Integrating the Curriculum through Thematic Teaching

Integrating the Curriculum through Thematic Teaching

Thematic Curriculum Benefits to Teachers, Children, and the Program

Thematic learning is a fresher pedagogy concept (Retnawati et al., 2017). Basically, the thematic curriculum is based on five pillars, including utilizing themes that are interesting to kids, the class-teacher structure, utilization of non-textbook materials, using a familiar language area as an instruction medium, and continuous learners’ achievement evaluation. In other words, a thematic curriculum is organized around themes that students are conversant with, and instructors are required to utilize a familiar language area as an instruction medium. Typically, this could be the local language for students who do not use English as their first language or utilize any other language that is comprehensible to the learners. Nevertheless, English ought to be imparted in English.

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A thematic curriculum is significant to children, educators, and the program. Notably, the curriculum enhances high learning quality by engaging issues. It is structured to present a clear context of skill and knowledge progression on explanations of equipping children in the subsequent education phase. Additionally, with exciting content, there is a higher likelihood of children being more involved in their learning. It has been proved that instructing subject knowledge and skills as part of a wider subject-based curriculum facilitates learners to make vital links between subject and diverse learning areas and amalgamate abilities.

The curriculum is powerful because it assimilates diverse ideas through everyday life examples and encounters. Essentially, under thematic learning, all subject areas are integrated under one theme, thus crossing over subject lines and assisting kids in associating basic academic abilities with actual-world concepts. It encourages learners to make sense of what is taught and comprehend concepts rather than depend on rote learning. Eminent child development scientists like Bruner, Vygotsky, and Piaget position that assimilating subject matter across varying content fields like science and math involves the entire brain over a hands-on and active engagement (Saracho, 2021). The curriculum is vital to teachers in that it enables them to instruct using the varying learning styles of the learners. Through the curriculum, instructors can easily cater to the different student needs. The curriculum benefits the program by addressing various themes, thus providing extensive knowledge and equipping real-world abilities.

The Explicit Connection between the Principles of Effective Thematic Teaching and Developmentally Appropriate Practice

DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice) is a research-centered framework outlining standards and directives that endorse ideal edification for young kids and structure the utilization of deliberate decision-making among instructors (Mckoy, 2022). According to NAEYC, DAP is defined as teaching strategies that respect the kids’ personal strengths and the significance of play in children’s erudition (NAEYC, 2020). Educators are responsible for presenting meaningful learning encounters to kids, which should reflect DAP for explanations of enabling and supporting their growth, development, and optimum learning. The effective thematic teaching principles connect to developmentally appropriate practice in that the student’s strengths and weaknesses are considered, and appropriate teaching strategies are utilized for each child. The effective thematic teaching philosophies and DAP direct early childhood quality learning and use collaborative researched strategies that encourage successful children’s development.

How Thematic Curriculum and Instruction Align With Your Philosophy of Education

My education philosophy is that every learner is wise or can be wise, and the difference is evident in the learners’ living conditions, motivation toward learning, and the utilization of effective learning strategies that cater to individual needs. The thematic curriculum facilitates the integration of interesting themes to the children, which helps motivate them. Any learner who is intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to learn is bound to do well. In a thematic curriculum, the individual needs of learners are taken into consideration. This is why learners are taught in a language they can understand. Taking the individual needs of learners and utilizing the right learning strategies helps them attain educational goals and perform well.

Lesson Plans

Self-Regulation lesson plan

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Self-regulation

Age/Grade of Children: Grade: ECDE (2-3 years)

Lesson Length: 1 hour

Goal	Improving the students’ concentration capacity amid distractors.
Objective	By the end of the lesson, the learner should control their response to distractors by completing the writing exercise about gardening tools without being distracted by the cartoon film.
Standards Included	Following the state of Mississippi’s learning standards, learners should access the best and most meaningful and relevant resources to achieve set learning objectives. In this lesson, I intend to use the objective to assist my learners in nurturing self-regulation by learning to deal with distractors and focusing on desirable behaviors in development. The focus is to assist learners in remaining attentive amid distractors.
Materials	The materials include pictures of gardening tools, a YouTube video, gardening tools textbook, and a chalkboard.
Introduction	The introduction will be done by explaining what the learners will be doing that day, which is completing the writing exercise regarding gardening tools with the cartoon film going on. The students will then watch a short preview of the cartoon film to get them a little excited, but the aim will be well explained.
Lesson Development	Lesson development will begin by explaining what self-regulation is and stating its significance. A brief overview of gardening tools and the writing exercise they will be doing on gardening tools will be given. Explanations will be made on how concentrating on completing the written exercise while the cartoon film is going on is self-regulation. The learners will have the chance to ask and answer any questions before the beginning of the cartoon film. After the start of the film, the learners will begin the gardening tools’ writing exercise on a set time frame without any other activities.
Differentiation	An audio format of the film will be presented to students who may need it.
Assessment (Practice/ Checking for Understanding)	The assessment strategy will be to check the period learners take to complete the writing test. The learners who finish the writing faster will be ranked as being good at self-regulation, contrary to those who will take a long time.
Closing	Closing will be done by children stating the things that they learned and giving a summary of gardening tools. The learners will have a chance to ask and answer questions. A home assignment on gardening tools will also be given. Finally, a preview of the next lesson will be presented.

	Social/Emotional Lesson Plan

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Using age-appropriate materials

Age/Grade of Children: 2-3 years

Length of Lesson: 40 minutes

Goal	The aesthetic domain goal is to show the kids how to use various materials, tools, methods, and procedures in planting a garden. The effective domain goal is demonstrating high independence in utilizing age-suitable gardening materials and tools.
Objective	By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to name, draw and use some of the gardening materials, tools, methods, and procedures. By the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to show high independence in using age-appropriate gardening materials and tools.
Standards Included	Learners should know how to use age-appropriate tools.
Materials	The materials include textbooks, charts, a blackboard, and gardening tools.
Introduction	The lesson introduction will be done by asking the learners what they remember about the previous lesson. The learners will also be shown tools for planting a garden and asked to name them. If they know the tool’s name, they will be applauded; if not, the teacher will give the correct answer.
Lesson Development	The lesson development will start by explaining the materials and tools for planting a garden. For every material named, its purpose and use will be explained in a manner the students can understand. The methods and pertinent procedures will also be explained. The learners will write notes, ask questions, answer questions, discuss in small groups, draw the gardening tools and demonstrate the use of gardening materials. Typically, drawing the gardening tools will be a significant part of the lesson.
Differentiation	Since the understanding capacity and learning speed could differ from student to student, differentiation will be done through the think-pair-share approach. In this strategy, the learners will be given time and structure to think about a question regarding gardening tools and materials, express their personal ideas, and then share them with the entire class.
Assessment (Practice/ Checking for Understanding)	Assessments will be done through short questions regarding gardening tools. Answering the questions correctly will show the learners understood the topic, and failing to answer them correctly will reveal areas that require emphasis. Assessments will also be done through practical whereby the learners will be tested if they know how to use the gardening tools and materials taught without the teacher’s help.
Closing	The lesson will close by summarizing what was taught and allowing the learners to ask questions. Finally, an assignment will be given.

                                                                                      

Cognitive and Physical Development Lesson Plan

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Emotion Recognition

Age/Grade of Children: 2-3 years

Length of Lesson: 40 minutes

Goal	The goal is to facilitate cognitive and physical development in learners. Typically, children will plant a garden on their own and utilize the appropriate tools in the gardening activities.
Objective	The learners should be able to plant a garden on their own. The learners should be able to identify and utilize the correct gardening materials and tools in the planting activity.
Standards Included	Students ought to engage in activities that enhance physical and cognitive development.
Materials	Materials include wheelbarrows for kids, kids’ gardening tool sets, children’s hats, children’s gardening rakes, children’s gardening gloves, planting vegetables, children’s gardening aprons,s and rain boots. Notably, the garden will be divided into different portions to fit the number of students.
Introduction	The lesson will take place in a garden, and it will begin by explaining that the kids will be planting a garden. Each child will be given the planting materials and tools without further explanations of the materials since they have learned about them previously. Then they will be told to start the planting process and made aware of the time they will have for the process.
Lesson Development	The lesson development will involve the planting process. The instructor will walk up to every child and see the materials they are using in each planting stage and if they are using them effectively.
Differentiation	The slow learners will be given more time to plant their garden.
Assessment (Practice/ Checking for Understanding)	Assessment includes using the right planting materials and tools effectively in different gardening activities, which portrays cognitive development. Additionally, planting the garden well and as required will show understanding. Activities such as digging a planting hole effectively will show physical development.
Closing	Closing will involve commending the students who planted their gardens well and telling the average and poor performers what they could have done better. The poor and average performers will be told when to meet up again and plant their gardens with inspections.

Language Development Lesson Plan

Content Area or Developmental Focus: Speaking and listening

Age/Grade of Children: 2-3 years

Length of Lesson: 40 minutes

Goal	The goal is to enable the students to listen and speak effectively, and this will be done by listening to a gardening story, re-telling and discussing it.
Objective	By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to listen to a story about gardening and report what they heard in the story effectively.
Standards Included	The State of Georgia’s educational standards measure student achievement in mathematics, science, social studies, reading, and writing (Buzick et al., 2019).
Materials	Storybooks, chalkboards, and online video
Introduction	The lesson will be introduced by discussing listening and speaking and how it will be measured by listening to a story about gardening and reporting it effectively. This will be learner-based and more of a whole-class discussion; therefore, the children will read, ask each other questions, and answer the questions.
Lesson Development	One of the students will be reading a story about a person who planted a garden, and the plants did not grow, so, he became very sad. After this, every student will re-tell the story differently, stating the lessons they learned from the account.
Differentiation	Special reading materials will be given to slow learners.
Assessment (Practice/ Checking for Understanding)	Assessment includes the ability to listen to the gardening story and speak about it effectively.
Closing	Closing will be done by giving students the chance to ask and answer questions.

Unit Evaluation

My unit is aligned and ready to try out with children. This is because the lesson plan scores ranged from 19-20. Typically, the utilized teaching approaches will be effective. The lesson has enough time to attain all the presented goals, and the objectives are very clear. As such, the teacher knows specifically what to concentrate on during the lessons. In addition, an effective differentiation strategy for the learners who might not have the facility to grasp the content as fast or rather think on their own has been utilized. The strategies used are engaging and will allow high engagement of the learners. Besides, the specified content is accurate, and the teaching procedures are appropriate for the learners.

Rationale and Conclusion

The unit developed is based on intentional planning because the steps of intentional planning are present in the goal description. This will facilitate me to stick to the goal of accomplishment. Additionally, the utilized teaching methods are effective and appropriate for the kids and the stated age; thus, this will lead to success. The methods will also facilitate a good teacher-student relationship, which illustrates the essence of intentional planning. Relating well with the students will help them ask any questions they will have. The families will be engaged by discussing the learner’s performance and strategies for improvement with them. Additionally, resources helpful to parents will be provided in a parent portal, where they will access them at all times to help their children.

References

Buzick, H. M., Rhoad‐Drogalis, A., Laitusis, C. C., & King, T. C. (2019). Teachers’ Views of Their Practices Related to Common Core State Standards‐Aligned Assessments. ETS Research Report Series, 2019(1), 1-18.

Mckoy, M. C. (2022). “I Believe in It, It’s Pretty Solid Teacher Bible!” Student Teachers’ Understanding of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP): Alignment with NAEYC Definitions and Recommended Practices (Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro).

NAEYC (2020). Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Position Statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved from dap-statement_0.pdf

Retnawati, H., Munadi, S., Arlinwibowo, J., Wulandari, N. F., & Sulistyaningsih, E. (2017). Teachers’ difficulties in implementing thematic teaching and learning in elementary schools. The New Educational Review, 48, 201-212.

Saracho, O. N. (2021). Theories of Child Development and Their Impact on Early Childhood Education and Care. Early Childhood Education Journal, 1-16.

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Throughout this course, you have acquired knowledge about best practices in creating developmentally appropriate curricula for early childhood education across all developmental domains. This summative project will synthesize your learning by modeling, in a meaningful way, the strategies and knowledge gained throughout this course through the creation of a thematic unit resource. “Thematic teaching supports children in forming connections among individual bits of information. These connections contribute to children’s concept development and are the most important reason to use themes/projects as part of your program” (Kostelnik, Soderman, Whiren, & Rupiper, 2015, p. 512). Your thematic unit will consist of revisions of course material as well as additional lessons and support.

Final Paper Scenario:
As a supervisor, you strive to help the teachers and staff of your school or center realize the many benefits of thematic teaching. For this reason, you have decided to do develop a resource for your staff to support their use of thematic units with children. The resource you create will include a rationale so that your staff understands why you are using this approach to creating a developmentally appropriate curriculum. In addition, the resource will include sample lessons, information on how you can ensure your unit is aligned, and how this information can be utilized to develop the curriculum.

Using Word your thematic unit resource must include the following:

Unit Introduction: For your introduction please include the following:
Explain the benefits of a thematic curriculum to teachers, children, and the program.
Describe the explicit connection between the principles of effective thematic teaching and developmentally appropriate practice.
Describe how thematic curriculum and instruction align with your philosophy of education.
Lesson Plans: Use the Lesson Plan Template (Links to an external site.) to develop four lessons that are all connected to your central theme for your unit. Each of your lessons will focus on a different developmental domain and must be developmentally appropriate. In addition, use the Lesson Plan Template to create each of your lessons. The guidelines for creating your lesson plans around each domain are as follows:
Self-Regulation: Develop a lesson using one of the self-regulation objectives you created for your Week 3 Self-Regulation in Curriculum assignment; your lesson must be connected to your unit theme to teach this objective.
Social/Emotional: Revise the Aesthetic and Affective Lesson Plan you developed for your Week 4 assignment. Make sure to incorporate any feedback from your instructor in your revised lesson. Make sure that your lesson is connected to the overall theme of your unit.
Cognitive and Physical Development: Develop a complete lesson plan using the physical activity you proposed in the Neuroscience, Cognition, and Physical Activity: A Dynamic Trio discussion from Week 5. Make sure that your lesson is connected to the overall theme of your unit.
Language Development: Develop a literacy-based lesson plan based on one of the strategies you shared in your Balanced Literacy Presentation assignment in Week 5. Make sure that your lesson is connected to the overall theme of the unit.
Unit Evaluation: Evaluate your thematic unit using the Activity Plan Self-Check that is found on page 101 of your course text. Discuss, using specific examples from your Activity Plan Self-Check, how you know your unit is aligned. Refer back to the Evaluating Effective Lessons assignment in Week 2 to help you develop this section.
Rationale and Conclusion: Summarize how a thematic unit, such as the one you developed, coincides with Wilson’s (2014) The Profile of a Modern Teacher image below by including the following:
Describe how the unit you developed was based on intentional planning. Refer back to the Developmentally Appropriate Planning discussion from Week 2 of the course to help you develop this section.
Explain how you will engage families in the thematic unit you have planned. Refer back to the Engaging Families in Curriculum discussion from Week 3 of the course to help you develop this section.

The Profile of a Modern Teacher

Wilson, R. (2014). The profile of a modern teacher [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.wayfaringpath.com/education-blog/the-profile-of-a-modern-teacher

The Integrating the Curriculum through Thematic Teaching Final Paper

Must be seven to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must use at least three scholarly or credible sources in addition to the course text. Please use the MAECEL Source Guide Download MAECEL Source Guide if you need assistance with how to locate scholarly peer-reviewed or credible sources.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.