Instruction and Assessment in Elementary Social Studies
Disciplinary Literacy
Agenda
Bell Ringer - Analyzing Photographs
Quick Review
In science, you were introduced to a number of literacy related ideas:
Hattie and Visible Learning
Hattie’s Question:
“Which variables have the greatest impact on student achievement?”
The Visible Learning® research base presents the largest collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning (and what doesn't).
The measure used is effect size. It is a quantitative measure of the magnitude of the experimental effect. The larger the effect size, the stronger the relationship between two variables.
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What is Disciplinary Literacy?
Disciplinary literacy consists of the practices and skills required for someone to comprehend and actively participate in the study of a discipline, such as math, science, or history, in ways similar to how an expert, such as a mathematician, scientist, or historian, does.
Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents. Harvard Educational Review,
78(1), 40-59.
Disciplinary Literacy
Disciplinary Literacy involves the use of
required to learn and form complex knowledge appropriate to a particular discipline.
- McConachie, 2010, p. 16
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Beginning Literacy | Content Literacy | Disciplinary Literacy |
Letter Sound Relationships Encoding (spelling) Decoding (learning to attack new words) Sight Words Fluency These skills lead to the development of automaticity, freeing the learner to focus on meaning. |
Making Connections Predicting Asking Questions Determining Importance Summarizing Visualizing Text Structure Monitoring Comprehension These skills propel a learning to proficiency and are essential skills for all subject areas. The skills are developed from the “outsider” view of the discipline. |
Scientist Artist Mathematician Literary Specialist Historian Economist Musician These skills are determined by the text and practices of the discipline. Learners continue to develop these skills throughout middle school, high school, advanced education, and into vocational programs and careers as they become members of disciplinary culture. |
Progression of Literacy Development
Lent, R.C. & Voigt, M.M. (2018). Disciplinary literacy in action. Corwin.
Skills in the Standards
From the SOL Introduction:
Preceding the standards at each grade level is a skills standard. The development of these skills at each grade level is important as students develop academically in all content areas. The skills will not be assessed in isolation; rather, they will be assessed as part of the content in the History and Social Science Standards of Learning.
Skills comparison chart - 2015 vs 2023
Skills Progression Chart
The goal is to use the skills to teach the content. Skills usage should be:
Think-Pair-Share
Surface learning occurs when students gain initial understanding of the concepts, terms, skills, facts, and vocabulary of a topic.
What surface learning strategies from Chapter 2 of Visible Learning connect to:
What strategy are you most interested in trying with students and why?
What is Historical Thinking?
Turn and Talk
With a partner, discuss how historical thinking skills align to the disciplinary literacy skills for all content areas.
Frayer Model
We are going to use a graphic organizer to define the term primary source.
For this term you will provide:
Primary Sources
Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time under study.
Examples:
Tools of Historians
Artifacts
Material remains of past human life and activities
Virtual Artifacts
Sometimes we cannot examine artifacts directly, so images of artifacts can be informative.
Finding Primary Sources
Primary sources are “original documents and objects created at the time under study.”
How will you find primary sources for use in the classroom?
The Library of Congress has an enormous collection, much of which is digitized. The challenge is in finding useful materials. The videos that follow provide strategies for searching the collection.
Shortcuts to Primary Sources
Planning a Search
Working with Photos and Prints
Working with Maps
Primary Source Sites
Here are some helpful sites to mine for primary sources.
Map Sites
Here are some helpful sites to search for maps.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place from the original.
Examples:
A Note Before Reading
The chapters in Richmond’s Unhealed History are hard to read for a number of reasons. The text includes excerpts from many different primary sources. How should we approach the reading of difficult or insensitive materials?
Closure
ABC Summary Strategy
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Housekeeping
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