Thematic Units in the Classroom

During my 1998 summer "off" from teaching, I became involved with the Writing Project at an area university. This tuition-paid workshop course (taught throughout the United States) is designed to better teaching through contacts with fellow teachers and struggles with writing assignments. (I will write an article concerning the Writing Project in spring 2000). During this course, each class member presented a workshop on a teaching method or tool that had proved useful in the classroom. One very interesting presentation included an introduction to thematic units. This week's article will deal with the answers to the following questions concerning thematic unit teaching: What is thematic unit teaching? What are the benefits of thematic unit teaching? And what are some possible thematic unit criteria?

WHAT IS THEMATIC UNIT TEACHING?

Timothy Shanahan, in The Reading Teacher (Issue May 1995, Vol. 48, No. 8), says that thematic teaching is a method of organizing teaching around themes or topics making it possible to integrate instruction across core areas such as reading, writing, math, history, science, and the arts. Thematic units are designed to encourage students to delve deep into topics developing both an awareness and understanding of existing connections across ideas. (Ideas for thematic units follow later in the article)

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THEMATIC UNIT TEACHING?

Basically, by using thematic units in the English classroom, teachers will be offering their students a way to connect the language arts with real life issues. Connecting English with ideas about how the world works whether economic, political, social, or emotional will stimulate English study and establish a reason to learn English. English is itself considered a process subject meaning it offers a range of ways of allowing people to represent how something is seen and make meaning of the world in general-real and imaginary. Content subjects (social studies, science, environmental education and personal growth and development) are concerned with ideas about how the world works. Thematic teaching will:

*Integrate the content areas providing a connection between subject areas.

*Provide a way to incorporate higher order thinking skills into the curriculum.

*Allow long term memory to retain concepts rather than topics and facts.

*Give students choices.

*Allow for different learning styles and methods of teaching.

*Allow for in-depth study by teaching more than one subject at a time (high school teachers may want to plan with another teaching!)

*Make connections between school knowledge and the real world.

WHAT ARE SOME THEMATIC UNIT TEACHING IDEAS?

The Internet is an excellent place to find information over a variety of topics. Perhaps consider segmenting the school year off according to the month. October will have a spooky, Halloween flair while November will be one of Thanksgiving, pilgrims, and Indians. Also consider the following:

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