Kentucky Reading and Writing RL.7.2

ELA7th GradeReading Literature

The Standard

Determine themes of a text and analyze their development through citing textual evidence, paraphrasing or summarizing.

Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Key Ideas and Details

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify more than one idea about life in a story. They track how each idea builds across key scenes. They use quoted or paraphrased details to support their reading.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students state two distinct themes as full ideas, not single-word topics. For each theme, they use an early and a late scene and explain how the idea develops.
Common Misconceptions: Students write “kindness” instead of a theme claim. They retell events without explaining how an idea develops. They may use one scene to support both themes without explaining the connection.
How to Assess It: After reading “Thank You, Ma’am,” ask students to name two distinct themes. For each, have them paraphrase one early and one late detail and explain what changes.

Lesson moves

Give pairs colored sticky notes to mark moments of trust and second chances in “Thank You, Ma’am,” then place the notes on a story timeline.
Ask partners: Does Mrs. Jones’s trust change Roger, or does her kindness matter more? Which scenes support your answer?
Play a theme match game with cards for Roger’s attempted theft, the meal, and the money; students match events to theme claims and justify each match.
Give students a cafeteria scenario where someone takes another student’s snack; have them compare a second-chance response with Mrs. Jones’s response.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to RL.7.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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