Social Studies to Elementary Level ELLs - Department of Education

Strategies for Teaching
Social Studies
to Elementary Level ELLs
Evelyn Marino Weisman and Laurie E. Hansen
From The Social Studies
encountering students who
CROSS are in the U.S., process teachers of learning
English as a second language. In
are
the past two decades, this student
population, known as English-languagelearners
(ELLs), has morethan
doubled. Because of the linguistic
demands of social studies content,
ELLs may have particular difficulty
understanding this subject area.
At the same time, federal and state
governments are calling for all students,
includingELLs,to demonstrate
proficiency on state tests. Teachers
are faced with the challenge of finding
ways to help ELLs learn content
that is presented to them entirely in
English, a language they are struggling
to master.
Social studies may be the most
difficult subject for ELLs. Unlike subjects
such as math or science, understanding
social studies concepts
depends to a large extent on language
skills.
Helping ELLs Succeed
Understanding subject matter
while acquiring English-language
skills requires adaptations to instruction.
Sheltered instruction, or
specially designed academic instruction
in English, uses techniques to
make content accessible to ELLs or
makes language and concepts visible.
The purpose of sheltered instruction
is twofold: (1) to teach
content and (2) to teach academic
language.
Evelyn Marino Weisman is associate professor and Laurie E. Hansen is a
lecturer, both in the Department of Elementary and Bilingual Education at
California State University, Fullerton. Condensed from The Social Studies, 98
(September/October 2007), 180-184, with permission of the Helen Dwight
Reid Educational Foundation. Published by Heldref Publications, 1319 Eighteenth
St., NW. Washington, DC 20036-1802. Copyright © 2007.
December 2007 61

THE EDUCATION DIGEST
The sheltered approach includes
many strategies, such as teachers
speaking clearly, emphasizing and
repeating key points, defining vocabulary
in context, and coupling
talk with gestures, drawings,
graphs, and charts. The aim is to
provide appropriate scaffolding, or
contextual support, to ensure content
is comprehensible. In addition,
effective sheltered instruction provides
opportunities for social interaction
to reinforce learning and
promote the production of language,
including content-specific
terms.
Background Knowledge
Students learning English may
lack background knowledge in social
studies topics. Some may not
have had formal schooling in their
home countries and, consequently,
may not be familiar with concepts
about geography, history, or government
even as they relate to their
native countries. Another problem
is student's background knowledge,
or "funds of knowledge," may not
be valued by the school. For example,
ELLs may have extensive
knowledge of their culture, but it is
often ignored as a potential resource
because many teachers are
unfamiliar with their student's culture
and how to bring it into the
curriculum. Following is an example
of how a teacher can build on ELLs'
prior knowledge and connect new
information with their own experiences
to make it more meaningful.
Vignette 1: Anna, a fifth-grade
teacher, begins asocial studies unit
on immigration and migration in
the U.S. by reading Grandfather's
Journey to the class. This story describes
a Japanese man's journey
to America. After reading the story,
Anna opens a satchel full of items
representative of thosethat her own
grandfather brought when he came
to the United States from Denmark.
Anna explains the reasons her
grandfather left his native country
and shows students his travel route
on amap.AsAnnashows theitems,
she talks about each one, recalling
events from her grandfather's journey
to America through Ellis Island
in the early 1900s. Items include a
comb, a shaving kit, some Danish
money, a toothbrush, and a photograph
of loved ones back home.
Anna then asks students to think
about why people leave their homeland
and what items they would
bring with them. Some students
have journeyed from other countries
to America. Others have not
but can imagine what would be
needed in these circumstances. For
homework, she asks them to interview
a family member about their
journey or one of past generations,
draw it on a map, and bring some
items that relate to that journey.
The next day, students talk about
what they brought and why the
items are meaningful. The class then
discusses factors that contribute
to people moving from one place to
another.
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Strategies for Teaching Social Studies to ELLs
In this vignette, the concepts and
causes for immigration and migration
are introduced through a book
and expanded on by the teacher's
personal family history. The teacher
uses realia, or real objects, to add
interest and help convey meaning.
The use of real objects, charts, pictures,
or photographs is an essential
feature of effective instruction
for ELLs because they provide a
necessary support to construct
meaning.
In addition, asking students to
bring objects, photos, or drawings
related to their own family stories
of immigration provides an explicit
link with their background knowledge,
which will help them understand
the upcoming lessons about
immigration and settlement patterns
of American people.
Obtaining insight into students'
backgrounds can be valuable to understanding
cultural and social factors;
however, many social studies
concepts pose a challenge for making
connections that facilitate learning.
In such cases, the teacher may
use role play as a means of constructing
the schemata or background
knowledge. For example,
students can play the roles of colonists,
the king of England, and the
king's representative to dramatize
the concept of taxation without representation
and how it led to increasing
conflict between the
American colonies and Great Britain.
Acting out situations can facilitate
comprehension of difficult concepts
by making them more concrete.
It also stimulates interest,
provides opportunities for discussing
different perspectives, and engages
students in language practice.
Making Content
Comprehensible
Students may quickly acquire
conversational skills, but it may take
longer for them to develop literacy
skills and academic language. Academic
language is the abstract language
used for instruction that typically
has no context clues to support
meaning. Graphic organizers,
such as Venn diagrams, series of
events chains, compare and contrast
matrixes, and T-charts help
students construct meaning from
text and understand the relationships
between ideas.
Along with comprehensible input,
researchers suggest that interaction
with others and language
output is just as important to language
development. When students
read, create timelines, or write and
present reports, they are practicing
literacy skills that are essential
for academic success. The following
vignette offers ideas for integrating
language activities into content
instruction to develop subjectmatter
knowledge and language
skills.
Vignette 2: Jos6, a fourth-grade
teacher, is teaching a unit on Native
Americans. Students are learning
December 2007 63

THE EDUCATION DIGEST
about different Native American
tribes that lived in regions throughout
the U.S. In addition to the textbook,
Jos6 uses pictures, Native
American literature, historical
documents, and oral histories to
convey concepts. During the unit,
Jos6 asks students to work in groups
to review the information theyhave
learned and compare NativeAmerican
tribes. In each group of four to
five students, there are ELLs and
native English speakers.
Each group creates a chart comparing
characteristics of Native
American life, such as housing, climate,
tools, food sources, and traditions
of Native Americans from
regions such as the Southwest,
Northwest, Great Plains, and
Northeast.The charts are posted in
the classroom and serveas aspringboard
for discussion about similarities
and differences among the
tribes and the range of perspectives
offered by different sources of
information. Throughout the discussion,
Jos6 paraphrases and expands
on students' ideas and writes
them on the board for the class to
read aloud. Last, Jos6 asks the students
to write a summary of what
they have learned.
In this example, students use a
graphic organizer, or process grid,
to categorize information about
Native American tribes. Displaying
and organizing the information lets
students easily see relationships
among concepts. In this vignette,
students worked together to com-
plete the grid and share information,
thereby integrating the learning
of content with practice in using
academic language. Ideally,
groups should consist of a variety
of learning and language levels so
students can support and learn from
one another. Working in small
groups generallyfosters alow-anxiety
atmosphere, which is particularly
important to second-language
acquisition. Keep in mind the different
English-language proficiency
levels of students and adjust expectations
and questions accordingly.
By paraphrasing, elaborating on
key concepts, writing these on the
board, and engaging students in
reading and writing, the teacher
models oral and written forms of
academic language and provides
practice with sentence structures
and skills that enable students to
communicate complex ideas. As
students discuss and compare information
gleaned from a variety of
sources, they develop an understanding
of how cultural biases and
values can influence knowledge
construction.
Vocabulary a Challenge
Vocabulary development presents
a special challenge for ELLs.
Many words have dual meanings.
For example, the term inflation
means to fill, as with air in a balloon,
but in economics, it means a
rise in the general price level.Other
terms, such as taxation and liberty,
represent complex ideas that re-
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Strategies for Teaching Social Studies to ELLs
quire concrete examples to develop
understanding. In the following vignette,
a teacher develops vocabulary
knowledge through an engaging
activity.
Vignette 3: Alicia teaches sixth
grade. At least one-third of her students
are ELLs who need additional
support. When teaching a unit on
Ancient Egypt, there are many vocabularywords
such as hieroglyphics,
irrigation, cartouche, pyramid,
pharaoh, sarcophagus, and mummification.
Rather than teaching all
the vocabulary at once, she introduces
the vocabulary for each lesson
as she teaches it.
Alicia makes extensive use of
pictures and realia to teach five or
sixwords per lesson. She writes the
words onaword wall, explains their
meanings, provides examples, and
draws pictures to help convey
meaning. She asks students to use
the words in sentences and share
these with partners. The words remain
on the word wall throughout
the unit, and Alicia refers to them
often. Students collect vocabulary
words as they progress through
the unit, writing a definition for each
in their own words and drawing a
corresponding picture.
Students also record words they
do not understand as they encounter
them. These words are then
discussed and added to student
dictionaries. For review, Alicia asks
the children to work in groups of
five or six to create definitions for a
class Jeopardy game. Students are
given a list of vocabulary words
and work together to write each
definition on a separate overhead
transparency sheet. When playing
the game, each team sends a representative
to the front of the room to
display one definition (e.g., "the
body of a person or animal that has
been preserved"). The other teams
try to figure out what vocabulary
word each definition represents (in
this case, "What is a mummy").
In this example, the understanding
of vocabulary is developed
through (1) explicit instruction using
visual aids to help convey meaning
and (2) frequent repetition. In
addition, reducing the number of
words presented at one time makes
learning more manageable, and
having students create their own
dictionaries provides a valuable
personal resource.
Last, engaging students in a game
is an excellent way to reinforce vocabulary
knowledge. In this example,
students talked with one another
to develop definitions and
match definitions with key terms.
Conclusion
In these vignettes, ELLs are actively
engaged in understanding
content and acquisition of language
skills. By providing ELLs with appropriate
scaffolding, teachers can
facilitate their learning a rigorous
curriculum, develop their Englishlanguage
skills, and promote their
active participation in the classroom.
(to
December 2007
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
TITLE: Strategies for Teaching Social Studies to Elementary
Level ELLs
SOURCE: Educ Dig 73 no4 D 2007
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it
is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in
violation of the copyright is prohibited.