Real Life themes to include in activities

People respond to real events, students particularly. The following list is an outline of themes that are part of all cultures. When ideas fromo this list are included in activities or brought up during discussions, student interest is increased and they want to share and learn more about them. inclusion of these ideas, as appropriate, can increase student motivation and connect school activities to the students’ life and other world communities.

  1. Points in Time: Time, point, duration, past, present, future ...
  2. Environmental themes: Setting, climate, terrain, objects
    • Geography
    • Symbols
    • Tools
    • Senses: sounds, smells, tastes, tactile feelings, sights
    • Climate
    • Clothing
    • Art
    • Waste
    • Resources
    • Other Societies
    • Constructions
    • Wealth
    • Alien
    • Organisms
    • Substances
  3. Participants: actors, number of participants, distribution of participants...
    • Planning Themes
    • Sex
    • Physiological Characteristics
    • Age
  4. Actions - social patterns work worship
    • Working
    • Maintaining Members
    • Holidays / Special Days
    • Residing
    • Worshiping
    • Distributing and Exchanging Wealth
    • Maintaining Environment
    • Playing
    • Educating
    • Communicating
    • Waste Disposal
    • Owning
    • Making Decisions
    • Acquiring / Displaying Status
    • Controlling Behavior
    • Expressing Creativity
    • Maintaining Boundaries
  5. Thoughts - motives, assumptions, beliefs (sometimes elaborated by academic disciplines)
    • Physical reality
    • The Individual
    • Acceptable Actions
    • Space
    • Nature
    • Others
    • Time
    • The Good Life
    • The Supernatural
    • Symbols
    • Causation
  6. Purpose of Existence

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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