Building Background Knowledge: Helping English Learners Access Social Studies Curriculum

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Teachers should offer a wide variety of literacy support in their social studies curricula, otherwise students can fall behind.

Vocabulary instruction in social studies is important because it builds background knowledge that is essential when students are assigned to read complex non-fiction texts.

There can be no doubt that the level of teaching and learning in your classroom would vastly improve if every single student possessed a high literacy level and a consistent reading habit, both at home and school.

When I implement a novel study in social studies, there are a few activities that really work for me in terms of aiding student comprehension.

When I first started teaching history, it was difficult for me to incorporate reading passages in a productive and interesting way.

Students not doing the reading assigned for homework seems to be an eternal challenge for every teacher.

Students are required to learn several hundred new words each year.

Teachers frequently offer students multiple ways to learn vocabulary: vocabulary cards, quizzes, drawing, matching activities, and even games.