4.01 Discussion: Theme in "Rules of the Game" Remember that a story's theme is a big idea or message that the author intends to convey to readers. A story can have more than one theme. You'll be using a discussion to determine and analyze themes from Amy Tan's short story "Rules of the Game." The goal for this discussion is to infer a theme based text evidence, to explain your reasoning, and to reflect on the ideas of your classmates.

Let's read one of your classmates’ posts:

I think a major theme in "Rules of the Game" is that parent-child relationships have an element of strategic conflict in them. In the last image in the story, Waverly imagines a chess game with her mother. The last line in the story is "I closed my eyes and pondered my next move." This line indicates that Waverly knows she must be careful and thoughtful when going up against her mother. Do you agree with me?

Create one original post in which you

State a theme from "Rules of the Game."

Cite the text evidence that supports the theme.

Create two response posts in which you

Respond respectfully and meaningfully to the post of a classmate. You can agree or disagree with a post and state why, or you can ask a question about the post. You might also note how a classmate's post supports or contradicts your own and explain how it does so. Another idea is to suggest how consulting research material might help you and your classmates determine the themes of the story.

Use the discussion rubric to understand how you will be graded