Combine this unit's skills by writing an objective summary of a short text and stating its theme as an objective claim, without opinion or invented detail.
This is a checkpoint week -- a chance to run the unit's two central skills back to back on a brand-new, short text: an objective summary (only what the text states, in your own words) and a theme statement (a general claim about life the text supports, not a personal reaction to it). There is no new trick to learn today, just proof that both skills hold up on unfamiliar material.
The fable of the North Wind and the Sun makes a clean test case. The Wind and the Sun argue over which of them is stronger, and agree that whichever can make a traveler remove his cloak wins. The Wind blows as hard as it can, but the traveler only clutches his cloak tighter against the cold. The Sun simply shines warmly, and the traveler soon removes the cloak on his own.
Mastery looks like: They can independently produce both an objective summary and an objective theme statement for a new short text, without reteaching.
Common stumbles: Letting an opinion slip into the summary under pressure, or falling back on a single topic word instead of a full theme sentence.
See it visually
Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.