Looking to make the leap to thematic units but not sure how?  Do you already have thematic units, but feel like they could be better?  Here, and in my next few posts, I will share what I have learned and provide you with a step-by-step guide of how to plan thoughtful, global thematic units that will allow your students to engage in meaningful, purposeful communication.

My department began to explore thematic units 5 years ago.  A year later, we ditched the textbook and started planning.  Looking back, I am quite proud of our bold move, but I now see mistakes we made and what we didn’t know when starting this endeavor.  Even though we weren’t using a textbook, the “textbook ideas” still seemed to be lurking in the background.  There were a lot of vocabulary and structures that we thought we had to include.  In fact, we let the “stuff” of language guide our planning, instead of the “why” of language. This dilemma, leads us to Step 1 of thematic unit planning: Choose a Theme.

Before I continue, I must say that the very best resource I can recommend on unit planning is “The Keys to Planning for Learning” by Donna Clementi and Laura Terrill.  If you do not have a copy of this book, you really should get one.  It is available through ACTFL.  This book and trainings I have attended by Donna and Laura form the basis for my planning.

OK- Back to Step 1:  Choosing a theme.  This seems like a no-brainer, but it takes a lot thought and some research to choose a theme.  The traditional “textbook approach” chooses a theme in order to cover certain vocabulary and grammatical topics.  For instance, why do all textbooks teach “daily routine”?  To teach reflexive verbs.  To make your curriculum truly thematic, you will need to think in the opposite direction: Come up with the theme and then determine which vocabulary and grammar topics are essential for students to know to talk about the topic.

In “The Keys”, Clementi and Terrill advise that a theme should be designed with the following principles in mind.  A unit should be:

• Communicatively purposeful: Does it build toward proficiency?  Can the students talk about this topic?  Do they want to?
• Culturally focused: Does it develop interculturality?  Can the students explore themselves, their community and the world through this theme?
• Intrinsically interesting:  Is the theme relevant to students?  Is it interesting to them?  Will it make them say, “Wow, that’s cool!  I want to come back and learn more tomorrow.”
• Cognitively engaging: Does it require the use of critical thinking skills?  Will this engage their brains?  Will they really need to think and not just complete activities?
• Standards-based: Does it reflect the 5 Cs for language learning?

So how do you come up with a theme?  You can look to the Global Themes (Identity/Belonging, Challenges, Creativity, Discovery, Exploring Time and Place, Well-being), AP Themes, IB Themes and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as guides.  You can even look to your current units (even textbook units!) but consider the unit through a different lens.

Here is an example:  At the Novice-Mid proficiency level, most of us have traditionally covered a “Where do you go in the city?” unit.  The unit would typically have a generic list of city places, the conjugation of the verb “to go”, modes of transportation and of course, how to give directions using a map.  I recently took this existing unit and revamped it.

I began by asking myself what I could do with this unit to incorporate the above 5 principles.  I thought about these questions: Why are we doing this unit?  Why is it going to be good?  Why should we spend time on this unit?  Is it important? Will it build my students’ communication skills? Can I address all 3 modes of communication in this unit?

I knew I wanted the students to explore the city topic by first considering it in terms of their own town.  (My school is in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and my students come from about 5 different towns.) . Then I wanted them to think of their own larger community (in this case, Chicago).  Next, we could explore some cities in France and then explore other Francophone cities.  I wanted them to notice similarities and differences in the cities and to think about what a city says about its people.  I also wanted them to think about what is important to be included in a city.

I had an idea where I wanted to go with the unit, but I needed to do one more thing before I started to formulate my essential question: Research.  You need to look for resources before you get too far into the planning of the unit.  You may have a great idea and then find out that there really aren’t a lot of comprehensible authentic resources out there.  I stared to look for infographics, children’s books, cartoons and videos that I could use in this unit.  It’s a good idea to start a folder with the the links to the resources so you can go back to them as your planning progresses.  Luckily, I found a lot of resources so I could continue with my planning.

In my next post, I’ll discuss Step 2: Writing an essential question.  Until then, keep warm out there!