Teaching English Language and Content in Mainstream Classes
When I first started this chapter, I thought about what the word "theme" meant. This whole chapter uses Thematic Instruction. I refer to theme being similar to a unit, but maybe larger. I remember in middle school we went through a theme/genre of books that were written by females who defied societal norms. This was the theme of our books and all of those books were within a bigger unit. We took tests, did analysis', and worked on projects.
In this chapter thematic instruction relates more to students interest/cultural relevance, collaboration, and engagement.
This was interesting to me because I learned that it is important to keep the students best interests in mind when creating a theme and thinking about the overall layout of a unit.
Something that stuck out to be was the cultural relevance. I think that this almost perfectly sums up what we have learned in 207 and 334. It is incredibly important to make students feel heard and feel like a part of the classroom. Individuals should have a say in the themes and topic of the lessons. Just because one thing worked one semester, doesn't mean that it will, work for the next group of students filled with different identities and cultural stories.
​
As I was reading this chapter, I continued to think about how this would relate to my future classes and most importantly my English Language Learning students. I thought that there should be more reflection in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I brought this idea up in class as one of the most important aspects of thematic learning and instruction. This was an idea that I pulled from Colorin Colorado. This assessment and guideline would allow for all students to have ALL parts of them represented in the classroomadn in the unit. As a teacher, you would also be able to analyze every portion of this as well, which helps you record their understanding and knowledge growth.
One Class, Many Paths