Aimed at helping students in grades 5-8 read and enjoy more varieties of literature as well as promoting more writing, this guide offers materials which use a thematic approach to reading, writing, and literature. The guide provides reproducible and hands-on activity ideas plus bibliographies for the genres of realistic fiction, animal tales,…

Noting that whole language proponents suggest integration of two or more subject areas around a common theme using literature, this paper presents annotations of 31 items from the ERIC database on thematic units of study. Annotations in the paper are organized into six sections--overview, elementary examples, research, secondary examples, special…