Justification

Dreambook Lesson Dreamhouse Lesson Bibliography with Annotation

I chose "dreams" for my theme set because having dreams is part of everyday life. Waking up from a dream or nightmare can put someone in a good or bad mood the rest of the day. Since dreams have this effect on us, we need to make an effort towards some kind of dream interpretation in the classroom. This might give children an understanding of why they have nightmares or dreams.

I started my theme set with many bedtime stories and poems because many children have their parents read a story before they go to bed. This is where many children have their first reading experiences. Poetry books seemed to be the most common book in my theme. In my opinion, poetry describes dreams the best. The connection is that dreams can be very abstract and so can poetry. Fantasy is a genre that I think will also help students think about dreams. By taking an idea from a dream and expanding on it with a complete story can help students pull their ideas from a different place and might give their story a personal meaning.

Next I searched for a book with a literal meaning of dreams. I found a non-fiction book about various systems of dream interpretation from the views of Psychologists such as Freud, Yung, and Fromm. This book has children describing their dreams and the authors help them interpret their dreams from the view of these scientists. While I was searching for other meanings of dreams, I came across a book about Martin Luther King Jr. and his "I Have a Dream" speech. This would be a great opportunity to explain the significance of other kinds of dreams.