C&D Chpt. 7: Thematic Planning

This chapter gives very detailed instruction on how to plan your instruction around a central theme. It focuses on the importance of having a balance between language use, content and culture in the units & lessons while still connecting them all to a central theme. Although it was nice that the authors were so detailed on how to plan thematically, I found this chapter to be a little dense, and probably would have been more helpful in remembering the information if it was broken down better. I have already learned how to do backward design in the 502 class, so that was a nice review. I also liked the idea of having interactive homework, as I feel that students would be more motivated to practice their language at home if they are given an oral and almost teaching task to show their family what they have learned that if I were to send them home with a worksheet.