Understanding Language Learning Through Second Language

[English translation]
Nora and Esteban talk about the clothing that the students and professor are wearing.
Nora: Esteban, Lan’s pink blouse is pretty, isn’t it?
Esteban: Yes, it’s very pretty, but . . . is it pink or red?
Nora: It’s red, Esteban!
Esteban: What color are Alberto’s pants?
Nora: They are gray. And his shirt is orange.
Esteban: [Disgusted] The color gray with the color orange . . . yuck!
Nora: Hey, is Luis’s jacket purple?
Esteban: [Unsure] Uh . . . hmmm . . . it’s blue . . . right?
Nora: Yes, Esteban. Luis’s jacket is blue.
Esteban: But Professor Martínez’s coat is purple, right?
Nora: Right! And it’s very elegant!
Esteban: [Unconvinced] Elegant? Well, a little . . .
Thematic Unit Planning and Big Ideas
The next task in planning is to divide the long-term plan into teachable chunks, called units of instruction. In recent years, teachers have focused on creating thematic units, a series of related lessons around a topic (e.g., travel), a particular context (e.g., a story), or a particular subject-content theme (e.g., the effect of geography on daily living). While thematic units may correspond to unit divisions in the textbook, they typically include objectives, activities, and materials that do not emanate solely from the pages of the textbook.
A key consideration in planning for language instruction is selecting content that not only addresses standards and curricular goals but that is also meaningful, engaging, and motivates learners. To this end, Clementi and Terrill (2013) identify five principles of thematic unit design:

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  Communicatively purposeful: Building toward proficiency
  
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  Culturally focused: Developing interculturality
  
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  Intrinsically interesting: Relevant to learners
  
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  Cognitively engaging: Requiring critical thinking skills
  
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  Standards-based: Reflecting goals for learning languages (p. 93)
  

Taking these principles into account, the focus of instruction in backward-design planning is on the big ideas for understanding and learning. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) describe a big idea as a “concept, theme, or issue that gives meaning and connection to discrete facts and skills” (p. 5), that is, helps us to make sense of information and experiences by seeing the larger picture. According to Glisan (2010), “Planning on the basis of big ideas shifts the focus away from inert grammatical details—that is, talking about the language—to using the language for a bigger communicative goal and for exploring the cultural communities in which the language is spoken” (p. 7, italics in original). Big ideas are not considered “basic” ideas nor do they refer to a large amount of content. Instead, they are ideas that are at the core of the subject and bear investigating; they are not able to be explained with a “correct answer” or in a few sentences but are the result of inquiry and reflective work devoted over time (that is, throughout a unit of instruction). A big idea may take the form of a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a question, and may reflect a concept (“immigration”), theme (“coming of age”), ongoing debate and point of view (“People have the right to be free.”), paradox (“leaving home to find oneself”), underlying assumption (“Global citizenship carries with it responsibilities.”), and recurring question (“Should a politician’s personal life be shielded from public scrutiny?”), among other possibilities (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 70).