Social Studies Methods for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers: Implications for Literacy and ELL Instruction

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 65 - 94, 29.05.2012

Stephanie M Bennett

Abstract

Eight elementary social studies methods texts were examined specifically focusing on literacy content (reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary strategies, and literacy activities) for the general education population and for English Language Learners (ELLs). Analysis of the texts found that while a limited number of reading comprehension and vocabulary strategies and activities were found in each text, half of the texts did not detail how to use the strategies in the classroom or how to differentiate instruction for ELL’s. Thus, collaboration between social studies educators, literacy educators and ESOL educators is needed in order to fully prepare our pre-service teachers to teach across content areas.

Keywords

literacy; pre-service teachers; elementary methods; social studies

References

• Allington, R.L. (2002). You can’t learn much from books you can’t read. Educational Leadership, 60(3), 16-19.
• Anderson, R. C., Fielding, L.G., & Wilson, P.T. (1988). Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly 23, 285– 304.
• August, D., Carlo, M., Dressler, C., & Snow, C. (2005). The critical role of vocabulary development for English language learners. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 20, 50-57.
• Baumann, J. F., & Kameenui, E. J. (1991). Research on vocabulary instruction: Ode to Voltaire. In J. Flood, J. D. Lapp, & J. R. Squire (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English Language Arts (pp. 604-632). New York, NY: Macmillan.
• Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., Hamilton, R.L., & Kucan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach to enhancing student engagement in text. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Blachowicz, C., & Fisher, P.J. (2006). Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
• Bohen, S.J., & Stiles, J. (1998). Experimenting with models of faculty collaboration: Factors that promote their success. New Directions for Institutional Research, 100, 39-55.
• Bransford, J., Darling-Hammond, L., & LePage, P. (2005). Introduction. In L. Darling- Hammond, & J. Bransford (Editors), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 1-39). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
• Brett, A., Rothlein, L., & Hurley, M. (1996). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories and explanations of target words. Elementary School Journal, 96(4), 415- 422.
• Brown, C.L. (2007a). Strategies for making social studies text more comprehensible for english-language learners. The Social Studies, 98(5), 185-88.
• Brown, C.L. (2007b). Supporting english language learners in content-reading. Reading Improvement, 44(1), 32-9.
• Common Core Standards. (2011).
• In the states. Retrieved from
• http://www.corestandards.org/in-the-states.
• Cruz, B.C., & Thornton, S.J. (2009). Teaching social studies to English language learners. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Cunningham, P.M. (1999). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.
• Cuthrell, K., & Yates, P. (2007). Making it all fit: Integration strategies for social studies and literacy. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 73(4), 22-39.
• Davey, B. (1983). Think aloud: Modeling the cognitive processes of reading comprehension. Journal of Reading, 27,44-47.
• Diaz-Rico, L.T., & Weed, K.Z. (2006). The crosscultural, language, and academic development handbook: A complete k-12 reference guide (3rd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.
• Ede, L., & Lunsford, A.A. (1990). Singular texts, plural authors. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP.
• Erben, T. (2009). Your English language learner. In B.C. Cruz, & S.J. Thornton (Eds.) Teaching social studies to English language learners (pp. 7-8). New York, NY: Routledge.
• Field, S.L, Bauml, M., & Ledbetter, M. (2011). Every day successes: Powerful integration of social studies content and English-language arts. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 23(3), 22-25.
• Florida State Department of Education, Office of Multicultural Student Language Education.(2003). Language arts through ESOL: A guide for teachers and administrators. Tallahassee: Florida State Department of Education.
• Gall, M.D., Gall, J.P., & Borg, W.P. (2007). Educational researcher: An introduction (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
• Garmon, M.A. (2001). The benefits of dialogue journals: What prospective teachers say. Teacher Education Quarterly, 37-50.
• Gray, W. S. (1946). On their own in reading. Chicago, IL: Scott, Foresman.
• Grigg, W.S., Daane, M.C., Jin, Y., & Campbell, J.R. (2003). National assessment of educational progress. The nation’s report card: Reading 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
• Harmon, J.M, Hedrick, W.B., & Fox, E.A. (2000). A content analysis of vocabulary instruction in social studies textbooks for grades 4-8. The Elementary School Journal, 100(3), 253-271.
• Harmon, J.M., & Hedrick, W.B. (2000). Zooming in and zooming out: Enhancing vocabulary and conceptual learning in social studies. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 155-159.
• Harmon, J.M., Hedrick, W.B., & Wood, K.D. (2005). Research on vocabulary instruction in the content areas: Implications for struggling readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21, 261-280.
• Harris, T.L., Hodges, R.E. (2005). The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Hasbrouck, J. (2006). For students who are not yet fluent, silent reading is not the best use of classroom time. American Educator, 30(2).
• Heimlich, J. E., & Pittelman, S. V. (1986). Semantic mapping: Classroom Applications. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
• Heller, R., & Greenleaf, C.L. (2007). Literacy instruction in the content areas: Getting to the core of middle and high school improvement. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
• Iles, L. (2001). Dialogue journaling with beginning-level esl students. Pennsylvania ABLE staff handbook.
• Johnson, M.J., & Janisch, C. (1998). Connecting literacy with social studies content. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 10(4), 6-9.
• Kent, A.M., & Simpson, J.L. (2008). Social studies and literacy integration: Making the most of our teaching. Social Studies Research and Practice, 3(1), 142-152.
• Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Langer, J.A. (1981). From theory to practice: A pre-reading plan. Journal of Reading, 25, 152-156.
• Lenski, S.D., Wham, M.A., & Johns, J.L. (1999). Reading and learning strategies for middle and high school students. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
• Longfellow. H.W. (1985). Paul revere’s ride. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
• Lortie, D. (1975).Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. London, UK: University of Chicago Press.
• Lymna, F. (1981). The responsive classroom discussion. In Anderson, A. S. (Ed.), Mainstreaming Digest, College Park, MD: University of Maryland College of Education.
• McCrory, R., Siedel, H., Stylianides, A. (in revision). Mathematics textbooks for elementary teachers: what's in the books?. Retrieved from http://meet.educ.msu.edu/documents/McCrory_Textbooks.pdf.
• McKeown, M.G., Beck, I.L., Omanson, R.C., & Perfetti, C.A. (1983). The effects of long term vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension: A replication. Journal of Reading Behavior, 15(1), 3-18.
• McNenny, G., & Roen, D.H. (1992). The case for collaborative scholarship in rhetoric and composition. Rhetoric Review,10(2),291-310.
• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. (2011). Definition of dove. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dove.
• Nagel, D. (2010). Feds award $330 million to find alternatives to high-stakes bubble tests. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/09/02/feds-award-330- million-to-find-alternatives-to-high-stakes-bubble-tests.aspx?sc_lang=en.
• National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). (2011). Principles for learning: A foundation for transforming K-12 education. Washington, DC: NCSS.
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Ogle, D.M. (1986). KWL: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570.
• Opitz, M.F., Rasinski, T.V., Bird, L.B. (1998). Good-bye round robin: Twenty-five effective oral reading strategies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Parker, W.C. (2001). Social studies in elementary education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Pearson, D. P., Roehler, L.R., Dole, J.A., & Duffy, G.G. (1992). Developing expertise in reading comprehension. In Samuels, S.J., & Farstrup, A. (Eds.) What research has to say about reading comprehension (2nd ed.), Newark: DE: International Reading Association.
• Proctor, C.P., August, D., Carlo, M., & Snow, C.E. (2005). Native Spanish-speaking children reading English: Toward a model of comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 246-256.
• Raphael, T.E. (1982). Question-answering strategies for children. Reading Teacher, 36, 186-191.
• ReadingQuest.org. (2006). History frame. Retrieved from http://www.readingquest.org/strat/storymaps.html.
• Smith, L. (2006). John, paul, george, & ben. New York, NY: Scholastic.
• Solomon, J., & Rhodes, N. (1995). Conceptualizing academic language. Santa Cruz, CA: National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning.
• Spencer, B.H., & Guillaume, A.M. (2006). Integrating curriculum through the learning cycle: Content-based reading and vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 60(3), 206-219.
• Sullivan, P.A. (1994). Revising the myth of the independent scholar. In Reagan, S.B., Fox, T., & Bleich, D. (Eds.) Writing with: New directions in collaborative teaching, learning and research, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
• Taba, H. (1967). Teacher’s handbook for elementary social studies. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• Thompson, L.W. (2004). Literacy development for English Language Learners: Classroom challenges in the NCLB age. CTB/McGraw Hill.
• Trelease, J. (1982). The read aloud handbook. New York, NY: Penguin.
• Vacca, R.T., & Vacca, J.A.L. (2005). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
• Voit, M. (2009). Do dialogue journals with recasts improve the writing skills for adult learners with limited literacy skills?. A capstone to fulfill the degree of Master of Arts in ESL.
• Vosen, M.A. (2010). Collaboration in composition studies and technical writing: What we say in our scholarship, what we say in our textbooks, and what we say to each other (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and These Full Text (Order No. 3407594)
• Wallace, C. (2007). Vocabulary: The key to teaching English language learners to read. Reading Improvement, 44(4), 189-193.
• Wanzek, J., Wexler, J., Vaughn, S., & Ciullo, S. (2010). Reading interventions for struggling readers in the upper elementary grades: A synthesis of 20 years of research. Reading and Writing, 23(8), 889-912.
• Zimmerman, S., & Keene, E. (2007). Mosaic of thought (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.