Theme strategies - What do you do to reinforce themes over the course of the school year?

Julianne Farkas  you are so right - reinforcing the themes is a valuable use of instructional time, yet it can be hard to do as the school year progresses!

In my directions for projects and assignments, I often give students a reminder to "Think PIECES." Here's an example for gunpowder empires. 

I grabbed this drag and drop review from the FB group, which can help students practice applying course themes to the Industrial Revolution.

In the second half of the course, we do a lot of FRQ practice - sometimes formally, sometimes informally with pair-shares, whiteboards, outlines, etc. This is a good opportunity to discuss what evidence would or would not score based on the wording of FRQ prompts and address student misconceptions about the course themes.

Can you please remind me what PIECES stands for?

Sure! Political, Innovation, Environment, Culture, Economic, and Social. I used to use the SPICE-T acronym but converted to the PIECES acronym to match the WHP Themes Intro.

Got it.  Working with 9th graders, it is better for me to use the CB words for political and innovation.  It helps the younger kids at the beginning. 

Does any one else have other activities they do to reinforce themes?

Julianne Farkas Anne Koschmider 

To reinforce themes, I ask students almost every day after a discussion or activity what details match each theme.  Some days I'll have a reward (candy or stickers/stamps) for those students who respond, and other days I ask which theme doesn't fit the topic or prompt.  They seem to like being reminded frequently that they're getting how the themes are so prevalent throughout the narratives they're learning.

That is a great idea and keeps the themes fresh in their heads.  Do they walk in some days and already tell you the theme?  Also, very nice reward system.

Which FB group please?

Julianne Farkas  PIECES is a convenient tool for students to master as they work with new material.