Identifying Themes
Authored by Darcy Siggers
English
6th Grade
CCSS covered
Used 1K+ times
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About
This quiz focuses on identifying and understanding literary themes in stories, specifically targeting 6th grade English Language Arts students. The questions assess students' ability to distinguish theme from other story elements, recognize universal truths and life lessons embedded in narratives, and differentiate between theme and main idea. Students need to understand that themes are broad, universal concepts that transcend specific stories and cultures, often expressed as complete statements about life or human nature. The core skills required include close reading comprehension, abstract thinking to extract deeper meanings from concrete story events, and the ability to generalize specific character experiences into universal life lessons. Several questions incorporate classic fables like "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper," requiring students to move beyond literal plot comprehension to identify the moral teachings these stories convey across generations and cultures. Created by Darcy Siggers, an English teacher in the US who teaches grade 6, this quiz serves as an excellent formative assessment tool for measuring student comprehension of one of literature's most fundamental concepts. Teachers can deploy this quiz as a warm-up activity to activate prior knowledge before diving deeper into theme analysis, as guided practice during theme instruction, or as a review tool before summative assessments on literary elements. The quiz format works particularly well for homework assignments, allowing students to practice theme identification independently, or as an exit ticket to gauge daily learning. This assessment directly supports Common Core standards RL.6.2, which requires students to determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development throughout the narrative, and RL.6.9, which involves comparing and contrasting texts in different forms or genres in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.
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14 questions
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1.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
Which of these things is not related to the "theme" in a story?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.2
2.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
What is the theme of this story?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.9
3.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
What is the theme of this story?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.9
4.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he would die of thirst. Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink.
What is the theme?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.2
5.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
One summer's day, a merry Grasshopper was dancing, singing and playing his violin with all his heart. He saw an Ant passing by working hard to store food for the winter. “Come and sing with me instead of working so hard,” said the Grasshopper “Let’s have fun together.” “I must store food for the winter,” said the Ant,“ and I advise you to do the same.” “Don’t worry about winter, it’s still very far away,” said the Grasshopper, laughing at him. But the Ant wouldn’t listen and continued to work. When winter came, the starving Grasshopper went to the Ant’s house and humbly begged for something to eat. “If you had listened to my advice in the summer you would not now be in need,” said the Ant. “I’m afraid you will have to go without supper,” and he closed the door.
What is the theme?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.2
6.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
What is the main difference between THEME and MAIN IDEA.
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.2
7.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
2 mins • 1 pt
What is the best definition of THEME?
Tags
CCSS.RL.5.2
CCSS.RL.5.9
CCSS.RL.6.2
CCSS.RL.7.2
CCSS.RL.4.2
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