Thematic Teaching

Our school is using a thematic approach to cross-curriculum teaching. The idea behind a thematic approach is to weave a strong central theme into as many subjects as possible so as to foster a deeper learning and meaning for the student. Here’s an overview of how we’re applying the thematic approach to teach a variety of subjects all linked together through this central theme unit of Citizenship & Government. Our first unit is 5 weeks, but most are 4.

Citizenship & Government in Language Arts

·         Reading- we’re starting the year with non-fiction texts so I chose the story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I wasn’t sure what levels my readers would be so I decided that a book with easy language and strong content would be good for our first assignment. If you’ve never read this story, you should. It’s a simply written story about a young girl who falls ill with Leukemia several years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to think about the concepts of citizenship and government in the context of this book. Plus, we get to do some cool reader’s workshops and I can roll out the reader’s notebook and show them how we use it.

·         Writing- since we’ve started reading non-fiction, we’re going to take on biographies first in our writer’s workshops over the next two weeks. As you know, I signed my class and I up at edmodo.com to help streamline assignments & homework, increase student involvement, and make my life easier all while saving the environment. So within edmodo.com, I’ve signed my class up to start blogging with students in America to try to open up a dialogue about culture and global citizenship. I’m unbelievably excited about the possibilities that this can bring for the school year. Think penpals, but with all the modern conveniences of audio, video, and instantaneous communication. Anyway, the first finished writing piece will be an autobiography that will be shared with the overseas students. I’ll let you know how this all unfolds as the weeks pass.

·         Spelling/Vocab- Thankfully, this unit has an abundance of spelling and vocabulary words for upper primary students. We’re using www.quizlet.com this year for all of our spelling and vocab. If you haven’t seen this website, you ought to. It’s super simple to use (both for students and teachers) and it pretty much does everything for you. All you have to do is type in your weekly spelling list, choose (or type your own) definitions, and have your students login to study and play games. It even generates randomized tests with the kind of test questions you want! How cool is that?

·         Social Studies- Grades 5 & 6 are teaming up on a few projects this year for social studies and science so, for this theme, we’re having the students create their own country and draft a short constitution to be presented at the end of the unit. Since these are difficult concepts for kids, we began the lesson with a fun activity to demonstrate the value of having “laws” and had them create an online KWL chart to assess what they knew about citizenship and government. Some really great discussion questions came out of their KWL charts and now it gives me an idea of what I need to cover in my social studies lessons. Also, it helps me know what they are curious and want to know more about. Here are a few questions that came from my students this week:

  

    Pretty great, huh? Looks like I need to step up my game to get them the answers they’re looking forJ

·         Math- We’ll be looking at things like statistics, polling, budgets, and spending, but the possibilities to tie in math are virtually endless. My students will be conducting a school-wide survey about “public opinion” stuff and tallying their findings. Then, after they’ve collected their hard data, they’ll have to figure out how to best present their findings. I’m curious to see what they come up with.

·         Art- At least for week one, I’d like to tie in Japanese culture because it goes so well with our book and I love, love, love Japanese art. We’ll be watching a clip from the documentary Between the Folds and looking at the paper craft of origami. Because our book is about paper cranes and because they are the only origami thing I know how to make, that’s where we’ll start. There are a couple of origami books in the library and, if we get stuck, there’s always youtube.

Well folks, there you have it. That’s the best reader’s digest version I can give you about our school’s approach to thematic teaching. I hope it helped. Have a great week!