Running Head: THEMATIC UNIT

Thematic Unit

Mengzi Cai

Colorado State University

THEMATIC UNIT
Thematic Unit
11/22/2017
Mengzi Cai & Xichen Nie

Reading & writing

Duration: 16 weeks, 60 minutes classes, Monday and Wednesday from 9-10am.

Instructor: Xichen Nie & Mengzi Cai

Location: Eddy Hall Room 104, Colorado State University

Course Description:
This course uses the content-based method for language teaching in reading and writing. The
students are at the intermediate level. The course puts emphasis on providing students with
academic material in reading and writing, which offers them meaning-focused input and output.
This course will give students guidance and a chance to improve their comprehension, analyzing
and productive abilities in different lessons in diverse topics. Each unit contains different activities,
aiming at helping students with their learning and writing skills for academic purposes, and prepare
students for their future study in professional fields.

Course goals:
·Students will understand the different methods of paraphrasing.
·Students will be able to write outlines, critiques and short articles.
·Students will understand the vital function of using appropriate citation conventions when they use
ideas or statements from other people in their own writing.
·Students will be able to use formal language (main idea, genre convention, text type, academic
words and context) in academic reports.
·Students will learn a variety of learning techniques for developing academic reading and writing
skills, such as predicting the content, grasping the key word, writing outline, identifying article
types, paraphrasing, and writing critique.

Week Unit Lesson Overview

1-2 Unit 1: Students will be introduced to different article types. For example,
Article students will be taught to identify the journal, research, news,
types commentaries, conference summaries, online report and policy and
historical review by content, title, resource, format, etc..
3-4 Unit 2: Students will be introduced to make predictions for the content from a
Prediction title and subheadings in a reading, including the type and rhetoric of
an article.
5-6 Unit 3: Students will be trained to grasp the key words of an individual
Key word & sentence or a paragraph. Students will be introduced to how to choose
Outline keywords. Then they can understand the meaning of the sentence and
paragraph more efficiently. After extracting key words, students will
be asked to write the outline of short articles (about 400 words).

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7-8 Unit 4: Provided with an article, students will be trained to find the main idea
Main idea & of each paragraph by identifying the topic sentence. Next, students
Paraphrase will be introduced to different methods of paraphrase and students will
perform exercises of paraphrases.
9-10 Unit 5: Starting with the paragraph, students will be introduced to the
Structure & structure of a paragraph. For example, a paragraph consists of topic
Write an sentence-explanation-supporting details-conclusion. From the scope of
article a whole article, students will be taught to the different types of
structure, such as general-divide-general. Students will be asked to
write a short article with this structure.
11-12 Unit 6: Student will learn how to recognize the supporting details of a
Supporting paragraph and the purpose of these supporting details. Students will be
detail & taught about the diverse kinds of supporting details, like statistics,
Identifying personal experience or quotation. Students will also learn the use of
sources APA style.

13-14 Unit 7: After students understand the organization of an article, students are
Reading required to read the article and comprehend it with a limited amount
speed of time.
15-16 Unit 8: Under the theme of critical thinking, this unit introduces the way of
Analysis & reading and writing. Students will be introduced to the method of
Critique analyzing the article and how to write a critique.

Brief Description of Classroom Setting

Each 60-minute lesson will focus on academic reading and writing through reading materials
and writing instruction. The lessons will be taken as one part of an ordinary English course which
focus on comprehension ability in academic materials. There are15 intermediate-high university
students who have the same language background in the classroom. The objectives are to improve
students’ language skills of reading comprehension and academic writing. Last unit (unit 3),
students were trained to grasp the key words of an individual sentence or a paragraph. This
unit(unit 4) will be taught for one hour twice per week for two weeks total. The final project will
consist of a summative assessment for the course and formative assessments for each unit, all
which consist of the total score.

Brief Description of the Thematic Unit

The following lesson plans are served as constituents of a thematic unit and based on unit 4.
The lessons in this unit combine reading comprehension and writing ability with the content of
academic reading and writing. The goal of the overall course is that students are able to master
academic reading and writing and apply the knowledge to their essay and paper writing in the
future. This unit integrates the meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output and language-
focused learning.
Specifically, this thematic unit will involve language-focused learning and make learners
focus on formal and contextualized language features, which facilitate students developing several
ways to comprehend the reading materials, for example, grasping the main idea among an
abundance of information. What’s more, it helps students to develop their writing abilities, e.g.
paraphrasing the sentence.

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Scope and Sequence

Unit 4: Main idea & paraphrase (consist of 4 lessons)

Content Reading Skills Writing Skills Learning

Outcomes
Lesson 1 -Handout -Identifying the -Using these -Being sensitive
-Reading transition words transition words to the
materials (adversative, for more adversative,
conclusive and coherence at the conclusive and
conjunction level of conjunction
words) which paragraph and words.
are helpful to discourse
understand the
sentences
Lesson 2 -Reading -Locating the - Refining and - Grasping the
materials topic sentence in extracting the main idea in
the paragraphs information reading and
learning how to
write the topic
sentence
Lesson 3 -Handout -Identifying -Writing a - Finding the
-Reading terminologies synonym to replaceable
materials and words replace the words and
which can be original words learning how to
replayed by use other words
similar words to change the
sentence
Lesson 4 -Handout - Identifying -Learning - Learning to
-Reading sentence sentence pattern paraphrase by
materials patterns transformation transforming the
such as passive (e.g. active sentence pattern
sentence and sentence change
active sentence to passive
sentence)

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Lesson 1
Pre-lesson inventory:

Lesson objectives:
·Students will be able to recognize transition words (adversative, conclusive and conjunction
words).
·Students will be able to understand the sequence of sentences by recognizing the function
words.
·Students will be able to comprehend and apply the function words to academic writing.

Materials to take to class: card paper; handout (writing instructions).

Equipment needed for class: white board

Assignments to collect from students: none

Special room arrangements: students sit in groups in front of the teacher

Warm-up: Watching a short video (10 minutes)

https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days#t-117888

Purpose:
·To increase students’ class participation.
·To make a connection to the lesson.
·To develop the sub skill of listening to the transition words in the lecture.

Procedure:
·Students watch a video clip which is a TED lecture.
·Play it again, and this time, ask students pay attention to how the lecturer structured the
information with transition words.
·Explore and explain the role of the transition words.

Transition: The teacher says: “Since we had an intial introduction to the transition words, next
we are going to do an activity to get more familiar with these transition words.”

Activity 1: Organize information (15 minutes)

Purpose:
· To provide students with meaning-focused input.
·Students will recognize the importance of the transition words during the process of organizing
pieces of information.
· To develop students’ sub skills to communicate in group.

Procedure:
·The teacher provides students with pieces of scrambled information. (See Appendix 1)

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·Students are asked to work in the groups to organize the pieces of information into a logical
paragraph with the function words (including the transition words and preposition which is used
in connecting the logical relationship).
·One student in a group will speak as the presenter to read their paragraph.
·The teacher will ask the whole class to notice the different ways, especially the use of function
words which are used by each group for organizing information.

Transition: The teacher writes the transition words that have mentioned before, simultaneously,
students write these words down on the cards (each word on each card). They are encouraged to
come up with any other function words they know. Then the teacher will say: “Using the words
on your cards, we are going to play a small game.”

Activity 2: Graphic organizer. (15 minutes)

Purpose:
·Enable students to identify the categories of the transition words and how to use the words of
each category.

Procedure:
·Hand out the cards with categories made by teacher (each category on each card). (See
Appendix 2)
·Students are asked to match the transition words that they have already written down on the
cards to the categories.
·They are given 5 minutes to finish the matching activity, and then discuss their answers with
other students in their group.

Transition: The teacher will give the correct answers to this activity, and then ask if students
have any questions. Then the teacher introduces the function of these words within an article and
explains how the writer uses these words in his article. The teacher will say：“We learned how
these words are used in your reading materials, then, we practice using them in your academic
writing.”

Activity 3: Write two essays (30 minutes)

Purpose:
· Students will be familiar with the function words and be trained to use them in their writing.
· To develop the students’ use of transition words in authentic situations.

Procedure:
·Students are asked to write an essay within 300 words about an interesting, recent event. They
will be asked to focus on the use of transition words to make sure their writing is logical.
·Then, the teacher will give a statement. The students will be asked to write down their opinion
of the statement and provide supportive ideas using their own words and the transition words
they learned to show their logical thinking. This will be the second essay which should be within
200 words. (See Appendix 3)
·Students exchange their essays in their group and give feedback to each other.

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Evaluation (5 minutes)
Purpose:
·To examine whether the students comprehend the usage of the transition words.

Procedure:
·In the last activity, students wrote two essays and shared with group mates. They are asked to
revise their essays using the feedback from their group mates.
·The students will be asked to hand in a second draft after revising.

Lesson 2
Pre-lesson inventory:

Lesson objectives:
·Students will be able to identify different sentence patterns: active sentence &passive sentence
. Students will be able to use the sentence pattern transformation(active«passive) to paraphrase
individual sentences and paragraphs.
. Students will be provided with language-focused learning.

Materials to take to class: handout, exam paper

Equipment needed for class: white board

Assignments to collect from students: The students are asked to hand in the assignment that was
given at the end of last class(Lesson 3): write down one sentence for each sentence patterns they
have ever learned.

Special room arrangements: students sit in groups in front of the teacher

Warm-up: Sentence pattern review (10 minutes)

Purpose:
·Students will review the sentence patterns.
·Make connection to the following lesson so that students can be prepared for the class

Procedure:
·Students share any types of sentence pattern they have learned before: active & passive sentence
or simple& complex sentence
·The teacher writes down the sentence patterns provided from students on the white board and
adds the patterns that the students did not mention.

Transition: The teacher says: “Here are different types of the sentence patterns, now, let’s learn
more about the function of each of them.”

Activity 1: Sentence translation. (15 minutes)

Purpose:
·Students will understand that they can make sentence in diverse patterns. They can use this way
to enrich their writings.

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Procedure:
·The teacher provides students with 5 sentences in L1 and asks them to translate it into L2. (See
Appendix 4)
·The teacher collects students’ answers and writes the structure of those sentences on the white
board.
·Teacher points out the different sentence patterns used by students to express the same idea
given by the teacher.

Transition: As the different patterns and uses of each pattern are introduced by the teacher, the
focus of these activities will be on the two main ways of sentence pattern transformation for
paraphrasing. The teacher says: “Next, I will introduce you to two important ways which will
help you to paraphrase sentences.”

Activity 2: Transformation between passive sentence and active sentence (15 minutes)

Purpose:
·Students will be able to use the transformation between active sentence to passive sentence to
paraphrase the article.

Procedure:
·The teacher will point out that passive and active sentence are different sentence patterns but
can express the same meaning.
·The teacher will help students to learn the structure of a sentence which assists in sentence
transformation (See Appendix 6).
·The teacher will deliver the exact way to exchange the active sentence and passive sentence.
Transition: The teacher will say to students: “after learning one method of paraphrasing, then we
can learn another useful method of paraphrasing.”

Activity 3: Transformation between simple sentences to complex sentences (30 minutes)

Purpose:
·Students will be able to use the transformation between simple sentences to complex sentences
in their writing.

Procedure:
·Review the transition words such as connection words which were taught before.
·Introduce how these words can play a part of the complex sentence.
· Teach students to use these words to combine several of the simple sentences or complete the
simple sentences (See Appendix 7).

Evaluation (5 minutes)
Purpose:
·Assess whether the students can use these two methods in their paraphrasing.
Procedure:
·Pass an exam paper to every student.

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·Ask students to paraphrase the short article in the paper using at least 1 method which was
taught before. (See Appendix 5)
·Collect the students’ papers and ask them to peer review.

Appendix 1:

1.its economy continues to recover,

2.the US is increasingly becoming a nation of part-timers and temporary workers.
3.This " disposable " work force is the most important trend in American business today,
4.it is fundamentally changing the relationship
5.people
6.their jobs.
7.The phenomenon provides a way for companies to remain globally competitive
8.avoiding market cycles and the growing burdens imposed by employment rules, healthcare
9.costs and pension plans
10.workers it can mean an end to the security, benefits and sense of important that came from
being a loyal employee.

function words：because; between; and; by; therefore; however

Appendix 2:

Adversative words

Conclusive words

Conjunction words

Appendix 3:

Writing two short essays

1. Recent event (300 words)

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2. Statement: Many people use distance learning programs (study material posts, TV,
Internet, etc.) to study at home, but some people think that it cannot bring benefits as
much as attending college or university. To what extent do you agree or disagree with
this opinion? (200 words)

Appendix 4:

Translation
1. 由于你说的话，他非常生气。

2. 人们一致同意由他的叔叔出任这个电脑公司的首席执行官。

3. 这个讨论持续了30 分钟。

4. 委员会是由所有大学的代表组成。

5. 是否上这门课由他自己决定。

Appendix 5:
Paraphrase

The ‘20s were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad joke because
everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the years when organized
crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music
was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis
Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young. The flapper was born in the
twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or
anything else, America's break with the past.

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Appendix 6

ACTIVE VOICE AND PASSIVE VOICE

• Anna hits the ball.

Anna is the subject. Hits is the action. The ball is the object.
That same sentence in passive voice reads:
• The ball is hit by Anna.
The ball is the object, not the subject of the sentence. The ball is not doing an action.
Therefore, it should be after the subject (Anna).

Appendix 7

1. Use the function words：and to connect two simple sentences.

Simple sentences：I will go to school tomorrow.
I will meet with my friends at school tomorrow.

I will go to school and meet with my friends tomorrow.

2.Complex sentence can be noun clause, adjective clause, etc…

• He confessed his crime. (Simple sentence)

• He confessed that he was guilty. OR He confessed that he had committed a
crime. (Complex sentence – here we expanded the noun ‘his crime’ into the noun
clause ‘that he was guilty’ or ‘that he had committed a crime’)
• He bought his uncle’s factory. (Simple sentence)
• He bought the factory that belonged to his uncle. (Here we expanded the noun
phrase ‘his uncle’s factory’ into the adjective clause ‘that belonged to his uncle’.)

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