CER -tainly I'd love to help you write a CER paragraph! 

Step one: start with a word, or maybe a few words that might be related to each other in regards to a lesson in the story. What do you think the main character learned about? Choose 3 boxes to highlight max, otherwise it may be too many!  

generosity

Hope 

Love 

Trust

Pessimism 

Truth 

Choice 

Knowledge 

arrogance

Change 

sameness

Identity 

Narcissism 

Wisdom 

Justice 

Fear of the unknown 

Poverty 

Friendship 

Faith 

redemption

Resentment 

destiny

Forbidden love 

Hard work

Madness 

Good vs evil 

Ethics 

Death 

Violence 

Jealousy 

Grief 

Beauty 

Good vs evil 

Bravery 

Productivity 

Failure 

Balance 

Coming of age 

Adversity 

Betrayal 

Racism 

Motherhood 

Peer pressure 

Propaganda 

Equity 

communication

companionship

corruption

Challenge 

legacy

loyalty

loneliness

Vices 

Will power 

Truth and Lies 

Generational Trauma 

Past affects Future 

Secrets 

Control 

Bias 

Discrimination/ Prejudice/ Racism

Atonement (fixing one’s mistakes) 

Perspective 

Privilege 

Bravery 

Strength 

Way more, click link here 

Step two:Build a theme statement using the words you chose: 

•  {MAIN CHARACTER} changed throughout the story by learning ______________________

  • But! We don’t love character names in the theme statement. Remember they are not just learning the lesson, it is also the reader who is too! And in your writing, ANYONE could read it, so we make theme statements about what all humans can learn from this. 

    • ex) Rebecca learns knowledge is power

    • ex) all humans must come to understand that knowledge is power

    • ex) one must realize that knowledge is power 

  • Avoid using YOU as well in theme statements 

    • One

    • Humans

    • Human behavior shows 

    • All people

    • A community will

    • Most people

    • Many of us

Step three:Revise the above statement to make it work for all humans, not just the people in the story. 

• eThrough reading "STORY" By AUTHOR humans learn that _______________

Step four: Class it up! Make it fancy Revise the above statement to increase the complexity of your theme statement. 

Ways to phrase 

• “One must acknowledge” 

• “There are two sides to every situation…” 

• “When analyzed further one realizes that…” 

• “All humans need to understand that…” 

• “This text reminds us that…” 

• “This text teaches us that…”

The next step is to provide context! If I had never read the book before, what is some information you need to provide about the book, setting, character, or problem to make sure I understand what evidence you’re going to discuss! (the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY) or the Somebody wanted but so then method! 

Not more than 3 sentences!

• This story is about…

Now, look for some pieces of evidence within the story to help support or prove your theme statement from MONDAY. Rank them to decide which evidence is the best to prove your theme statement. 

Best Evidence 

OK Evidence 

Worst Evidence 

choose one piece of evidence to use. Highlight it. How does it THOROUGHLY explain the theme statement? (about 3 sentences) 

• In this scene the main characters are doing… going… talking about…

• The reason they say/ask this is because…

• This shows that [NAME]  feels______ in this moment…

• The most important part of this quote is…

• This proves the theme statement because…

• 
  

End your explanation with a statement about all humans 

• This story proves that humans at times…

• With all this in mind, it seems that…

• Taking this lesson into one’s own life, we all need to…

• {AUTHOR} is asking all of us to…