In world history, we have an incredible opportunity to bring our students’ backgrounds and stories into the classroom. Sharing and showcasing people and places that are familiar parts of students’ own stories helps draw connections between past & present. Some of the greatest challenges are in the complex language that often fills historical documents. While students work on decoding a document, we must also work to develop broader academic vocabulary skills among all students, just as we develop their historical thinking skills about the content.
However, especially with a vocabulary-dense environment like social studies, ensuring that my multilingual students are able to access the curriculum is a personal goal. Similar to the course frames, I have worked to develop frames that can be used for language acquisition. My go-to vocab exercises include:
- Frayer frames as models (bonus: Frayer model slides for my lesson on Consolidation of Power)
- highlighting the typeface of a crucial skill or content in a lesson (see my “goal” slides to remind students of their focus during the Silk Road simulation)
- Embedding small conversations between students, so they use specific terms – photos below are from the Climate Summit, and the silent conversation of portable belief systems.
How do you involve language development among your students? A picture is worth a thousand words – and I’d love to see what’s on your walls.
