iRubric: Identifying The Theme - scoring guide rubric

incomplete, missing, vague, too short, not enough information

You have identified an a possible topic that could be a theme, but you have not made a clear statement, e.g.: "the value of friendship" - but what is the author saying about the value of friendship

AND/OR - the theme you tried to identify is based on just one section, part, or scene in the story, not the entire story

You have identified a key theme from this story, though your explanation was too specific to this one story, and/or not generalized enough to apply to other stories, probably you just need to revise the theme statement a bit to be more concise:

e.g. the different attitudes of people affect your life by teaching you different things whether for the better or worse.

Becomes: People learn something from all relationships, good or bad.

You have identified a key theme from this story in a concise way, your theme statement could be used by others when examining other stories.

You have identified a key theme from this story in a concise way, your theme statement could be used by others when examining other stories. Moreover, you have connected the theme to other writers, or in some way talked about how this theme has been used in the past, or connects to an ideology or belief system of the author.