Thematic units

I really enjoy writing thematic/cross-curricular units. They are a lot of work, but the whole time I'm working on it I know I am doing something that will be incredibly effective in the classroom. If it was possible, I would teach thematic units all year long. The idea that all subjects are interrelated is something that students need to understand in order to see the value of a course like "reading" for example.

I wrote my thematic unit on Survival Situations. Students learn about a variety of survival skills in each of their courses and then demonstrate them through the plots, events, and characters by authoring a short story. In art class, they illustrate the story. In Technology Applications class, they learn how to attratively layout their stories like a book with embedded illustrations.

Subjects used: English/Reading, Science, Health, Technology Applications, Art

traveling story activities

The traveling story activity that we did in class was a lot of fun. However, I would be very scared to conduct this type of activity in a middle or high school  class where  inapporpriate topics (such as those brought up in class) should not be a part of class discussion. Inappropriate topics seemed to dominate the topics and events of the traveling stories written by college students in our course. If future teachers, at our level of maturity aren't able to keep it PG, how can I expect my students to be able to keep it appropriate? I do not forsee me trying to use this activity unless there is a way to hold students accountable for each and every entry into the story.  It was a lof of fun though!