Social Studies is a subject that is heavily language laden. To be successful, students need to be able to access content-specific terms and utilize academic language as they explore primary sources and dense informational texts. Additionally, social studies vocabulary can be particularly abstract. (Brown, 2007). Each unit of Connect provides students the opportunity to learn and apply academic and social studies specific terms. Students are also exposed to and learn strategies to understand and interpret informational text features. References Clara Lee Brown (2007) Strategies for Making Social Studies Texts More Comprehensible for English-Language Learners, The Social Studies, 98:5, 185-188, DOI: 10.3200/TSSS.98.5.185-188 SOCIAL STUDIES Instructional routine • Explore and learn Preview activities and text with students and point out any academic and content-related language that is introduced. Ask students to say what they know about the topic or related social studies topics. Help students to make connections between the social studies concept and the unit theme as appropriate. Read through the informational materials once through for students as they follow along. Pause at key points to check comprehension. Give students a chance to ask questions. • Practice Check in with students as they complete the activities. If appropriate, have them complete the activities in pairs. Remind students to use the resources provided in the directions and text, if necessary, modeling where to find information that pertains to specific questions. Have students share their responses and clarify any confusion. • Communicate Ask students to identify new social studies terms they learned in the activities and to use at least 1-2 new terms in a conversion with a classmate. Provide sentence frames to support conversation. Have students say what they learned and connect the new information with other social studies concepts they know. Once students have completed the activities, ask volunteers to share their responses with the class and discuss any areas of confusion. • Assess Collect students’ responses to assess their understanding of the concepts and their abilities to interpret and use newly introduced social studies terms. Use data collected to inform any reteaching or reinforcement. Txxxi
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