Themes usually address a topic, issue, or concern that learners have. Theme-based planning means organizing lessons around the general idea or theme that learners identify as being most important. Theme units integrate a variety of skills because they are not subject specific. Therefore, it is possible to teach Communications, Numeracy, Lifelong Learning and Interpersonal skills all within the same theme.
Instructors and tutors are encouraged to plan theme units with learners. Learners can help identify relevant learning activities that relate to the theme. Instructors need to keep track of the learning outcomes, organize the flow of the learning activities, help choose appropriate assessment tools, and suggest learning activities when needed. Learners should be invited to develop self-assessment techniques and document their learning.
Instructors and learners together can choose the theme and relevant learning activities. For learners who have little or no experience in guiding their own learning, instructors and tutors may initially find they have to choose more of the learning activities. The learning activities chosen may change as the theme evolves. This is a natural result of working with learners who are becoming empowered, and change should be accommodated as much as possible.
Portfolio assessment techniques are highly recommended when working with Levels 1 and 2 learners who may not read or write well enough to produce a large number of print items in a portfolio. These learners may also be intimidated by formal tests, so rating scales, journals, logs, and checklists may be more appropriate.
Finally, the instructor or tutor will need to keep track of which learning outcomes are met during the theme unit. If some learning outcomes are consistently missed from theme to theme, the instructor and learners will need to develop learning activities to meet those outcomes.
To review, the process of developing a theme usually begins with identifying the theme, choosing learning activities, choosing assessment strategies, and then identifying learning outcomes. Not all theme units may be developed in this fashion. Some instructors and learners may wish to develop theme units in a different order. That is an option in keeping with the emphasis on personal empowerment and self-directed learning in the Benchmarks.
The following theme-based planners and theme units are examples only. The level of detail in the theme units helps to describe how to think through theme-based planning. It is not expected that facilitators will write out their own unit plans in this way or include this level of detail. Facilitators are welcome to use these models or develop other theme-based models that are more appropriate to their circumstances.