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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 272 325 PS 015 976 AUTHOR Kessens, Rosanne TITLE Themes. Informal Education Series. INSTITUTION North Dakota Univ., Grand Forks. Center for Teaching and Learning. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 84 NOTE 223p.; For Kessens' 1983 journal articleon "themes," see ED 235 994. PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Guidelines *Learning Activities; *Open Education; Primary Education; *Thematic Approach; *Young Children ABSTRACT Part of the larger Informal Education Series, this publication brings together many of the materials prepared byRosanne Kessens for teachers and parents involved in Follow Through settings. Contents first explore theme development as an integrated approachto learning and then describe strategies for planning themes.Subsequent materials offer guidelines for beginningan animal theme as well as for organizing themes about animals imaginary and ridiculous,talking animals, pourquoi stories, fables, small bugs, turkeys,houses, a hat collection, machines helping people work, toys and Christmas wishes, snow, water, and wind. (RH) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************1************************** U.S. IMPARTMINT OR SOUCATION CNN of Mahone' Reseerch end Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATICS CE RESOURCES )11 This document has been reproduced ai received horn the person or orgenizahor onginahng it 0 Minor changes have Peon made to wnprovo reproduction Quality Points 01 yew or ogomonS stated on this does mint do not nectar 4Y MOrennt eSicIl OERI paean or mho/ "PERMISSIOR TO REPRODUCE THII MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED B' N. 10.0 vmv,CAN-. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RE URCE; INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." THEMES By Rosanne Kessens Center for Teaching and Learning Univers& of North Dakota Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202 May 1984 Copyright © 1984 by the Center for Teaching and Learning University of North Dakota The articles presented herein were supported in part by a Grant from the U.S. Office of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare. However, the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Office of Education, and no official endorsement by the U.S. Office of Education should be inferred. Printed by the University of North Dakota Press, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202 4 Contents INTRODUCTION - Vito Perrone 1 DEVELOPING A THEME: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO LEARNING 2 THEMES 10 BEGINNING AN ANIMAL THEME 15 ANIMALS: IMAGINARY AND RIDICULOUS 35 TALKING ANIMALS 46 POURQUOI STORIES 59 FABLES 68 SMALL BUG THEME 87 TURKEY THEME 104 HOUSES 115 A HAT COLLECTION 123 MACHINES HELP PEOPLE DO WORK 136 TOYS AND WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS 154 SNOW 170 WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE 193 WIND 209 Introduction This publication, part cf the larger Informal Education Series, brings together many of the materials prepared by Rosanne Kessens for teachers and parents in our Follow Through settings. Rosanne served for a decade our Follow Through program, principally in Zuni, New Mexico and Fort Yates, North Dakota. Her death in 1981, after many years of battling cancer, was a great loss. The materials are special because Rosanne was special. She was a gifted teacher, imaginative in her use of materials, attentive to children's needs and interests, and supportive of deeply cherished community values. As a Resource Colleague (or teacher-parent educa- tional advisor) she brought these understandings to others. In relation to her role as a Resource Colleague, Rosanne prepared monthly notes, a means of sharing ideas and stimulating classroom practices consonant with the philosophical orientation of our pro- gram. These monthly notes continue to be so popular among teachers and parents that we felt we should collect some of them for inclusion in a memorial booklet that could be made easily accessible. The notes selected are organized around such common thev,s as animals, hats, habitats, And seasons. But these common themes took on for Rosanne many interesting directions. She encouraged through them pathways to many diverse possibilities for learning. Rosanne was an inspiration to all of us who worked closely witn her. She could extend the possibilities of almost any idea or physi- cal material presented to her. And her enthusiasm was never ending. We are pleased to present this volume in the Informal Education Series as an ongoing memorial to Rosanne's educational commitments. Vito Perrone Dean Center for Teaching and Learning 6 1 DevelopingaTheme: An Integrated Approachto Learning TIME -- it seems most of us never haveenough of it. This is especially true as we try to provide for the educational needs of all children underour care in an environment which will foster growthand learning. However, in attempting to fully educate each andevery child we have allowed schedules and curriculums to dictate much ofwhat happens in our classrooms. Clock watching has become a major pastimein many rooms as bus schedules, lunch times and classes for special students (TitleI, gifted, speech, resource rooms, etc.) keep us constantly aware of the clockand the passage of time. Those schools fortunate enough to havemusic, art and physical education instructors must also devise scheduleswhich will best utilize their time and talents. All of this scheduling often leavesthe classroom teacher frustrated in trying to find an uninterrupted blockof time for teaching oreven to have a group meeting with all of the students. At the same time, teachersare mandated to teach more andmore subject areas. We are asked not only to teach math, reading and science, but alsoconservation, career education anda host of other subjects, all of them importantfor living in today's fast-paced and ever changing world. Trying to fit all these subjectareas into an already highly scheduled day often results in lesscommitment to explore a subjector interest in depth and more andmore frustration. Pressures for higher math and reading test scores, along with criticismconcerning writing and spelling also contribute their share of frustrationand conflict in the life of the classroom teacher. All too often, as thepressures become more intense, art, music, drama, science and social studiesbecome an isolated lesson once or twice a week or are usedas rewards for students' good behavior and work well done. All of the above provide specialchallenges for dedicated and concerned teachers. One way of meeting these challenges,I believe, is to organize curriculum, materials, time and activitiesaround a theme. Imagine a very large umbrella or circus tent under whicha group of people have gathered. The tent or umbrella provides them witha boundary in which they interact through conversation and movement. A theme becomes the large umbrellaor tent providing a structure for activities, materialsand people to interact and explore together. During the past years, as I attemptedtc cope with all the demands of the classroom, I found that organizing curriculumaround a theme resulted in bet- ter use of time and materials and increasedmy ability to incorporate isolated subject areas of the curriculum intolearning experiences for the children. Often we, myself and the children,were able to include areas not suggested by curriculum guides or basaltexts, but were of greater interest and had more learning potential for students. One very positive aspect which I had not anticipated was the frequency and quality ofinteractions I was able to From Insights, May 1981, .ol. 13,No. 8, pp. 2-11, 2 have with students. As children worked on research, construction and writing projects I realized we were talking and listening more to each other. This resulted in my being able to individualize my teaching to a much greater de- gree than I had been able to previously. I now knew much more about my students. I was often amazed by what children already knew about various subjects, but also surprised by some of the false information and lack of concepts which became apparent during our interactions. I found my classroom becoming a "doing" classroom with the students truly working and solving problems. As they did projects and activities,I found they were learning, retaining what they had learned and, more importantly, applying their learn- ing to everyday situations and problems. Large group activities and indi- vidual student projects which developed allowed all students to participate, at least part of the time, in art, music, science and all other curriculum areas. Concern for the child that always missed a certain subject or activity no longer became a concern. Working with a theme provided me with the FLEXIBILITY I needed to develop an interesting and challenging learning environment for children, and at the same time, it also gave me a STRUCTURE for planning, teaching and evaluating. The length and scope of a theme is dependent on the interest and abili- ties of teacher and students. It may be as short as an hour's activities revolving around the study of color, for example, or it may last for weeks as children study a subject in depth. I have known teachers who had a major theme each month and one who even had a theme for the entire year. At the same time that a main theme is developing in the class, smaller themes also develop simultaneously as groups of children work on projects or in curriculum areas. These may come about because of an interest developing from the main theme or as the result of a story, question, experiment, natural phenomena or awareness of world and local events. In fact, we don't have to search far or long for themes. They can be found almost everywhere and can be drawn from every curriculum area, but the most successful are those which develop from the interest and environment of children. Children are interested in so many things in their everyday world that if we are sensitive to their concerns, questions and delights we have no difficulty finding a topic for study.

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