The Execution of All Things

What's the difference between interconnectedness and repetitiveness? How come sometimes revisiting a topic feels like a thematic exploration, but other times it feels deadly dull?


I've been thinking about this lately, because I'm attracted to the idea of organizing teaching units thematically, rather than temporally or by author. I think building classes around a theme is more interesting and helps both students and teachers approach texts more intentionally and creatively.


I also think revisiting the same theme using different texts gives teachers a mechanism to delve more deeply into the material and challenge students to develop more nuanced perspectives. Instead of reading each text in a vacuum, or simply comparing and contrasting texts with each other, a thematic approach provides an intellectual framework for considering each text as part of a larger conversation.


I have seen the benefits of focusing on a theme in my own education. This semester, for instance, I am taking a linguistics class, and I see many of the topics from the linguistics class echoed in my methods class. The two classes reinforce each other and help me understand the material more thoroughly.


Some of my favorite classes have been organized around a theme. Last semester, I took a film class on Violence in Cinema. In college, I took a class on personal essays and another called "Philosophic Fictions."  In each of these classes, I enjoyed the way the thematic lens focused class discussions and unified otherwise disparate texts.


But just like any pedagogical technique, thematic organization has its limitations. If we use themes as an excuse to recycle the same old material under a different name, we do our students a disservice. It is certainly possible to read the same texts over and over again and discover something new each time. As an inveterate re-reader of my favorite books, essays, and short stories, I appreciate the opportunity to revisit old texts from a new perspective.


But it's easy to fall into a rut and use the same old tired themes in the same old tired ways. When that happens, instead of exploring texts from a new perspective, we bore our students with the same texts they've read a thousand times before. On the other hand, if we approach well-worn themes using unusual texts, or read traditional texts from a unique thematic vantage point we can engage our students and make them excited about exploring texts thematically.