An Overview… How to Create… Collect a Text Set. Set Up a Listening Center. Coordinate Content-Area Textbook Readings. Locate Technology Resources. Identify.

Thematic Units

Thematic UnitsMary Beth Allen and Sally F. LongED 511/546Spring 20111An Overview

How to CreateThere can be poems, stories, informational books, magazines, newspaper articles, and reference books. Any thing that relates to the unit. Have recordings to accompany or create your own tape so that absent students can catch up, or provide additional reading experience. Not a goo idea because only survey topics. Use it as only one resource. Guidelines for using Content-Area Text is on page 494.Videotapes, CD-Roms, charts, time lines, maps, models, posters, and other displays that relate to the unit. They can be viewed and displayed in the room during the unit, and students can make other materials during the unit. Preview book. Useful for vocabulary activities. Students take notes, write questions, make observations, clarify learning and write reflections. Quick writes and clusters to explore what learning.Teachers identify the language arts standard they will address and plan minilessons to teach those strategies. Locate info, report writing, interview.Students use talk to demonstrate learning: ORAL REPORTS, INTERVIEW SOMEONE, DEBATE, ROLE-PLAY, GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS, READERS THEATER, PUPPET SHOW, QUILT, WRITE AND PREFORM PLAY.To collect supplies, and have suggestions ready. Students work on projects independently or in small groups, and share them at the end of the unit. The project includes 1 or more of the 6 language arts. READ A BIO RELATED TO UNIT, CREATE A POSTER TO SHOW BIG IDEA, WRITE AND MAIL A LETTER TO GET INFO, WRITE A STORY, READERS THEATER PRODUCTION, WRITE A POEM OR SONG, WRITE AN ALL ABOUT, COMERCIAL OR AD, TABLE TOP DISPLAY.3Strategies and SkillsBefore ReadingDuring ReadingAfter Reading

Before Reading- teachers want to link students background knowledge and experiences to text. Semantic Webbing, Student Motivated Active Reading technique (SMART), Predictions Cards, K-W-L, Anticipation Guides, Sematic Feature Analysis, Reflective Sharing Techniques.

During Reading- teachers want to help students read constructively and interact with text.Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Asking Divergent Questions, Self-Questioning.

After Reading- teachers want to go deeper and extend students response to text.Continuums, Plot Graph, Literature Guides, Creative Questioning, Cloze Techniques4Teaching2 kinds of teaching: - Direct instruction - Indirect instruction

-Direct instruction: teachers teach minilessons in which they explicitly present information, provide opportunities for supervised practice, & then have students apply what they have learned through reading & writing activities. This is necessary to provide information and opportunities for students to apply what they are learning with guidance from the teacher.

-Indirect instruction: teacher uses for brief, on-the-spot lessons as they respond to students questions or when students demonstrate the need to know something. This takes place during whole-class activities, conferences with students, & while working with small groups.5ActivitiesTeacher responsibilities & Students task/activitiesBefore readingDuring readingAfter reading

6AssessmentPlan ways to monitor and assess students learning with assignment checklists, rubrics, and other assessment tools.Authentic Assessment -examining the process & the product

-Planning ahead helps the teacher plan what activities to do, and teachers can explain to students at the beginning of the unit what they are going to do. This allows students to check themselves.

-Authentic Assessment is the best way to go; in which teachers examine both the process students use as they listen, talk, read, write, view, & visually represent & the artifacts or products they create (projects & reading logs).-5 purposes of Authentic Assessment: to document milestones in students language & literacy development, to identify students strengths in order to plan for instruction, to document students language arts activities & projects, to determine grades, and to help teachers learn more about how students become strategic readers & writers7InvolvementFamilyCommunity

8Samples and IdeasThe TitanicCaterpillars

9Material ResourcesThematic Pathfinders for All AgesPBSMailbox MagazineBooksThe Teachers CornerTCREdHelper

10Putting it all TogetherAdvantagesStudentsTeachersResearch Handout

For teachers- more instructional time, teachers can demonstrate the relationship between topics, subjects, and themes, learning can be demonstrated as a continuous activity because not restricted to textbooks, classroom or room barriers, teachers are able give up control of the classroom and let the students take control of the classroom, teachers are free to help students, helps in development of a community of learners, teachers have opportunity to model appropriate learning behaviors and support, assessment is more authentic, holistic, and meaningful and provides a bigger picture of students progress and development, authentic use of all the language arts (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) is encouraged, more emphasis on teaching, not telling, teacher has the opportunity to integrate a variety of children's books, can promote problem solving, creative thinking, and critical thinking, teachers are engaged as learners during the development and implication of a thematic unit.

For students- focus on process more than product of learning, breaks down the barriers that exists between areas of curriculums, provides a child centered curriculum (one tailored to their interest), stimulates self discovery, development between ideas and concepts, realistic opportunities to develop background information, respects individual cultural background, stimulates the creation of important concepts through first hand experiences, students are encouraged to take risk, students understand the why of activities instead of the what, students encourage guesstamations instead of absolutes, students have time to investigate and engage in reflective inquiry.

11ReferencesMeinbach, A.M., Rothlein L., Fredricks, A.D. (1995). The complete guide to thematic units: Creating the integrated classroom. Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, Inc.Richardson, J.S. & Morgan, R.F. (1994). Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Inc.Tompkins, G. (2009). Language arts: Patterns of practice. USA: Pearson.

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