Summarizing Theme

In a piece of narrative text, what is the "theme"?

• What the story is about
• The topic of the text
• A message the author is trying to get across to the reader
• Where and when the story happens

Which of these would be a good example of theme in a story?

• math is difficult
• if you steal, something bad will happen to you
• pets make people happy
• respect for others

During a baseball game, Tanner tried to tag a player leaving first base. When the umpire called the player out, Tanner immediately informed the umpire that he in fact did not tag the runner. Two weeks later, the very same umpire was at another one of Tanner’s baseball games. Tanner was playing short stop and tagged a runner as they approached third base. When the umpire called the player safe, Tanner didn’t say a word, but the umpire noticed the surprised look on Tanner’s face. “Did you tag the runner?” she asked Tanner. When Tanner told her that he did tag the runner, the umpire changed her decision and called the player out. The coaches and parents were furious, but the umpire stood by her decision.
What is the theme?

• You should cheat to win.
• Always work hard.
• It pays to be honest.
• Teamwork is best.

A novel can have more than one theme.

• TRUE
• FALSE

A theme should always be written as...

• A sentence or statement
• A phrase
• One or two words
• A brief summary of 5-8 sentences. 

A well written theme statement includes character's names and the author.

• TRUE
• FALSE

Summaries help me...

• understand what I'm reading
• write about what I read
• include the key points of a text
• all of the above

Which of the following statements about SUMMARIZING is false?

• The Summary is one isolated thought in a passage.
• The summary is normally shorter than the original document 
• The Summary is what the passage is mostly about.

A good summary is.. that the original. 

• shorter
• longer
• the same size

Right now Jason was playing right field. He really wanted to play third base. Earlier this year, coach had put him in left field and second base in a game, but never at third base. Once in practice, coach let him play third base, but he kept missing ground balls. When he did stop one, he made a bad throw to first base. Maybe if he kept practicing, Jason would be good enough to play third base. That was his dream.

The central idea of this passage is:

• Jason really wanted to play third base.

• Jason was the best player on his team.

• Jason had trouble catching ground balls.

• Jason was too lazy to practice.