Surrey Teachers Convention 2014

1. Building Thematic Units from Bookroom
Offerings
Surrey Teachers Association
Convention 2014
Presented by:
Jonathan Vervaet & Cori Penner

2. Enduring Understandings are the “big
ideas” of the curriculum. They are
more than goals for a unit or grade;
they are the rationale for engaging in
discipline.

3. Enduring Understandings:
From ELA Curriculum
- A good thinker uses interpretations,
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to
deepen and enhance understanding.
- Meaning making is a constructive and
creative process; the quest for meaning is
never complete.
- We need to reflect on, monitor, and
regulate our own learning in order to
improve.

4. Essential Questions
“The best questions serve not only to
promote understanding of the content...
they also spark connections and promote
transfer of ideas.”
- Wiggins and McTighe

5. An Essential Question will be
successful if it meets two criteria:
If it is phrased in a way to be
interesting or compelling to
students.
If it gets after enduring
understandings from the
discipline(s) being studied.

6. When we organize our curriculum conceptually
around enduring understandings and/or
inquiry questions, we create a context for
learning about ideas, concepts, and
interpretive literacy processes students need
to become accomplished readers, writers, and
thinkers.

7. In our session we will cover:
• Possible Themes to Develop Units
Around
• Essential Questions to Promote Thinking
• Recommended Texts / Novels

8. What themes do
you already
introduce your
students to in your
English classes?

9. • Some themes:
• Holocaust
• Humanity /
Man
• Tolerance
• Tales of Terror
• Dystopia
• Vampires
• Aboriginal
Education –
Residential
Schools
• Truth and
Reconciliation
• Happiness
• Justice and
Morality
• Identity
• Personal
Struggles
(Substance
Abuse,
Anorexia etc.)
• Survival
• The American
Dream
• Heroes
• Journey
• Rejection of
Society

10. • Some themes:
• Power and
Authority –
Mob Mentality
• Relationships
• Revolution /
Change in
Society
• Relationship
with
Technology
• Social Media
• Body Image
• Existence
• Death and the
After Life
• The Dead and
the Undead
• The Power of
Language /
Word Choice
• Justice and
Morality
• Finding One’s
Voice
• Expression
• Spoken Word –
Empowerment
• Moving Beyond
Generational
Guilt

11. What essential questions could you ask
students to help them begin to think
about or engage in each of these themes?

12. Is the American dream poisonous?
Is human nature inherently dark?
Are humans good or evil?
Man is a wolf to his fellow man…
What makes a good story?
Is there a ‘canon’ of literature?
Will endure?
What makes works of literature / music
endure?
What makes us who we are?

13. What is impact of absence?
How does belief / non belief in an afterlife effect the way you live?
What makes a complete / full life?
How does the inevitability of death change the way one lives?
What is at the root of a contributing member of society?
What is the impact of empowerment?
What are the underlying powers in society?
What makes humans do inhumane things?

17. Contact Information
Jonathan Vervaet
Email: jonathanvervaet@gmail.com
Twitter: @jonathanvervaet
Cori Penner
Email: coripenner@gmail.com
Twitter: @CoriPenner