Lesson Planning with Theme Sets

Out of all of the texts, this is the text I was most prepared for. This is a good thing! This means that the education I have been working toward for four years is paying off. My English and Education courses at Eastern have set up a great framework so the ideas in this text seemed like common sense to me. I could see how professor Shaffer was organizing the class according to the theme-sets, and I really appreciate an organized, clear unit plan. This text aims to help teachers achieve just that while allowing students to explore tough, relevant issues.

Theme-Sets for Secondary Students by Jeannine Richison, Anita Hernandez, and Marcia Carter discusses how theme-sets align with current best practice in education. They then take their readers step-by-step through the process. From here, they give us suggestions of grouping canonical literature with young adult novels, children's novels, and picture books to use as scaffolding and to encourage discussions around the books' themes. They give suggestions for theme-sets around migrant families, literature of war, bullying mentality and more. The text concludes with a call for an evolution of education that works to support students in the most professional and effective way.

More than anything, this textbook inspired me to be both creative and organized in the way that I approach teaching literature. Before this class, I thoroughly underestimated children's literature as a resource for secondary students. Now I see the application, especially after reading and enjoying many of these texts as a college student. Below is my immediate reaction to the text:

The theme sets textbook tied a nice bow around everything we have been working on this quarter. I can see how our children’s picture books were organized in conjunction of the young adult novels that we were reading each week. I think this is a logical and creative way to create units in a classroom. The textbook suggests incorporating picture books, children’s novels, YA novel and canonical texts in theme sets. I like this, but depending on time, I might omit the children’s novels for a high school class. Instead I would include other types of media such as visual art, music, and other modes of technology. I think visual art and music are often forgotten in ELA classes, but they fit well with the Common Core Standards, and they allow ELA teachers to teach the full breadth of the “language arts.”

As I am working toward teaching in a high school setting, I think the options are nearly endless as far as potential themes and depth of discussions. Social justice themes are especially important for a group of citizens who are either about to be legally allowed to vote or are new voters themselves. The structure of the theme sets also encourages important discussions with a great range of freedom. With that said, it’s important, as the teacher, to be flexible to the ways in which the discussions move and also to be able to recognize when the discussions are moving in an unproductive direction. This is where our roles as facilitators is the most important. We have to know what questions to ask that will keep the discussions moving forward and keep our students thinking deeper. In my practicum, I run my lessons very collaboratively. We often start the lesson with some individual predictions, move into partner or small group work and then come together as a class to discuss our learning. Even though the authors suggest primarily small group work, I see the theme sets fitting into this class format very well. There is no reason why whole class discussion wouldn’t be beneficial after the group work.