It's good to hear further agreement on the strategy of giving kids at-grade level text. I am finding that I provide more and more scaffolding all the time, such as preliminary vocab, further preliminary videos, definitions within the text as needed, and then group discussion. Over all though I've found that nothing really beats primary source documents as students can see for themselves what the controversies were all about. I have found that not only is it more compelling, but students generally appreciate being given challenging text. #MCHE
I appreciate your take on this Kathleen. I am also interested in your background and its contribution to your content area. Quite helpful. I teach 5th-8th grade social studies/history so I am across quite a board. The notion of storytelling is so appealing to me. I feel like that is when they really listen. While I have been in education for quite some time, I am relatively new to this content area so professional development has been key for me. I also teach literature so finding those connections will continue to be valuable. I believe continued work with fact vs. opinion is especially critical in analyzing both the past and today's news...it seems to get harder and harder and yet so necessary! #MCHE
As both a historian and librarian I really appreciate the idea of using stories to hook students prior to helping them engage with a challenging text. I think reading aloud to students, even high schoolers (thanks, Tony!), provides students with another avenue to engage with difficult vocabulary in context, not to mention natural moments to ask for content and vocab clarification. Building empathy through connecting to the human experience is something we desperately need in order to help students build civic (and other forms of) literacy. The idea of transparency is also compelling: acknowledging that a text is difficult and that students are practicing a challenge skill, as well as the idea that history is the collection of stories that our culture chooses to include. What stories do our texts tell us, and what stories are missing? These kinds of discussions can further engage students as they explore challenging materials. #MCHE
Yes! I was just speaking with my mentor teacher, who teaches ELA, about this yesterday! One read is never enough, and ELA skills can and should be used in every subject area. I think our students too often consider skills they learn in one class to only be used in that specific one. So, their close reading and other reading-comprehension skills are fixed, in their minds, to their ELA class only. Something that I feel has helped my students is having a joint "8th Grade Test Prep" class with our science teacher. One thing that we've worked to develop in our students with this class is the idea that the skills, including close reading and analyzing the text, that they use in other classes can transcend into other subjects, as well.
This video suggests a number of reading strategies that teachers can use to have students engage with more difficult text/ documents. I like to share this on. I often admit that a specific reading is hard and that it takes work even for me to understand. By sharing with your students that the process of reading for literacy is an effort even for educators that this develops a sense of trust. #MCHE
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Too often kids don't carry over their skills to other areas and that needs to become a norm. I have taught so many Close Reads in my ELA classes, but so few kids even attempt that in their SS classes…
I agree with Megan's comment regarding the carry over of skills. We do a weekly Close Read in class with our ELA. I do not see the use of this in Social Studies texts unless I guide them through it step…
This talk does a great job of emphasizing the importance of creating "access points" for students. Early in my career, I can remember having lessons with articles from academic journals and primary documents…