Jonathan Harris, OWLA Early Language Learning Chair
Spanish Teacher, St. Gabriel Consolidated School

Thematic units are concepts taught in other subject areas such as math, science, art and social studies that can be taught in a target language. A benefit of a thematic unit is that students know the subject area in English. In this article, I will provide an example of how I use thematic units in my second grade Spanish class. By doing this, I hope to give you an idea of how to employ this concept in your world language elementary classroom.

I’ve been doing this in the area of animals. I show pictures of animals and have students learn the names of those animals. Once they have mastered the names of the animals, I introduce adjectives. Then, I’ll have students arrange themselves in order of the adjectives. The first two adjectives are big and fast. The fastest animals aren’t always the biggest, so students will rearrange themselves. Once they learn adjectives, we make picture books. The books end up being illustrated and categorized in vocabulary lists because students in this level haven’t focused much on sentence formation. The books have subject areas of appearance, habitat, food and overall characteristics. They take the books home as a record of what they have learned and what we’ve discussed.

Another lesson that I’ve done in the same grade is on magnets. I give them one verb, attract. Then I walk around the room and ask if different objects attract the magnet. For example, “Does the teddy bear attract the magnet?” and “Does your desk attract the magnet?” We have a master list of attract and not attract and discuss why that is.

In conclusion, I encourage you to find a thematic unit in another subject area and use the target language to discuss that concept. I’ve found that since students know the subject area, they will learn the new language vocabulary necessary to express it. Please give it a try and respond in the comments how it went and what you did.