Grade 1 Reading Comprehension & Fluency: Theme and Purpose
12 printable 1st Grade reading comprehension worksheets on Theme and Purpose. The first three are free to download; All Access opens all 12.
Practice pages support a program; they are not the lesson. These sheets reinforce Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency — Grade 1, the complete K–5 reading curriculum from Faith Readers. See every program →
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Teaching Theme and Purpose
What it is
The theme is what a story is really about underneath its events, courage or honesty or forgiveness, and the purpose is why the writer wrote it: to tell, to explain, or to persuade. Neither is stated in so many words.
When a child is ready
Teach it once the child can state the main idea of a passage and support it from the text.
If they struggle
Ask what the character learned, then say it again as a sentence about anyone rather than about that character; that second sentence is the theme. For purpose, ask whether the writer was telling, explaining, or trying to change the reader's mind, and find the line that shows it.
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