Reading and Writing in Social Studies

Looking Ahead What role does information and communication skills have in the social studies curriculum? What information skills are most essential to social studies? What tools are available for teachers and students for teaching/learning these skills? What pitfalls/problems exist for teachers and students when utilizing those tools?

Can You? Name the four basic purposes for reading and writing assignments in social studies? Identify the specific reading abilities students need in social studies? Explain how to use textbooks with students who cannot read? Think of ways to use fiction books in social studies? Help students use the Internet for research?

Do You? Know what students dislike most about using references? Know how to break students out of the "copy from the Internet"? Know how to make social studies book reports interesting? Know how to help students learn to organize their writing? Know several ways to teach new concepts and new vocabulary? Know some ways to actually shorten what students have to read? Know why it is important for students to understand the organization of reading material?

Focus Activity What was your favorite book(s) as a teenager? Why? Do you remember reading or having it read to you by a parent or teacher? Share experiences with classmates. Discuss the details of the book(s) and how you might use them in your classroom?

Every Teacher is a Reading Teacher Why should every middle/secondary teacher be considered a reading teacher?

Reading and Writing Assignments in Social Studies What traits should an effective assignment have? Provoke the curiosity of students Teacher facilitated (i.e. challenging but not impossible) Able to be accomplished in a fair amount of time for the appropriate age and ability of students Clearly organized and understandable

Reading Skills Needed in Social Studies Recognize the organization of reading materials Bring meaning to reading Read for a purpose Read critically

Helping Students Read Social Studies Materials 1. Pre-teach difficult vocabulary prior to reading. 2. Reduce the length of independent reading tasks. 3. Provide specific, clear purposes for reading. 4. Help students get a sense of the "story" that the reading material is telling, developing their predictive skills.

Strategies for Developing Vocabulary Teacher Explanation of Meaning Frayer Model Classifying Experiences Extended Teacher Definitions Teacher-Provided Experiences Student-Centered Experiences

Less Can Be More: Quality Reading in Social Studies What are some ways a teacher can reduce the quantity but maintain the quality of the social studies reading? Use student-written summaries instead of the text Use teacher-written summaries instead of the text Use textbook cut-ups Try textbook highlighting Experiment with question write-ins Cooperate with class divide-ups

Reading Textbooks What do teachers need to do in order to use textbooks effectively? Give specific purposeful assignments Stimulate interest in doing the reading Make sure that students have the skills needed to do the assignment Provide supervision, monitoring, and help where needed Follow up on reading assignments

Helping Students Develop a Sense of the “Story” by Aiding Predictions It provides purposes for reading in the form of expectations. It heightens anticipation and interest. It helps determine in what way materials relate to particular interests, questions, hypotheses, and so on. It provides advance organizers for thinking about what is read. It aids in predicting.

Purposeful Reading Provide guided questions before reading that identify specific types of information and understandings the student is to gain. Provide study questions that ask the student to identify the ways an author thinks and to go beyond the author’s thoughts. Alert students prior to reading to follow-up tasks that will employ particular knowledge and concepts.

Reading Question and Task Statements What strategies can help students better understand the questions they are being asked? Teach students to be sensitive to the nature of question words and to the nature of the answers these words demand (i.e. who, what, where, etc…) Alerting students to organizational features of textbooks related to questions

Reading Social Studies Themed Trade Books What are trade books? Trade books are a variety of reading topics and formats, including biographies, fiction, and poetry; written for various levels. Why might you utilize biographies? Fiction? Poetry? Visit for the Notable Trade Books for Young Readers annual list for the last few years.

Connecting Reading and Writing in Social Studies Economic Reports Archeology Reports Story Museum Reports Comic Reports Shoe Box Story Parade Book Trials Historical Creation Reports Story Geography Sociometries of Books Publicity and Review Reports

Organizing to Write What are the two major kinds of difficulties students experience with writing assignments in social studies? clarity of the assignment how well prepared students are for an assignment What are the base or prerequisite skills needed for many if not all writing jobs? Note Taking Writing Answers to Questions Outlining Do NOT assume students know how to do this

Developing Research and Reporting Skills What are the benefits of having students complete reports? What type of reporting is best for middle/secondary students? What is a real danger in having students complete reports?

Writing Creatively In-Role Writing? Modeling Cultures? Problem-Solving Stories? Diary? Collaborative Writing?

Looking Back Social studies is knowledge based most readily communicated through print. Reading and writing grows through practice and they are linked to thinking. There are several strategies that teachers can use to help students Pre-teaching vocabulary Reducing the actual length of reading assignments Providing sufficient and clear purposes for reading Developing predictive skills

Extension You have been procrastinating in completing your trade book adoptions project. Feeling a little stressed about the timeline you consider alternatives. In the end you decide you only have two options. Option One: Develop your own list of twenty books you could use in your classroom to help teach social studies. Option Two: Partner with your other grade level teachers and develop one list of twenty books that all the teachers in your grade will utilize to help teach social studies.

Extension Select an option. Develop a trade book adoption list. The list should include at least twenty books recently published trade books. The list should also include all bibliographic information: summary of the books, discussion of how you could use the book in social studies possible state and national standards addressed

Extension What are the advantages/disadvantages of having your other grade level teachers input and adopting one set of trade books? What are the advantages/disadvantages of selecting your own list of twenty books for adoption? What qualities, topics, etc… would you seek in the new books?

Self-Test 1. What are the four basic purposes for which reading and writing assignments are used in independent seat work? 2. What are the qualities that you need to look for in a nonfiction book? 3. What are some different kinds of fictional material that can be used in social studies? 4. What are the purposes of learning research and reporting skills? 5. How are guidelines useful in making textbook questions more meaningful?

Self-Test 6. Why do teachers have students write reports and present them orally? 7. Describe several ways of teaching concepts and vocabulary to students. 8. What is SQ3R? 9. What is meant by the term purposeful reading and why is the concept important?

Resources The Great Books Foundation- NCSS Notable Trade Books able Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J.L. & Mraz, M.E. (2010). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.