One of the major challenges of CBLT for Elementary ESL is to develop

Thematic Units.

CBLT: Content (Competency) Based Language TeachingESL: English as a Second Language

Choose a topic that…

• Motivates and interests students (or a topic which they have selected),

• Focuses on relevant content from across the curriculum,

• Facilitates meaningful dialogue and interaction,• Is grade- and age-appropriate,• Appeals to different learning styles,• Offers opportunities for activities appropriate for

multiple intelligences and• Is related to current events or concerns.

Plan the thematic unit:

1. Identify appropriate texts to use or adapt (stories, poetry, academic texts, trade books or students’ work).

2. Identify language objectives:

• Functions

• Grammatical structures

• Vocabulary

3. Identify content objectives.

4. Identify critical-thinking skills, study skills or learning strategies.

5. Develop activities that• foster authentic language use;

• integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing;

• draw upon students’ prior knowledge and lead to higher levels of understanding;

• are appropriate for a variety of learning styles;

• develop learning strategies;

• use a variety of grouping strategies; and

• provide periodic feedback and assessment.

6. Sequence the activities.

A bird observatory in the school

Bird ringing of a wounded sisking

How trees benefit birds?

A Sample Thematic Unit

Topic: TreesLanguage objectives:

• Listening:Listen to the story (The Great Kapok Tree).

• Speaking:Talk about similarities and differences in trees.Describe leaves or trees.Discuss the value of trees to people, animals and so on.Retell the story (language experience story).

• Reading:Read language experience story.Read and sequence sentences from the story (strip story).

• Writing:Label or write captions for tree book.Create a tree poem.

• Structures:Pronunciation of plural endings (s, z, iz).Comparatives (bigger, smaller, lighter, darker and so on).

• Vocabulary:Trees, parts of tree (trunk, bark, leaves, roots and so on).Shapes (round, oval, square).Names of the animals in the story.Descriptive adjectives (smooth, rough, pretty, colours, size and so on).

Content objectives:• Understand similarities and differences in leaves and trees.• Understand the value of trees and the importance of protecting and

planting them.

Study skills:Sequence information.Compare and contrast effects of different uses of trees.

Warm up: Take students on a walk around the school grounds. Point to different trees.

Touch them. Talk about them. Build vocabulary. Encourage students to look closely and to pick up fallen leaves and bark to take back to class.

When back in the class, ask students to describe their leaves. Elicit vocabulary for colours, shapes, size and other characteristics.

Show pictures of different trees. Ask students to talk about trees in the schoolyard, in their yards, in the neighborhood and so on. Identify ways in which the trees are the same/different, small/large and so on.

Create a semantic web or a mind map recording what students know about trees. Transfer to a KWL chart and ask what else they want to know (learn) about trees.

Mind mapping and “KWL charting”...

Presentation:

• In small groups, have students list all the ways that people, animals and other plants benefit from trees. If students need some suggestions, show pictures of bird’s nests, lumber, small trees living under larger ones, squirrels eating acorns and so on.

Adapted from The Expanding Role of the Elementary ESL Teacher: Doing More than Teaching Language. Jodi Crandall.

Accent, Volume 10, Number 1, October 2003.

References

• Cherry, L. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.

• Fathman, A. K., and M. E. Quinn. Science for LanguageLearners. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall Regents, 1989.

• Rose, D. L. The People Who Hugged the Trees: An Environmental Folk Tale. Niwot, Colo: Rinehart, 1990.

• Schinke-Llano, L., and R. Rauff, eds. New Ways in Teaching Young Children. Alexandria, Va.: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), 1996.

• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). ESL Standards for Pre-K–12 Students. Alexandria, Va.: TESOL, 1997. Available at www.tesol.org/assoc/ k12standards/it/01.html [accessed September 23, 2003].

• Westcott, N. B. Peanut Butter and Jelly: A Play Rhyme. New York: Dutton, 1987.