Chapter 8

Literacy
Chapter Content
 1- Social Studies Textbooks
 2- Criticisms of Social Studies Textbooks
 3- Instructional Strategies for Reading the Textbook:
 3.1-Activating Background Knowledge:
• 1- K-W-L Chart
• 2- PreReading Plan
 3.2- Graphic Organizers
 3.3- Vocabulary:
• 1- Contextual Redefinition
• 2- Semantic Maps
• 3- A Best Option Approach
 3.4- Comprehension:
• 1- Teaching Reading Strategies Through Reciprocal Teaching
• 2- Question Classification and Answer Verification Through QARs
• 3- Highlighting Important Information Through the Use of Text Structures
 3.5- A teaching Sequence
 3.6- Ten ways to Help Children who “Can’t Read” the Textbook
Chapter Content

 4- Children’s Literature: Information Books and Biography

• 4.1- Selection of Information Books
• 4.2- How to use Information Books to Teach Social Studies

 5- Children’s Literature: Fiction

 5.1- Why Use Fiction?
 5.2- How to use Fiction?
 6- Writing in the Social Studies Program
• 6.1- Forms of Writing Well Suited to the Social Studies
• 6.2- Writing as a Part of Civic Education
 7- Summary of Key Points
1- Social Studies Textbooks

 Almost every school purchases social studies textbooks as part of a

classroom package that usually includes a teacher's edition, student texts,
worksheets, and supplemental items like CDs, DVDs, maps, and charts
 For many teachers, the social studies textbook is at the center of social
studies instruction
2- Criticisms of Social Studies Textbooks
 Despite their widespread use and popularity, social studies textbooks have
been criticized.
 The criticisms of textbooks can be summarized as follows:
• Social studies textbooks tend to avoid controversy and fail to present
conflicting points of view. Publishers try to produce textbooks with wide
acceptability; because of the potential for alienating prospective buyers, the
presentation of conflicting perspectives is avoided.
• Social studies textbooks can be dull. The writing is bland, and many
textbooks ignore interesting historical incidents and people
2- Criticisms of Social Studies Textbooks

• Many textbooks do not always present coherent content In many

textbooks, the main point is not emphasized; authors stray from their central
point with meaningless digressions; examples and comparisons are often
inadequate; the reader is given no sense of time; and many passages fail to
clearly state the consequences of an event.
• Social studies textbooks are written for a generic student. Quite
simply, many students cannot read their grade-level textbooks. Also, textbook-
centered instruction will not be compatible with the learning styles of all
students. For example, many of our students learn better from visual images
other than text, like charts and photographs, and through hands-on activities.
2- Criticisms of Social Studies
Textbooks/ Some recent modifications
 Fortunately, recent elementary social studies textbooks are an improvement
over their predecessors.
 The illustrations and graphics are excellent and include old paintings,
cartoons, and drawings.
2- Criticisms of Social Studies
Textbooks/ Some recent modifications
 Timelines, several types of maps, bar graphs, and summary charts present
material in a form students readily understand.
 Recent textbooks have broadened their coverage to include more information
about minorities, women, and children
 Even with these improvements, textbooks should never be the only resource
teachers use to teach social studies.
 Teachers should read the teacher's edition carefully and choose only those
portions of a chapter and those instructional activities that will help
students achieve grade-level standards
3- Instructional Strategies for Reading the Textbook:

3.1-
3.2-
Activating
Graphic
Background
Organizers
Knowledge

3.4-
3.3-
Comprehen
Vocabulary
sion
3.1-Activating Background Knowledge:

1- K-W-L Chart

2- PreReading Plan
1- K-W-L Chart
2- PreReading Plan- Discussion
 The PreReading Plan (PReP) is another technique to help readers recall what
they know about a topic before they start reading (Langer, 1981).
 For example, a sixth-grade class will read about ancient Egypt. PReP has three
phases:
1. In the first phase of PReP, the teacher asks the students to express their initial
associations with the topic: "What comes to mind when I say, 'Egypt'?" or "What do
you think of when I say, 'Egypt'?"
2. Next, the teacher asks the students to reflect on their initial responses: "What
made you think of (whatever the students said)?" This should lead to a discussion
during which students explain the sources of their knowledge.
3. Finally, the teacher asks whether the students have any new ideas about the
topic or whether they changed their perceptions: "Do any of you have new or
different ideas or thoughts about Egypt?"
2- PreReading Plan

 While using PReP, the teacher will analyze the student responses.
 Individual responses can be characterized as:
(a) showing very little knowledge
(b) showing some prior knowledge
(c) showing much prior knowledge
 The teacher should adjust instructional plan if the students, as a group,
reveal a lack of knowledge about the topic.
 Instead of proceeding with the reading assignment, the teacher should
focus on building student’s background knowledge
3.2- Graphic Organizers
 In addition to activating background knowledge, a teacher may decide to use
a graphic organizer to highlight the main points of a textbook (Barron, 1969).
 A graphic organizer is a diagram showing the structure of something-in this
case, a chapter or selection in a social studies textbook.
 Usually, the teacher's edition of an elementary social studies textbook will
have a graphic organizer for each chapter.
 If a teacher wants to create a graphic organizer:
1. the teacher identifies the important concepts, the main ideas, of the chapter.
2. the teacher selects key words to represent those concepts and prepares a
diagram showing the structure of the chapter
 The diagram may be placed on a chart or on an overhead transparency and is
used in leading a discussion with the students before they read.
 The discussion may lead students to offer annotations, questions, or
comments, which are placed on the graphic organizer
3.2- Graphic Organizers
 To summarize, a graphic organizer is:
 (I) a chart or diagram showing the main ideas in a textbook chapter
 (2) is prepared by the teacher
 (3) is displayed before children read 
3.2- Graphic Organizers
3.3- Vocabulary:

 There are two types of academic language, both found in social studies
textbooks.
1. Technical, or specific, academic language includes words related to a
specific discipline.
• In elementary social studies these are words from the social sciences-
primarily history and geography, but also words from anthropology,
economics, and sociology
2. Nontechnical academic language includes words that run across
academe disciplines, and would be found in science textbooks as well (e.g.,
theory, compare, analyze).
3.3- Vocabulary: Instructional strategies

1- Contextual Redefinition
2- Semantic Maps
3- A Best Option Approach
1- Contextual Redefinition
 For our older students, contextual redefinition ( Cunningham, Cunningham, &
Arthur, 1981) is a strategy to consider.
 For example, fourth graders will read the portion of a chapter on the California
Gold Rush discussing the absence of law in the mining camps.
 The teacher identifies the following words for contextual redefinition: bribe and
vigilante.
 Then the teacher finds the first sentence in the chapter where each word appears.
 Before the lesson, he wrote these sentences, and the ones preceding them,
on a the sheet of chart paper. For our example these were the sentences copied
from the textbook:
•  Not all elected leaders were honest. Some took bribes.
• In some mining camps there was so much crime that the citizens did not feel safe. They
became vigilantes and punished people who had broken the law.
1- Contextual Redefinition
 A contextual redefinition vocabulary lesson has four phases:
  1. To begin the lesson, the teacher asks his class to come up with definitions for the
words bribe and vigilante before they see the chart with the sentences. This part of
the lesson was done individually, and the teacher made it clear it was okay to write "I
don't know."
  2. In the next step, the children meet in groups of three or four to compare what they
have written. Each child then writes a second definition, based on the discussion, for
bribe and vigilante. Each group attempts to reach consensus on one definition for each
word.
  3. The teacher shows the sentences on an overhead projector and reads them with the
students. The groups reconvene and discuss what they have seen, and each child writes a
third definition.
 4. Finally, the teacher has the whole group compare the definitions in the glossary of
social studies textbook with the ones the students have written. Contextual redefinition
is a powerful teaching tool because it takes advantage of both cooperative learning and
the context of the word as it appears in a sentence.
2- Semantic Maps
 Semantic maps are diagrams allowing students to organize several
pieces of information related to a single word.
 Much of the information generated comes from the students themselves,
and semantic mapping has the advantage of simultaneously teaching
meanings and activating background knowledge.
 The teacher starts by writing a word inside a circle in the middle of a piece of
chart paper.
 The students then suggest words and phrases related to the word, which the
teacher writes on the chart paper.
 Finally, the teacher and the students work together to organize the suggested
words and phrases in "satellites" linked to the target word
2- Semantic Maps
3- A Best Option Approach
 A "best option" approach for elementary classrooms allows teachers to make
choices and borrows on the Context-Structure-Sound-Reference approach
first proposed by William S. Gray (Ruddell,1997).
 This approach works best with small groups of children. It goes as follows:
1.  Display the word in context. Show the children the word in a sentence,
preferably a sentence from the social studies textbook. Underline the target
word-for example, Many farms in our county grow asparagus
2. Have the children see if they can guess a meaning. If they are close, we may
want to add what they need to know, and we can stop right here!
3. For most words, the students will need more help
3- A Best Option Approach
When the students need more help, we need to make a choice. 5 options:
1 The most effective way to convey the meaning of some words is by presenting the thing itself or an
illustration of it. For example, if the target word is asparagus, we show a bunch of fresh asparagus or a
photograph of asparagus. This will not work for words not having a tangible referent, like democracy.
2 Another option is to look at the structure of the word, focusing on prefixes, root words, and suffixes.
For example, word antigrowth. To teach antigrowth, the teacher could focus on the meaning of the
prefix anti-, With older students this can involve a look at Greek and Latin roots. To teach democracy, a
group of sixthgraders studying ancient Greece would learn the word comes from the Greek words
demos, which means "the people," and kratein, meaning "to govern."
3 In some cases, neither option a nor option b is the best choice because some words are best taught
through synonyms and antonyms. The target word can be taught by displaying either words with nearly
the same meaning or an opposite meaning. This works well with "big" words having a "short" word
synonym. For example, to teach occupation, it may take no more than displaying and discussing job.
4 Select some other method, such as contextual redefinition or a semantic map. Remember, not all
words need to be taught the same way!
5 Finally, some words are best taught by referring to a "kid-friendly" definition. (a dictionary for
children provides a simple definition). For other words, we may have to write one. Display the definition
and discuss what it means.
3.4- Comprehension:

3- Highlighting
2- Question
1- Teaching Reading Important
Classification and
Strategies Through Information Through
Answer Verification
Reciprocal Teaching the Use of Text
Through QARs
Structures
1- Teaching Reading Strategies Through
Reciprocal Teaching
 Reciprocal teaching follows the "gradual release of responsibility" model of
teaching:
1. At first, teachers model a reading strategy.
2. Then, students perform the strategy under the teacher's guidance.
3. Finally, students are challenged to perform the strategy independently,
while the teacher monitors their output and provides corrective feedback
 The goal is to teach students to use a set of metacognitive strategies
independently while they read. Metacognitive means thinking about our
own thinking
1- Teaching Reading Strategies Through
Reciprocal Teaching
 The essential strategies are:
1. questioning, as students ask questions reflecting the main idea of the text
and probe for inferences
2. clarifying unclear portions of a text, especially words and phrases
3. summarizing the information in the text
4. predicting what might be learned next
2- Question Classification and Answer Verification Through QARs

 Question-answer relationships (QARs) will help students answer questions

more efficiently and accurately (Raphael & Au, 2005).
 Students need to classify questions by the location of their answers.
 Many questions require inferential or evaluative comprehension:
 Inferential questions require the reader to form guesses/hypotheses, often through
speculation
 Evaluative questions ask readers to make a judgment.
 In each case, the answer to the question cannot be found in any one place
in the text.
2- Question Classification and Answer Verification
Through QARs

 In the QAR format, questions and their answers can be placed into four categories
according to the relationship between the question and the location of the answer.
The four categories are:
  1. Right There. The answer to this type of question is explicitly stated in the
text and easy to find. These questions reflect the student's ability to perform
literal comprehension tasks. For example: How long did the San Francisco
earthquake of April 18,1906, last?
 2. Think and Search. The answer is stated in the text, but the required information
is in more than one place. The reader has to "put together" two or more parts of the
text to come up with the answer. These are also literal comprehension tasks, but
are more complicated because the verification of the answer requires reference to
at least two places in the text. For example: What three factors led to the
"population boom" in southern California in the early 1900s?
2- Question Classification and Answer Verification
Through QARs

 3. Author and Me. The answer is not in the text. The reader synthesizes
information in the text with his or her personal knowledge or perspective. Author-
and-me questions challenge the student to perform inferential and evaluative
comprehension tasks. For example: We read about the first automobiles driven in
California. What changes had to be made once many people began driving
automobiles? (This is an inferential comprehension task because the text did not
state the answer.) Now we have millions of cars in California and thousands of
miles of freeways. All in all, has this been good or bad for our state? (This is an
evaluative comprehension task, as students must make a judgment.)
 4. On My Own. This type of question is related to information in the text, but
the reader could answer it without having the text. For example: We read about
how John Muir and other conservationists worked to create national parks in
California. Have you visited a national park in California? Tell us about your visit.
3- Highlighting Important Information Through the Use
of Text Structures

 Almost all authorities on reading social studies textbooks promote the use
of expository text structures to aid reading comprehension
 Expository text is information-based text, as opposed to narrative texts,
which are stories. Most chapters in social studies textbooks reflect one
of the following text structures:
a) cause and effect
b) problem and solution
c) comparison/contrast
d) sequence
e) description
3- Highlighting Important Information
Through the Use of Text Structures
3- Highlighting Important Information
Through the Use of Text Structures
 For lessons with the social studies textbook, there are two ways to use
diagrams based on text structures: as a graphic organizer or a study guide
 A study guide based on a text structure consists of questions or fill in-the-
blank tasks students complete during and after reading.
 Both structure-based graphic organizers and study guides focus student
attention on the key concepts and supporting details.
3- Highlighting Important Information
Through the Use of Text Structures
3- Highlighting Important Information
Through the Use of Text Structures
3.5- A teaching Sequence
 1. Link the content of the day's lesson to what was covered previously.
To do this, a teacher could look again at an important illustration in the
preceding pages of the textbook, reread a chart listing key information
students have learned, or ask questions about the topics previously
presented.
 2. Place the material students are about to read in historical and
geographical context. The best way to do this is with timelines and maps.
  3. Choose a strategy to help students activate their background
knowledge (K-W-L, PReP).
 4. Teach essential vocabulary-see strategies.
3.5- A teaching Sequence
 5. Set a purpose for reading, either orally or in writing. A graphic organizer can be used to
do this. Or, I suggest writing the purpose on the chalkboard or on a chart paper. For example,
"Today, we are going to read pages 11 to 14 to learn more about firefighters." Another way to
do this is to write three or four questions on the chalkboard students should be able to answer
after they have done the reading.
 6. Read the material. Teachers have quite a few options here: (a) The teacher can read
aloud, (b) students can read aloud, (c) students can read silently, or (d) students can listen to
an audiotape. Teachers should let students who are going to read aloud practice their reading
the day before. Also, teachers should never have students read aloud material that is beyond
their level of ability. The teacher's goal should be to allow all students in the room to hear a
fluent reading of the text..
 7. Focus on essential information. A teacher may want to use reciprocal teaching, QARs, or
structure-based study guides to help students understand important information in the text.
To be effective, teachers must highlight the essential information in the block of text students
read. It is usually a good idea to summarize the important information on chart paper.
 8. The reading experience often serves as a springboard to other activities. These follow up
activities can be for the whole group, small groups, or interested individuals.
3.6- Ten ways to Help Children who “Can’t Read” the
Textbook

 Some children will still find the textbook a mystery that cannot be solved.
Some of these children will be English learners who have not acquired English
literacy, others will be children with disabilities who find reading a difficult
chore. Here is a list of suggestions for helping such children:
 1. Tape-record as many chapters in the textbook as possible-this is a great
task for a dedicated parent volunteer. Let students listen to the tape before
and after the chapter is covered in class.
 2. Write a simplified version of a textbook chapter. The goal is to take a
chapter and cut it by two-thirds, using smaller words and shorter sentences.
 3. Summarize key points in a chapter on a set of study cards.
3.6- Ten ways to Help Children who
“Can’t Read” the Textbook
 4. Make good use of graphic organizers and data retrieval charts. Graphic
organizers are effective in cueing children to what they will learn.
 5. Make your study guides as simple as possible.  
 6. Differentiate your vocabulary instruction. Try to use real objects or illustrations
whenever possible.
 7. Do a selective, second reading of a chapter with children who are struggling.
 8. Supplement the textbook with other resources. For English learners, resources
written in a language other than English will be very valuable.
 9. For children with learning disabilities, consider breaking the chapter down into
smaller, more manageable units
 10. For English learners, use preview-review whenever it is feasible. Again, in
preview-review, the teacher or an aide gives a preview of the contents of the
chapter in the students' first language before the chapter-based lesson in
English is taught
Children’s Literature

Information Books

Fiction Books/ Story books

4- Children’s Literature: Information Books
and Biography

 Information books are an essential resource for the social studies

teacher. Books about people, places, things, ideas, and events are all
information books. The best books are a blend of art and science, a
combination of a vivid text, inspired illustration, and uncompromising
accuracy.
 Books are available on almost any topic. For example, do you know who
Esther Morris was? Students who read I Could Do That! Esther Morris Gets
Women the Vote will learn Esther Morris worked tirelessly to get women the
vote in Wyoming and was the first woman in United States history to hold
political office (White, 2005).
 Information books are available at all reading levels, from simple picture
books to books for the oldest, ablest students.
4.1- Selection of Information Books

 Resources. Hundreds of new information books are published each year and join the
thousands already occupying the shelves of public and school libraries. Fortunately,
teachers have many good resources to help them find books that fit the social studies
standards they are teaching
 • Each year, a joint committee of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
and the Children's Book Council selects a list of books; the list is titled "Notable
Children's Books in the Field of Social Studies.“
 • Articles in professional journals discuss books, usually in the context of a specific
topic or category of books
 • Reviews of books are an excellent resource and are regularly published in the
following journals: Booklist, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Hornbook,
Interracial Books for Children Bulletin
 • Books about children's literature can provide a great deal of help. These include
large, college-level textbooks on children's literature with good discussions of
information books, like Norton, Norton, and McClure's (2003) Through the Eyes of a
Child: An Introduction to Children's Literature
4.1- Selection of Information Books
 Quality. Recommendations from the previously listed sources will give us
some assurance of quality. This is an important issue because not all
information books are worthy of inclusion in our classrooms. We can use two
general criteria in evaluating information books:
1-the content presented in the book should be accurate. Accuracy,
especially in biography, has been a problem in children's information books
• Authors frequently painted heroic, mythic images of some of their subjects,
ignoring or minimizing their faults and failures
2- in evaluating information books, the writing and illustration
should be very good. The books we choose should be both good social
science and good literature.
4.1- Selection of Information Books

 Some information books have won the most prestigious awards in

children's literature: the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal.
 Both are awarded by the American Library Association.
1. The Newbery Medal goes to the author of the most distinguished
contribution to American literature for children
2. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished
American picture book for children
4.2- How to use Information Books to Teach Social
Studies

1. Read independently. There should be some time every day in our

classrooms for our students to read information books. Some children will choose
to read information books during time devoted to silent reading-usually called
either sustained silent reading (SSR) or drop everything and read (DEAR).
D.E.A.R. stands for "Drop Everything and Read," a national celebration of reading
designed to remind families to make reading a priority activity in their lives.
Reading Rockets is pleased to be a founding partner of National D.E.A.R. Day
celebrated every year on April 12th.
2. Read to find specific information . Information books are an essential
resource for students who are "hunting down" the answer to an inquiry or are
looking for facts they need to complete a project. Information books provide more
depth than an encyclopedia, which can either be a blessing or a curse, depending
on what level of understanding a person requires
5- Children’s Literature: Fiction
 Many authorities recommend including juvenile fiction when teaching social
studies in the elementary school.
 Three types of fiction can be used in social studies instruction:
 1. Historical novels. Many social studies units can be enhanced with
historical novels. Some of the finest children's books fall into this genre,
including Newbery Medal winners like The Midwife's Apprentice
 2. Folktales. Folktales can be used when a unit looks at a specific cultural
group (Virtue & Vogler, 2009). A folktale is a story passed down through
generations, typically in oral form. Today, culturally authentic, beautifully
illustrated, and well written versions of tales from cultural groups all over
the world are available.
 3. Contemporary realistic fiction. This is a broad genre of literature
incorporating stories taking place during the present or recent past.
Arabian Folktales
5- Children’s Literature: Fiction

5.1- Why Use Fiction?

5.2- How to use
Fiction?
5.1- Why Use Fiction?

  Fiction can help children acquire essential social studies

content because a story can provide them with a sense of
empathy. Books combining thorough research with vivid
writing will make children feel transported to another
place.
 Fiction can help students acquire information about a
wide range of topics. This assumes, of course, that a work
of fiction is accurate-free of bias, stereotypes, and
outright errors
5.2- How to use Fiction?

 The books can be read independently or read to find information to complete

an inquiry or a project.
 Unlike information books, however, fiction is not written to transmit facts
and ideas. The goal of the writer of fiction is to tell a story and, in many
cases, to shed light on the human condition.
 The best way to use fiction is as an "adjunct" to a unit and to encourage
students to read the stories independently.
 At the end of the chapter is a lesson plan encouraging children to appreciate
a good book as literature and then learn social studies content from the story
6- Writing in the Social Studies Program
 A good elementary school social studies program will require students to
write in a variety of formats, many unique to social studies
 For many years writing in elementary social studies has, for the most part,
been limited to "research" reports, book reports, and filling in the blanks on
worksheets
 Other forms of writing are relatively easy to use and are more challenging
than research and book reports
6.1- Forms of Writing Well Suited to the Social
Studies
 As students gather information, they will do a great deal of information-
based writing, primarily in the form of notes written on charts or
graphs.
 Data retrieval charts provide an organizational framework for taking notes

Native Americans: Comparison of Tribes

Tribe region homes food other

Yurok
Yokuts
Mohawe
Chumash
6.1- Forms of Writing Well Suited to the
Social Studies
 Taking notes is difficult because it differs from the types of narrative writing students
complete during language arts ( e.g., journal entries, personal narratives, and stories).
 Students enjoy projects in which they write from the perspective of a person living in the
past (Firek, 2006; Selwyn, 19,95). This is a written form of role play, wherein students
assume another identity
 It would be fun for them to pretend to be on different sides of a historical issue and send
e-mail to each other. Tunnell and Ammon ( J 996) show how children's literature can
provide multiple perspectives on a historical event and help students avoid inaccurate
generalizations.
 It is better to pose inquiry questions requiring students to find information in more than
one place. Topics requiring students to gather data through surveys or interviews will
eliminate the possibility of copying from encyclopedias.
 After gathering information on a topic or question, students can prepare multimedia
presentations with software like PowerPoint, create a podcast, or make more traditional
oral presentations and bulletin board displays.
6.2- Writing as a Part of Civic Education

 Writing to Gather Social Science Data. Students can write surveys to be

administered to their classmates, families, friends, and neighbors. They can
also write to agencies for information ( e.g., League of Women Voters, city
council, foreign consulates, and state and federal agencies). A survey project is
an excellent experience for students because they do two types of writing:
composing questions on the survey and then writing a summary of their
findings.
 E-Mailing Public Officials. E-mail has made it much easier for students to send
written messages to public officials. They can write to congratulate candidates
who win elections, to express support for a policy decision, or to complain. This
type of writing will test the ability of students to adjust their writing to fit their
target audience. An e-mail or letter to a member of the U.S. Congress, for
example, should not sound the same as a message written to a classmate.
6.2- Writing as a Part of Civic Education
 Writing Agendas and Minutes. Students should take part in classroom and
school meetings to understand democracy and civil discourse. These meetings
should be forums for students to express perspectives and reach decisions.
Meetings need agendas and minutes. Writing minutes, especially, is a difficult
task. Students will have to master taking notes, pausing to clarify when they are
unsure of what was said, and condensing the notes for publication.
  Writing for Political Campaigns. Political campaigns require a great deal of
written material-speeches, "mailers," copy for radio and television ads, posters,
and position papers. Older students can write campaign materials when they
run for classroom and school office positions. Students can also write political
texts for state and federal campaigns.
 Writing Laws and Rules. The text of a law or classroom or school rule requires a
special type of writing; the author must convey a precise meaning. Students can
write rules for the playground, classroom, and school, Every word of a classroom
rule will be important and subject to interpretation.
 Meeting minutes, or mom (for minutes of meeting) can be defined as the
written record of everything that's happened during a meeting.
7- Summary of Key Points
 Social studies textbooks can be used effectively in elementary classrooms.
They should never, however, be the only instructional resource used.
 Teachers should selectively use a variety of instructional strategies with
social studies textbooks , including: (a)activating student background
knowledge before they read, (b) previewing chapters with graphic
organizers, ( c) teaching directly essential vocabulary, and ( d) building
comprehension ..
 As part of social studies, information books should be read independently and
used to answer inquiries and complete projects.
 Fiction can provide students with a strong sense of empathy with people
living in other places and times
 Social studies provides students with many opportunities to write, often in
formats they seldom use in other areas of the curriculum.