English K–12

[Jazzy music]

[2 constables are taking photos of a crime scene]

[Clicking of camera]

Police chief –What have we got here, constables?

Constable 1 – Unidentified theme found loitering in this text here.

Constable 2 – No one saw it come in, no one saw it go out. I'm afraid there's no way of identifying it, chief.

Police chief – Never say never constable! We'll just have to do some serious detective work. What clues do we have?

Constable 1 – Let's see, we've got plot, characters, setting, language.

Police chief – Tell me about the characters.

Constable 2 – We've got three little pigs and a big wolf.

Police chief – Mm-hmm, and the setting?

Constable 2 – A house made of straw, a house made of sticks and a house made of bricks.

Police chief – And the plot?

Constable 1 – The three pigs build a house. The first two rush and build their houses out of straw and sticks. The third pig takes it's time, carries heavy bricks and stacks them carefully into a solid house.

Police chief – Anything else?

Constable 2 – Yes! A wolf comes and blows down the first two pigs' homes, but the third pig's house stays put!

[Bell rings]

Constable 1 – By gum, I've cracked it! The theme is house building.

Police chief – House building! My dear sweet constable, that's not the theme. That's the topic!

Constable 2 – What's the difference?

Police chief – A topic is what the content is about, while the theme is the message of the text. It invites us to think about our own lives and what we value.

[Swoosh sound]

Constable 1 – So what message is the author trying to send us here?

Police chief – Hmm, let's see. We've got a polite wolf and three pigs building houses. Two rush their builds, a third doesn't. That third pig is the only one who's house doesn't get blown down by the wolf. It wins. The other pigs lose.

[Bell rings]

Police chief – I think we've identified a possible theme!

Constable 2 – We have?

Constable 1 – Things aren't always what they seem, because the nice wolf turns out to be a bad wolf?

Constable 2 – I thought the theme, was be prepared for danger.

Police chief – Yes, it could be either of those, but the theme could also be, taking your time to do something right, pays off!

Constable 1 – Ah chief?

Police chief – Yes constable.

Constable 1 – Now that we've identified a theme, what do we do?

Police chief – We see what it tells us about our lives and if we agree or disagree with it. Does taking time to do things right, payoff?

Constable 1 – Well, to start off with, I was like the first two pigs and rushed to conclusions, and said the theme was house building.

Constable 2 – But now we've done our detective work properly, we've succeeded! Taking our time to do things right, does pay off.

Police chief – Yeah!

End of transcript