Children Learning To Make a Better World: Exploring Themes.

The [monarch butterfly] project helps the children connect to the environment and have an impact upon it. I hope it will help them to see school as a place where they can learn to make a better world. We will all see butterflies quite differently in the future. (Pets & Me, 1991, p. 10)

The above quote comes from one of the teachers who helped develop "Pets & Me," a thematic unit exploring the question, "How can we understand the relationships among humans, other animals and nature?" It summarizes her thoughts and feelings at the end of an extended "lesson" during which her 4th-grade students raised monarch butterflies, planted a garden to attract the butterflies and then released them.

Facts about monarch butterflies and the environment provided the learning content for the project. First, the teacher and children learned which flowers and plants attract monarch butterflies so that they could plant their own butterfly garden. At the same time, the students were raising butterflies from caterpillars. After learning about the chrysalis and the purpose of its "gems," they watched the butterflies emerge, allowed the wings to harden and then released the butterflies. Students not only learned a great deal from this exercise, they also related their newfound knowledge back to the topic question, "What is a pet?" Reflection on the topic question also linked the activity to the theme of understanding the relationships among humans, other animals and nature. Together, the combination of activity and reflection provided the context in which the students "learned to make a better world." Teacher and students were intellectually engaged with each other and gained a perspective on ways that school learning can connect with moral purpose.

Defining Thematic Units

A thematic unit should be a set of learning experiences designed to help students integrate their learning around an important question. Thematic units most often include activities from a variety of different disciplines, giving students and teachers the opportunity to explore the central question from a variety of perspectives. Students may look at a given question from scientific, historical, literary, aesthetic and personal perspectives, for example. By linking experience and reflection, students and teachers gain new insight into the original question.

This approach to thematic units is similar to that of other teachers and curriculum developers. We value the integration and connection of ideas across disciplines, the use of active approaches to teaching and learning, the important ways that particular topics and projects motivate learning, and the philosophy that everyone in the classroom is a learner (Altwerger & Flores, 1994; Harste, Short & Burke, 1988; Mills & Clyde, 1990; Pappas, Kiefer & Levstik, 1990; Perkins & Blythe, 1994; Pigdon & Wooley, 1993).

Our thematic approach differs from others, however, by making clear distinctions among three conceptual levels in thinking about and selecting the themes' content and activities. These three distinct levels - facts and information, topics and themes - serve different functions in children's learning. By clarifying the distinctions among them, we increase the unit's potential learning power and avoid the trap of thinking that any one of them is more important than another. These distinctions, coupled with not emphasizing one level above the others, led us to develop a curriculum development framework that teachers can use to plan and reflect on the outcomes of their units, lessons and activities. Teachers can use this approach to make clear connections between content and moral purpose.

The first conceptual level, "facts and information," represents discrete bits of knowledge about a given thing, event or procedure. When working on the "Pets & Me" unit, for example, children learned about selected animals' life span, natural environment and food and shelter needs. "Topics," a broader conceptuallevel that tends to be studied under traditional disciplines, provides a framework for organizing facts and information. The topic in our unit was "Pets," a common topic for study in preschool and elementary classes. The "themes" level represents the broad human or existential questions that allow us to connect topics within an exploration of humankind's role in the world. In our thematic unit, teacher and children explored a theme of "relationship" not for the purpose of arriving at a "right answer," but rather to better understand the relationships between humans and the natural world and, through that understanding, improve the world.

As distinct and hierarchically related elements of curriculum development, these three concepts represent different layers of context and meaning. Facts and informationbegin at the center, while topics and themes form successively broader rings in a set of concentric circles [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. The boundaries that separate the different levels within this representation are somewhat undefined, yet are intimately connected. Although each level can be used separately, doing so leads to an incomplete learning experience. Learning during the butterfly project, for example, would not have been as rich and meaningful if the teacher and students had simply learned facts about butterflies. Instead, they asked questions about what constitutes a pet and their responsibilities for taking care of pets. This led to a deeper understanding of their relationships with butterflies and with their entire environment. Working across all three layers increases the potential to reconnect school learning with moral purpose, thereby engaging students with the greater world.

Our experience developing and testing "Pets & Me" demonstrated that teachers and children work within this hierarchy in different places at different times. Conceptually and practically, it did not seem to matter at what level their study began. What mattered was that teachers and children moved across all three levels and connected them through activities and reflection. Teachers must be responsible for connecting the layers and making the transitions clear to students.

While the connections are important, it is also necessary to be clear about each ring's substance. In the next section, we present key features of each ring in the "Pets & Me" project. These conceptions help explain how and why to include all three layers.

Facts/Information - Topics - Themes

Analyzing and reflecting upon the curriculum development process(1) and the "Pets & Me" thematic unit led us to the following generalizations about the respective roles of facts/information, topics and themes.

ATTENTION TO FACTS/INFORMATION IN CURRICULUM

* focuses on basic information and narrowly defined questions and ideas

* focuses on "the three R's"

* pays little attention to larger contextual meaning

* provides the data for making inferences and interpretations when working with bigger ideas

* provides the substance that supports understanding of topics or themes.

ATTENTION TO TOPICS IN CURRICULUM

* helps teachers decide what information is important for children to learn

* provides a potentially meaningful context for facts, often in term s of standard disciplines

* provides a way of organizing facts and discrete bits of information into classes of experiences

* allows teachers to guide children's engagement with the world by providing them with categories that adults use to make sense of their world

* provides a context for broadening understanding across disciplines.

ATTENTION TO THEMES IN CURRICULUM

* provides ways to reach beyond the disciplines to integrate information and topic within a context defined by the full range of human experience

* encourages examination of issues from multiple perspectives; raises questions about their meaning for our lives, often in terms of fundamental existential questions

* provides opportunities to learn something about ourselves, our society and what it means to be human

* provides a context to explore the moral dimensions of emerging understandings

* supports the development of learning communities based on inquiry, speculative discourse and deliberation 

* provides the opportunity to engage students in a celebration of life, a conversation about what it means to be human and a joint exploration of the world. (Freeman & Sokoloff, 1994)

It is important to remember that the connection of facts and information, topics and themes is not sequential or hierarchical. Rather, these levels play off each other as teachers and students use each conceptual level to make sense of the others. Part of the art of teaching is orchestrating the interplay between the levels.

"Pets and Me": A Thematic Unit

"Pets & Me" is a thematic unit for preschool through 5th-grade students, based on a constructivist approach to learning (Brooks & Brooks, 1993; Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 1993). Figure 2 presents an overview of the facts/information, topics and theme as they emerge in this unit.

As noted above, the fact/information - topic - theme relationship is neither linear nor hierarchical. "Pets & Me" uses three cycles, each of which cuts across the three conceptual levels as students revisit the question, "What is a pet?" ([ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED] provides an overview.)

In the first cycle, students collaboratively explore what they already know about pets and what that knowledge means to them. In one lesson, for example, teachers and children reflect on the statement, "A pet is a way of bringing nature inside." (See lesson example on p. 22.) As they reflect, the children begin to explore the thematic question of people's relationships to animals. In another lesson, children work with cross-grade level partners to create collages of animal homes, noting which environments are appropriate for which animals. In the process, they discuss how that information relates to the appropriateness of keeping animals as pets in different environments. In these activities, the children focus on specific facts about animals and pets.

In the second cycle, children build on the first one by exploring what others know about pets and trying to make sense of this information for themselves. Students explore four topics: 1) the value of keeping animals as pets, 2) the kinds of pets available, 3) the responsibilities of pet ownership and 4) health issues related to pet ownership. In order to explore these morenarrowly defined topics, students engage in serious study about the types of animals that people keep as pets. As students and teachers grapple with the question "What is a pet?," they begin to refine their understanding of the relationships among humans, other animals and nature.

In the third cycle, students apply their learning to new situations and create imaginary pets. Students create their own imaginary pets (perhaps as puppets), write pet care manuals and demonstrate their learning by creating a pet shop or producing a pet show. These activities help students synthesize what they think with others' beliefs, which can be extended as they develop new meanings.

Although each cycle serves a different purpose for learning, learners move across the fact/information, topic and theme levels within each cycle in a variety of dynamic and flexible ways. The variation depends upon the teacher's style, the students' characteristics and responses, and the local context.(2)

The thematic unit is explicitly designed to be descriptive, not prescriptive. Teachers should develop their own lessons or modify and adapt the suggested activities. Each lesson provides multisensory approaches to teacher and student learning. The authors chose to integrate work in language arts, math, science, social studies, physical education, art and music. Children gather information from observation, computer databases, library books, roleplaying exercises and interviews with pet care professionals; then they organize the information by study topics and integrate it within the thematic question. The project also includes many multiple opportunities for school-wide activities that can engage both teachers and students in meaningful learning.

Bruner hints at the intellectual and moral power of this sort of thematic approach:

the language of education must express stance and must invite counter-stance and in the process leave place for reflection, for metacognition. It is this that permits one to reach higher ground, this process of objectifying in language or image what one has thought and then turning around on it and reconsidering it. (Bruner, 1986, p. 129)

Bruner makes clear the important difference between education and indoctrination, training or conditioning. It is not always easy to know, however, how to go beyond standard or traditional practice and create learning environments and activities that allow for meaningful exploration. We can do so by looking at the relationships among facts/information, topics and themes in constructing curriculum and examining how activity and reflection can link contextual layers.

"Pets and Me": A Developmental Note

When we began our collaboration with six preschool and elementary teachers, we thought that we understood thematic units and how to write them. We shared a sense that thematic teaching is important and leads to integrated learning, but we eventually discovered that we were confusing topics and themes and that we did not fully understand the importance of learning facts and information in a thematic context. We began with a set of topics that we thought were themes. Two years of curriculum development and testing helped us realize the difference and develop a clear theme statement.

When we began we wondered if we could write a thematic unit that teachers not on the project team would find useful. Much of the literature on thematic units advocates planning units almost exclusively at the individual classroom level and including children in the planning (Altwerger & Flores, 1994; Harste, Short & Burke, 1988; Mills & Clyde, 1990; Pappas, Kiefer & Levstik, 1990). We found that teachers who agreed to test the unit were able to customize it. We also found that many of these teachers went beyond merely searching for "right answers," joining the children in speculation about what animals could be pets. They also explored the theme of human-animal relationships (Freeman & Sokoloff, 1994).

The thematic unit is one of many effective approaches to organizing ideas for teaching and learning. We believe that the understanding of the relationships among facts/information, topics and themes that has emerged from our work is applicable to other areas of curriculum. Taking a thematic approach allows teachers and students to organize what they know - facts and information - within a framework of topics they know something about. It also permits greater understanding of the world.

Content of "Pets & Me"

1. Facts and Information: Classes of animals and individual animals as pets.

a. Information about how selected animals live in the world

b. Information about selected animals' needs

c. Information about ways humans and other animals interact

d. Information about the selected animals' environment

2. Topic: What is a pet?

a. Values of keeping animals as pets

b. Kinds of pets available

c. Responsibilities of pet ownership

d. Health issues related to pet ownership

3. Theme: How can we understand the relationships among humans, other animals and nature?

Reflection Lesson from the Intermediate Unit

In this example from one of the first lessons in the Intermediate Unit in "Pets & Me," teachers and students explore the thematic question for the first time.

Activity: Reflection - Taking Nature Inside

Goal: To explore ways of thinking about pets and how we relate to them.

Tell students that while studying pets they will be exploring not only their own ideas, but also those of other students. Explain that sharing and listening are equally important in this activity. By listening carefully, students can learn as much from one another as they can from books.

PART 1: Paired Sharing Experience

Divide the class into pairs. Ask each pair to take turns sharing what they know about pets. Tell students that it is not important whether or not they agree with the information their partner is sharing. What is important is to listen carefully and discover as many different ideas as possible.

Explain that each individual in the pair will have three opportunities to share his/her thoughts. Ask each pair to decide who will talk and who will listen first. After 45 seconds or so, ask students to switch the listener and talker roles. Have students alternate two more times, each time sharing what they know about pets. Limit the sharing to 30 seconds and then 15 seconds.

Ask each child to tell the class one idea he/she learned about pets from his/her partner.

PART 2: Reflecting(*)

This reflection explores the idea of thinking of a pet as a way of "taking nature inside." This could mean several things:

* We build shelters to protect us from nature, but this protection also separates us from nature. As a way of bridging that separation, we bring plants and animals into our homes. We literally "take nature inside."

* "Taking nature inside" can be seen as internalizing or "becoming one" with nature.

* "Taking nature inside" can be interpreted as a way of protecting part of nature.

The reflecting activity explores a variety of opinions, but does not assume a correct answer. The activity has been designed to encourage students to discover and share their own interpretation of "taking nature inside." This process leaves the group with a broader and richer understanding of the meaning.

Ask children why they think people keep pets. After sharing some of their ideas, ask what might be meant by the following statement: "A pet is a way of taking nature inside." When ideas begin to flow, ask children to take a few minutes to get their ideas on paper. Assure them that there are many possible answers. Allow about 5 minutes.

After children have written their ideas, have them share their ideas in pairs before large group discussion. Challenge all children to keep their partners talking for 90 seconds by asking clarifying and extending questions. Model the process a few times. Encourage the children to contribute questions as soon as they are able. When paired sharing is finished, bring the entire class back together in a circle. Go around the circle and ask each child to share what he/she thought and to explain the ideas. After all children have shared, encourage further discussion.

* Adapted from the documentary process, Prospect School, Bennington, Vermont.

Authors' Notes:

1 The "Pets & Me" thematic unit grew out of a three-year collaboration among six preschool and elementary school teachers and three university-based practitioners. The group developed the goals for the unit and the overall curriculum design. Each classroom lesson was written by an individual teacher and then tested and revised by the group. In addition, we field tested the unit in a variety of schools (urban and suburban) around the country and the entire team revised the unit based on responses from teachers. Finally, the original group of six teachers taught and revised the lessons one final time.

2 We also expect that the thematic question influences movement across levels (rings in Figure 1). This article uses "Pets & Me" as an example. Different themes, however, may require different heuristic approaches. Thus, while we are providing a conceptual framework, we are not providing a recipe for constructing curriculum.

References

Altwerger, B., & Flores, B. (1994). Theme cycles: Creating communities of learners. Primary Voices K-6, 2(1), 2-6.

Brooks, J., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Freeman, C. C., & Sokoloff, H. J. (1994, April). Toward a theory of thematic curricula: Constructing new learning environments for teachers and learners. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.

Harste, J., Short, K., & Burke, C. (1988). Creating classrooms for authors. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Mills, H., & Clyde, J. (1990). Portraits of whole language classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Pappas, C., Kiefer, B., & Levstik, L. (1990). An integrated language perspective in the elementary school: Theory into action. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Perkins, D., & Blythe, T. (1994). Putting understanding up front. Educational Leadership, 51(5), 4-7.

Pets & me: A thematic learning experience built on the relationship between people and animals. (1991). Philadelphia, PA: Center for School Study Councils, University of Pennsylvania.

Pigdon, K., & Wooley, M. (1993). The big picture: Integrating children's learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (1993). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in America's schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Carole Cook Freeman is Associate Professor of Education, La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Harris J. Sokoloff is Director, Center for School Study Councils, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.