As we near the beginning of the school year, I thought it would be helpful for me to brush up on some strategies and develop a few more tools for the teaching toolbox this year. Below are some guides that I found helpful, see links below.
- ELLs and Social Studies (NYU)
- Analyzes difficulties with multiple meanings of common social studies words
- Provides strategies to deepen students comprehension of challenging texts with examples of application: T-Notes, analogies, cause-effect chains, concept circles
- How to brainstorm to activate prior knowledge
- Previewing content vocabulary
- When, if ever, to use multiple choice questions
- Teaching students to self-assess
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| SOURCE: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/ |
- Teaching the English Language Learner in the Social Studies Classroom (Glencoe)
- General explanations on challenges ELLs face and effective teaching strategies: role playing, creating analogies, preteaching readings, jigsaw readings, creating note guides before lectures
- Making Social Studies Meaningful for ELL Students (Long Island University: Szpara & Ahmad)
- An academic paper but contains a number of research-based specific suggestions for teaching ELLs:
- Develop a Socially Supportive Classroom Environment:
- Learn students’ given/ethnic names
- Learn basic greetings in various languages
- Explicitly voice high expectations for all students
- Explicitly teach Cognitive Academic Language
- Give instruction in literacy skills
- Teach how to decode new terms
- Teach how to skim & scan
- Reduce Cognitive Load and Increase Accessibility of Complex Content Knowledge:
- Translate key words in English instructions for DBQs
- Utilize visual supports
- Use graphic organizers—write down all important information
- Develop a Socially Supportive Classroom Environment:
- An academic paper but contains a number of research-based specific suggestions for teaching ELLs:
- Visualizing Social Studies Literacy
- Excellent specific examples of how to incorporate visuals that will increase accessibility for ELLS:
- Picture Dictionaries & Picture Books
- Historical Photographs
- Paintings & Illustrations
- Propaganda Posters
- Charts & Graphs
- Realia
- Timelines
- Graphic Organizers
- Excellent specific examples of how to incorporate visuals that will increase accessibility for ELLS: