Lesson 8:
Thematic Approach to Instructional Planning
Introduction
In the previous lessons, we have been looking at the different elements of creating an
instructional plan. You have looked into the instructional planning cycle, and identified the
elements of instructional planning models. These ideas have equipped you with the basics in
determining the possible considerations in the development of your own instructional plans for
your learners.
Teaching English in the elementary levels could prove to be difficult especially if it is taught out
of context. Language always exists in a communicative context. As such, teaching language
should also reflect this very nature. In this lesson, we are going to look into the thematic
approach to Instructional planning, and how you could use it to deliver instruction to your
learners.
Thematic Teaching
Thematic approach to Instruction, as the name suggests, is the selection and highlight of a
theme through instruction. Planning in this manner is often time interdisciplinary, taking
advantage to the relationships of knowledge across multiple academic disciplines and common
occurrences and situations in everyday life. Themes can be derived from various sources and
can be topics or be in the form of overarching questions. This approach is closely related to
interdisciplinary instruction, and project-based and phenomenon-based learning. It is a
powerful tool that enables the learning to be more natural and as an alternative to the
fragmented organization of classroom activities.
The thematic approach is more effective in teaching English in the elementary grade as
language taught using thematic approach is more cohesive and contextual like the very nature
of language, which is very much in line with the concept advocated by the thematic
instructional planning. Okoro and Okoro (2016) cited the steps to take in employing thematic
approach in instructional planning.
Choosing a theme. This is where the teacher or even the learners decide what would be
the focus theme of the unit or lesson. This can be small concept such as family, climate,
the beach, then to larger more integrated concepts such as the community,
atmosphere, and ecosystems. Sources of themes could be the national curriculum itself,
special or local occurrences, children's interests, or around stories or books.
Integrating the theme with the existing curriculum. Upon choosing the theme, the
teacher needs to organize the learning objectives of the curriculum around the theme.
This would determining which concepts from the learning areas could supplement the
theme. For instance, a story from around which a theme of community is derived could
be supplemented be Social Studies, Values Education, and Mathematics.
Designing instructional plan. As you have learned in the previous lesson, instructional
planning involves several elements. At this stage, thematic instructional planning usually
involves making adjustments in these elements, especially making appropriate choices
of learning strategies, activities, experiences, and learning materials related to the
theme. Some question to ponder at this stage could be:
o Which areas of spoken and written vocabulary can I and my learners work for
spelling within this theme?
o Which areas of grammar could we accommodate with this theme?
o What genders of writing could my learners write in using the theme as the
starting point?
o In what way can the learners and I make the theme have a visual impact in our
classroom?
