Introducing thematic instruction in the English classroom

Abstract:

The following article shows how to approach thematic instruction in the English
classroom through project work; how to plan ahead, organise projects and
foresee possible problems. To do so, it presents two cross-curricular projects
developed by students of 3rd of ESO and Bachillerato: Moroccan Weddings
and A Tale of Two Families, which deal with weddings and with 18th C society
respectively.

Even though the use of thematic instruction has increased dramatically in the
English classroom, it has too often been limited to achieving specific linguistic
goals. Thus, we all have used texts from different disciplines, introduced cross-
curricular topic discussion or developed mini-projects about diverse subjects –
football, favourite music groups- often planning and assessing those activities with
a particular linguistic objective in mind: the use of adjectives, the practice of the
passive voice and so on. Yet, thematic instruction goes far beyond that. Through
thematic instruction, our students can start perceiving an integrated picture of the
world around them which does not divide knowledge into isolated units.

In this article, I shall suggest ways to exploit thematic instruction in the English
classroom which enable our students to establish meaningful connections among
different subjects and asks them to integrate the basic four main skills. To do so, I
will present two of the projects I have developed with students from 3rd of ESO
and 1st Bachillerato in the secondary school IES Gabriela Mistral in Sant Vicenç
dels Horts, Barcelona.

The project developed with the students from 3rd of ESO, Weddings a Cultural
Comparison, is hosted at http://phobos.xtec.cat/bpapasei/ . The chosen theme was
“weddings”, which allowed us to do some intercultural and interdisciplinary
research. One of the objectives of the project was to compare different wedding
traditions and since some of my students have Moroccan origins, I decided to
focus mainly on Moroccan weddings and compare them with British weddings. I
divided the thematic unit in four stages:

1. Pre-task work. This stage was aimed at establishing some previous

knowledge about the subject and learning some basic new vocabulary. As pre-
task activities, I asked the students to bring in some magazines with weddings
of famous people (Fonsi Nieto, Letizia...) and we commented extensively on
those. Next, I set a wedding picture contest and I used the winning pictures to
present new vocabulary. I devoted 2 sessions to this stage.

2. Group work. Next stage was to distribute students in groups and assign them
the task. The students were divided into groups of 4 and each group received
some written instructions on what to do and where to look for the information in
the Internet. Each group was assigned a topic within the wedding topic:
banquet, history, celebration, preparation...... and was given some initial web
pages to start looking for information. Each group had to select the right
information and use it later to carry out the required task. Since most groups
had vital information for other groups, constant interaction between the
students was guaranteed. This stage took around 5 sessions.

3. Oral presentation. Each group was required to present orally their work to
the rest of the class. In their presentation they had to show the final result and
explain the work processes they had followed. The presentations were given
during 2 sessions.

4. Picture viewing. In the final stage, the students watched the film “Bride and
Prejudice” and we talked about Indian weddings and family traditions
comparing them with the information we already had about British and
Moroccan weddings. The final stage took 3 hours, 2 of which were devoted to
viewing the film and the other one to talk about it.
Among the several objectives of this project was the meaningful use of the Internet.
By using the Internet to look for information, the students already perceive that
English goes beyond its specific use in the language class and start realising that
the world is a continuous web of related information. Furthermore, presenting our
project as a web page means that we can use it as text book or reference material
in our course. It is not only there to be viewed but also to be worked upon. I have
quite recently used the menu page to develop some activities to introduce a food
unit with other groups and the history page on the Moroccan wedding to do some
reading and comprehension activities. The idea is to further expand the web
including other countries or cultures with future groups.

In this project, the cross-curriculum contents are limited to history and

geography, music and “domestic studies”. Even so, this thematical unit has
allowed my students to establish links across other subjects and to use English in a
more global way .

The second project is much broader in scope and has been developed throughout
two academic years by students of Bachillerato. As the previous one, it is also in
process for I like to consider the projects we create as living entities which can be
expanded, modified and dealt with continuously. The unit is called A Tale of Two
Families and the theme is society at the end of the 18th century and it is also
designed as a web site. The site, which is also hosted at
http://phobos.xtec.cat/bpapasei, goes through the diary and letters of a Catalan
family and an Scottish family. Through the family connections and the story around
them we are able to understand a bit more about life at that time. The students
have researched into topics such as Music, Art , History (which includes
navigation, trade, historical facts, history of fashion and food), Literature... and from
that research the story of a family has come up to life.

The work process involved several stages: a pre-task stage to introduce the
students to the objectives and working system; a group-work stage where the
students set out to work and a final stage where they presented their results in a
Power Point presentation. In this case, the groupwork stage took most of the 35
hours we needed to elaborate the project.

Because of the scope and complexity of the project, motivation was highly
needed in this last project. A trip to Scotland where the students could carry out a
part of the project would surely guarantee that motivation. I thought of developing a
project we could later submit to the Catalan Department of Education so as to get a
grant and I presented the idea to the students who were really excited about it.
As in the previous project, the students were organized into thematic groups and
were given a detailed instruction sheet to start their research. Each group decided
which working system suited them best so that in some teams students worked all
together, looking for the same kind of information and taking joint decisions at all
times while in others they split the task and worked individually. Interaction,
however, was quite fluid since the only way the story of the family could proceed
was by joining all the bits and pieces from the different groups.

Planning ahead of time proved essential for this project. Prior to the work with the
students we made extensive search for information from several sources (Internet,
books, encyclopedias, movies), arranged serveral cultural visits to museums,
prepared working sheets (instructions, description of objectives, film worksheet...)
and devised a valid assessment system.

Work during the first term was slow and clumsy and students sometimes felt
frustrated since they did not see immediate results. Things changed dramatically
once they were able to produce their first results: letters, diaries, newspaper
articles.... and motivation grew from then onwards. Adjustments were necessary
from time to time and for several reasons: suggestions from students, students
regrouping, section rearrangement...... After the trip to Scotland, their working
rhythm increased at an incredible pace and processes which had taken them
weeks on the previous year took them just one or two days. In their final oral
presentation, we could all see how much their self-confidence, their ability to work
in group, communicate and speak in a foreign language had improved.

Several points should be taken into account when preparing a thematic unit such
as the ones I have presented:

1. Theme selection. The theme should be interesting both for students and teacher
and it should also be meaningful which means it should motivate students to look
for information or to carry out the required tasks.

2. Planning. Planning means we need to carefully identify the general and

particular objectives as well as the resources we may need. We should have a
picture of what we want to do in mind and what we want to achieve. It also means
we need to identify those skills we want our students to deal with and last but not
least, it means we need a careful timing for all the stages involved.

3. Students outline. Our students need to have a clear idea of what they are going
to do. Pre-task activities are highly recommended so as to introduce them into
interdisciplinary work if they haven’t done it before. It is also recommended to
introduce the subject and to get some initial feedback. Our students also need to
know what they are expected to do and when since they will rarely take on
challenges which are too risky or uncertain.

4. Assessment. Traditional assessment systems may not work here so we should

consider other ways to assess our students like oral presentations, weekly tasks,
or daily assessment based on group coordination, achievement of problem solving
strategies....

5. Flexibility. Planning does not mean we should follow a rigid pattern which does
not allow for changes. In fact, thematic instruction projects call for constant
alterations and often the final result is not quite what we had in mind. Yet,
problems can and should be anticipated.

6. Teacher’s motivation. Only go ahead if you really feel interested in what you are
doing. Cross-curricular teaching can be quite demanding but if you believe in what
you are doing you will overcome all the little problems that may appear.