Making the ConnectionsEffective Integration of Social

Studies and English Language Arts

Making the Connections

Reading Like

a Detecti

ve

Student Comments

“They were all different sources saying different

things. Some were letters which meant they were lies. Others were newspaper articles and political cartoons which

were biased. It was hard to know what to

believe.”

“We got to make our own interpretations rather

than you simple standing up there and telling us what happened If you

had just told us, we would not have understood how many perspectives there

were.”“So what is the answer?”

Building Knowledge through Content-Rich Nonfiction and Informational Text

What the Student Does… Builds content knowledge

through text

Finds evidence

Gains exposure to the world through reading

Handles primary source documents

What the Teacher Does… Balances informational &

literary text

Scaffolds for informational texts

Teaches “through” and “with” informational texts by allowing students to read the text instead of summarizing

Reading and Writing Grounded in Evidence from the Text

What the Student Does… Finds evidence to support their

argument and writes using evidence

Forms own judgments and creates informational texts

Reads texts closely

Engages with the author and his/her choices

Compares multiple sources

What the Teacher Does… Facilitates evidence based conversations

and presents opportunities to write about multiple texts

Keeps students in the text and gives them opportunities to analyze, synthesize ideas

Asks questions that are text-dependent, worth exploring

Develops students’ voice to argue a point and articulate conclusions using evidence

Regular Practice with Complex Text and its Academic Vocabulary

What the Student Does…• Rereads

• Tolerates frustration when engaged with challenging text

• Uses high utility words across content areas

• Builds “language of power” database

What the Teacher Does… Spends more time on more complex texts

at every grade level

Gives students less to read, lets them reread

Provides scaffolding & strategies

Develops students’ ability to use and access words

Is strategic about the new vocabulary words

Teaches fewer words more deeply

Let’s Take a Look at the Standards

English Language Arts RI.8.1: Cite the textual

evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Social Studies Grade 8: Cite specific

textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Let’s Take a Look at the Standards

English Language Arts RI.7.6: Determine an

author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.

Social Studies Grade 7: Identify aspects

of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

Participant Activity?

DBQ’s ?

Text Sets?

Resources

Letters of Note

Primary Source Documents

Awesome Stories ….. is a free website presenting compelling stories with related

primary source evidence in the form of videos, audio clips, documents and images, so that students can engage, research, think critically, reflect and communicate to succeed as 21st century learners.

Put the stories of

life on trial.

www.awesomestories.com