Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In addition to this work with theme, the resource includes a writing assignment paired with a second graphic ogranzier. Find out if your kids think that The Cay should be read by sixth graders and why.

Concepts

literary themes, literary elements, central ideas, main ideas, the cay, theodore taylor, arguments

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Additional Tags

the cay, theodore taylor, theme, central idea, argument, claim, english language arts

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Pros

• Easy-to-use graphic organizers provide scaffolding
• A great starting point for teaching Common Core skills

Cons

• While these ideas provide a good start with theme and argumentative writing, class members will most likely need more instruction as scaffolding to fully understand these concepts
• Each page has the word draft printed across the text in light gray; you will need to transfer the graphic organizer to another document or retype it

Common Core

RL.6.1 RL.6.2 RL.6.10 W.6.10 SL.6.1.a SL.6.1.b SL.6.1.c SL.6.1.d L.6.2.a L.6.2.b