Social+Studies

Colorin Colorado recently released a very thorough article with linked resources on teaching Social Studies to ELLs in the classroom.
Check it out. It includes this video on helping building background knowledge in social studies: media type="custom" key="5914927"

Supporting speaking and language development in the Social Studies Classroom
Several strategies for using narrative and story telling to improve students content knowledge of Social Studies and their ability to work with and speak English. Focus on some of the ideas found on page 3 and 4.

= = = Challenges for ELLs in Social Studies = __Social studies and U.S. history provide the biggest challenge to ELLs in their content classes__. They have very limited background knowledge to activate. ELLs lack prior knowledge of U.S. and U.S. history, geography, and current events needed. Many students will memorize information for a test, but it has no relevance for them so the information is quickly forgotten.

ELLs' difficulties when studying social studies.

 * Use of higher level thinking skills for reading and writing.
 * Lack of familiarity with historical terms, government processes, and vocabulary.
 * Social Studies text contains complex sentences, passive voice, and extensive use of pronouns.
 * ELLs may not be used to expressing their personal opinions.
 * Nationalistic and cultural focus of maps.
 * Concepts which do no exist in all cultures are difficult. This includes privacy, democratic processes, rights of citizens, free will.
 * No concept of movement within the structure of a society.
 * ELLs are seldom asked to contribute an alternate view that reflects conditions in other countries.
 * Use in our schools of “timeline” teaching vs. learning history by “dynasty” or “period.”
 * Difficulty with understanding what is said by the teacher and being able to take notes.
 * Amount of text covered and the ELLs’ inability to tell what is important in the text and what is not important.

from

[|Challenges for ELLs in Content Area Learning]
by Judie Haynes

= "Making Social Studies Meaningful for ELL Students: Content and Pedagogy in = = Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms" =

So..how do we address these challenges? In "Making Social Studies Meaningful for ELL Students: Content and Pedagogy in Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms" Michelle Yvonne Szpara and Iftikhar Ahmad, both of Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus discuss several methods. They frame the challenge many of us have faced below:

"Teaching ELL students in mainstream high school social studies classrooms poses a challenge to the social studies teachers who derive their content from history, political science, sociology, geography, and economics, each one of which contains its own specialized jargon and concepts rooted in the American culture."