify the author’s message and theme builds a strong reading foundation and supports critical thinking skills.

Benefits:

• Builds Critical Thinking: Students move beyond the plot to uncover deeper meaning.

• Improves Reading Comprehension: Understanding the author’s message highlights key ideas and the story’s purpose.

• Develops Empathy & Perspective: Themes explore universal topics such as kindness, courage, and fairness.

• Strengthens Communication: Explaining the theme improves speaking and writing skills.

• Connects Reading to Life: Students apply lessons to their own experiences.

• Prepares for Advanced Analysis: Early exposure supports success with more complex texts later.

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2. How to Teach Author’s Message and Theme

Author’s Message
The author’s message is the lesson or point the author wants readers to learn from the story. For example, a story might teach, “Listen to your parents,” or “Always tell the truth.” These messages are specific to that story.

Theme
The theme is the universal idea behind the story—something that can apply to other books, stories, or life situations. Examples include respect, kindness, courage, and honesty.

Tip for students: Think of “the me” in theme—it’s the idea you can take with you and use in your own life.

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Interpreting a Story

Interpreting involves inferring, or using clues from the text and prior knowledge, to understand the author’s lesson.

• What lesson did the character learn?

• What evidence from the story supports this?

• What is the big idea the author is teaching?

Ask students:

“State what the character learned, and use your background knowledge to identify the big idea.”

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Reflecting on a Story

Reflection helps students determine what matters most and explain why.

• What is the most important message of the story?

• What lesson is the author trying to teach?

• What was the most important event?

Advanced readers justify their thinking with evidence, connecting events to the story’s resolution.

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3. What Teachers Look For When Students Identify a Theme

• A clearly stated theme (the universal idea)

• Evidence from the text that supports the theme

• Inference of unstated character traits when relevant

• Higher-level thinking that explains why the theme matters

4. Common Themes for Elementary Readers

These are examples of universal ideas that appear in many stories. When teaching the theme, help students connect the story’s events to these big ideas:

• People all have similar needs—kindness, safety, and belonging

• Friendship and loyalty matter—supporting and trusting others

• Family is important—caring for relatives and respecting family values

• Bullying or prejudice is wrong—learning empathy and fairness

• Hard work leads to success—persistence and determination

• Honesty is the best policy—telling the truth even when it’s hard

• Believe in yourself—confidence and self-motivation

• You can overcome struggles—resilience and problem-solving

• Follow your dreams—ambition and goal-setting

• Kindness improves the world—helping others and making positive choices

Tip for teachers: Connect each story to one or more of these themes, and encourage students to explain how the story illustrates the theme.

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5. Deep Questions About Theme

Asking questions helps students go beyond surface-level understanding and reflect on the author’s purpose and the story’s lesson:

• What lesson does the author want readers to learn?

• How do kindness and helping others appear in the story?

• Does good overcome evil, and how?

• What life lesson does a character learn?

• What obstacles does the main character overcome?

• Is there a climax where the main conflict or lesson becomes clear?

• What moral or life lesson does the story teach?

• How does the protagonist solve problems?

• Is there an antagonist, and what role do they play in teaching the lesson?

Tip for students: Encourage them to use text evidence and their own experiences to answer these questions.

6. Books, Movies, and Songs for Teaching Theme

Picture Books

• Faithful Elephants—Yukio Tsuchiya
• Fly Away Home—Eve Bunting
• The Old Woman Who Named Things—Cynthia Rylant
• The Raft—Jim LaMarche
• Mr. Peabody’s Apples—Madonna
• Old Turtle and the Broken Truth—Douglas Wood
• Fables—Arnold Lobel

Movies

• The Lion King—responsibility
• Babe—redemption
• The Emperor’s New Groove—humility
• Antz—friendship
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory—greed
• A Little Princess—imagination and resilience

Songs

• “Hero” — Mariah Carey
• “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” — Green Day
• “I Hope You Dance” — Lee Ann Womack
• “Cats in the Cradle”—Harry Chapin
• “Hold On” — Wilson Phillips

7. The Purpose of Literature

• A mirror to reflect on life problems
• A source of knowledge
• A challenge to ideas and beliefs
• A way to explore the past and the future
• A vehicle to other places
• A tool to reflect on inner struggles
• An introduction to life and death realities
• A way to discuss social issues

8. Understanding Author’s Purpose and Point of View

Author’s purpose: Why the text was written

The author’s point of view: How the author feels about the topic

• Entertain: Characters, setting, problem, solution
• Inform: Facts: who, what, when, where, why, how
• Persuade: Opinion + reasons

Get free worksheets for the author’s purposes here:

9. Questions to Help Students Determine Purpose & Perspective

• Why do I think the author wrote this?
• What clues show how the author feels about the topic?
• How is my perspective similar or different?
• What might be an alternative perspective?
• Why do I believe that?

10. Teaching Character Traits and Analysis

Character traits are adjectives describing how a character consistently behaves, thinks, or feels.

11. Positive and Negative Character Traits List

Positive Traits	Negative Traits
Accepts authority, loyal, devoted	Rebellious
Affectionate	Distant, cold
Ambitious, motivated	Self-satisfied, unmotivated
Caring, considerate	Uncaring, inconsiderate
Courageous, confident	Fearful, indecisive
Honest, trustworthy	Dishonest, deceitful
Responsible, self-disciplined	Irresponsible, undisciplined
Optimistic, positive	Pessimistic, negative
Friendly, social	Unfriendly, distant
Respectful, fair	Disrespectful, unfair

12. How Students Identify Character Traits

• What does the character say and do?
• What do they think and feel?
• How do they treat others?
• How do other characters respond?
• How does the character make me feel?

13. Why Character Traits Matter

• Predict behavior
• Explain motives
• Analyze character impact on plot
• Make inferences
• Understand the story more deeply

14. Core Character Traits for Students

• Responsibility
• Perseverance
• Caring
• Self-discipline
• Citizenship
• Honesty
• Courage
• Fairness
• Respect
• Integrity
• Patriotism

15. References

• Cairney, Trevor. Literature as a Means to Understand People Different from Yourself. Link
• DRA2 Manual, Pearson Publishing, 2006.
• Scholastic. “Teacher to Teacher Ideas in the Top Teaching Blog.” Accessed Oct 31, 2012.

Reading Comprehension Strategies: A Complete Instructional Guide 

 

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