THE PRACTICE: Supporting the social studies classroom through literacy development
Content Presented By:
Center for Resource Management (CRM)
The Education Alliance at Brown University

Resources related to this practice:

• Best Practice in Social Studies
  http://instech.tusd.k12.az.us/balancedlit/handbook/BLHS/blsshs.htm

  Lists all the best practices in teaching social studies.

• Discovery Education: School Resources
  http://school.discoveryeducation.com/

  This website offers free access to a library of K-12 lesson plans in science, math, social studies, English language arts, and fine arts, along with several other curriculum resources and regularly updated links to high-quality sites with instructional materials.

• EdSitement
  http://www.edsitement.neh.gov/

  This website from the National Endowment for the Humanities provides high-quality searchable lesson plans in social studies and English language arts.

• ELL Resource: Social Studies and ESL Students
  http://www.albany.edu/lap/MODULE%208.doc

  Handout that forms part of an Instructional model created by the Language Advocacy Project (LAP) at the University at Albany. This unit deals specifically with social studies. It includes suggestions about where to start with these students and strategies for helping ESL students understand social studies textbooks.

• Lesson: The Lorax and Human-Environmental Interaction
  http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/resources/CollabSSLessonLorax
  HEI_Damato.pdf

  In this lesson, sixth grade social studies teacher Andrea Damato uses the Dr. Seuss children's story The Lorax to help her students deepen their understanding of cause and effect, focusing on the harmful consequences of some types of human interaction with the environment. Damato developed this lesson during her participation in the 2007-2008 Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory, a program of The Education Alliance at Brown University.

• Literacy Instruction in Social Studies (Greece CSD, NY)
  http://web001.greece.k12.ny.us/academics.cfm?subpage=1361

  This site from the Greece Central School District in Greece, NY, contains several documents providing guidance on K-12 integration of literacy into social studies instruction, including guidelines on helping students to respond to Document Based Questions.

• Literacy Matters for Social Studies
  http://www.literacymatters.org/content/socialstudies.htm

  A resource developed by the Education Development Center, EDC, with numerous Web resources for social studies teachers, parents, and students.

• LitSite Alaska: Workbooks and Peer Work Index
  http://litsite.alaska.edu/uaa/workbooks/workbooks.html

  This part of the site is full of activities and exercises contributed by educators, parents and students from around Alaska. Each Workbook is divided into sections for multiple skill levels that are grade-specific. Note especially the following activities: Angel Card Discussion Technique, Book Report, Justice and Freedom, Newspapers in Education -- High School Reading, and Writing with Empathy.

• Problem Based Social Studies
  http://www.bie.org/pbss/index.php

  This Web page from the Buck Institute for Education provides a series of free curriculum units to guide problem based learning in social studies. It includes units related to real-world problems in economics and government, many on high-interest topics for students.

• Reading Quest.org Making Sense in Social Studies. Strategies for Reading Comprehension
  http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/

  This site contains a list of strategies for reading comprehension.

• Readquest Strategies for Reading Comprehension
  http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/

  From the readquest Web site, designed for social studies teachers who wish to engage their students more effectively with the content in their classes, this Web page contains specific information for teaching and downloadable student pages for 27 strategies.

• Webquests for constructivist lessons across the curriculum
  http://webquest.org/

  At this site, view and obtain vetted lessons in 12 curricular areas and all grades, using the WebQuest model, a constructivist lesson format used widely around the world.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu