Challenges to Social Studies Literacy

1. Challenges to Social Studies Literacy Michael A. Kopish, Ph.D. Plymouth State University

2. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • Limited background knowledge • Chronology of events (i.e. students “miss” a portion) • Geography (i.e. distances) • Cultural variations

3. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • Limited points of view in many social studies materials • Textbooks tell the “story” from the point of view from “heroes” or “victors.” • Perspectives from those effected are often missing – Eurocentric perspective

4. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • Unfamiliarity with the formats and the instructional styles used in social studies classes. • i.e. procedures for report writing, oral presentations, classroom discussions • How might one form a paragraph; compare and contrast issues, perspectives; provide warrants to support claims; or communicate cause and effects?

5. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • High vocabulary density in social studies materials • Terms and concepts go far beyond the highlights of the text • Terms can be abstract as opposed to concrete • Federalism, division, democracy, government, economy, citizen, constitution, subjects, supreme • Manifest destiny, imperialism, civil rights • SNCC, TVA, GAO

6. What is a Text Structure? • Text structure refers to the internal organization of a text • As authors write a text to communicate an idea, they will use a structure that goes along with the idea (Meyer , 1985)

7. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • A complex variety of genre and sentence structures in social studies materials • Expository writing vs. narrative writing • Unclear referents • Sentences that begin with “It” – referring to? • Confusing visual organization • Headers do not preview or summarize the section • Illustrations are unconnected “add-ons” • Complicated sentences • Embedded clauses and complicated verb structures • “supposed to have taken” and “need no longer fear”

8. Challenges of Social Studies Instruction • Heavy reliance on advanced literacy skills, with limited opportunities for hands-on activities • Assumption: High degree of literacy • Assumption: Student connection of abstract to concrete

9. Reflective Cycle

10. Successful Social Studies Instructional Strategies • Offer opportunities to communicate about social studies – in oral, written, physical, or pictorial forms • Make connections between the content taught and students’ real-life experiences. • Use the students as resources for information about lives, culture, native background. • Activate students’ background knowledge.

11. Successful Social Studies Instructional Strategies • Provide hands-on and performance-based activities • Promote critical thinking and study skills development • Pay attention to language issues and employ strategies that will help students learn the language of social studies • Use graphic organizers to help students represent information and identify relationships

12. Successful Social Studies Instructional Strategies • Incorporate cooperative learning activities and seek peer tutors among classmates • Be process-oriented and provide modeling for students to make transitions to academic tasks • Open discussion to different perspectives of history • Adjust instruction for the different learning styles of the students • Offer students choices and access to tools for learning

13. Golden Nuggets • Visual representations • Opportunities to act out physically • Tie to student experiences • Develop sentence structures and skills with more extensive discourse patterns • Teacher & students learn to paraphrase • Connect with shared concrete experiences • Follow-up literacy activities (read about the election and conduct an election • Role play

14. Golden Nuggets • Guided practice for writing • Narrative writing (writing that tells a story) • Descriptive writing (to describe a  person, place or thing in such away that a picture is formed in the reader's mind) • Persuasive writing (main goal is to persuade or convince someone) • Expository writing (to explain, describe, give information or inform)

15. Golden Nuggets • Identify structures in social studies texts • Sequential (chronological) – a main idea is supported by details that must be in a particular order [first, next, later, and finally] • Cause-effect – supporting details of two or more main ideas indicate how those concepts are similar or different [cause, effect, as a result, consequently] • Problem-solution – shows a problem and how it can be solved [problem, solution, solve, effect, hopeful] • Description/Enumeration – a major idea is supported by a list of details or examples [next to, on top of, beside, so forth] • Comparison-contrast – supporting details of two or more main ideas indicate how those concepts are similar or different [like, similar, unlike, on the other hand, also, too]