Children Exploring Their World: Theme Teaching in Elementary School

by Sean A. Walmsley

Children Exploring Their World is the first book on theme teaching to review comprehensively the existing literature on themes, cover the full range of different kinds of themes, and advocate the value of teachers enlarging their own knowledge of the topics they want their students to study as themes. Engaging and reader-friendly, this book provides a rationale for themes, a thorough explanation of a variety of themes and ways to put them together, and a series of examples of themes in action in K-6 classrooms. Readers will gain an appreciation of different approaches to theme teaching and an understanding of the different kinds of themes (i.e., content area, conceptual, calendar based, form, biographical). The author presents ways in which themes can be created in the classroom and describes the stages of assembling and carrying out a theme. The book also includes detailed examples, written by classroom teachers, of themes in action. Richly illustrated, the book will be invaluable for any K-6 teacher interested in integrating themes into the classroom, as well as reading and learning disabilities specialists, curriculum supervisors and developers, and college instructors teaching courses in language arts.

278 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 1994