As we have finished reading the novel, today we worked on citing textual evidence of situational irony , writing a practice essay , and stating a theme in a full sentence. First, I directed David to the text and we discussed the disparity between Kino's high expectations and the reality of the pearl. David then located the negative references to the pearl as "gray, malignant , and ulcerous" -the ironic reality. Next, we discussed how to state a theme and possible subjects for themes of the novel-greed, and the impermeable class structure. David then constructed two thematic statements using these ideas. Last, I distributed a practice essay on the novel. We worked on creating a topic sentence and constructing sentences with details, clear plot references, and transition phrases.