Social+Studies

In many of your classes you highlighted the full stream of nonfiction anchors and eligible content. I figured it might be worthwhile to find some easy and quick little strategies that would address these anchors as well as reinforce what you are already doing. I am trying to find ways to help get some stuff in place that links up to the reading standards while reinforcing, and not interfering, with content area study.
 * Social Studies **

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The vocabulary anchors center on being able to identify the correct meaning for words that have more than one meaning and identifying the meaning of words that are content specific. Here I think that the vocabulary lists that we are generating for Dr. Mulroy will be helpful in getting us to hone in on the words that are essential to the content. I am sure that you will find, when you see all of the department lists, that many words do have multiple meanings based on their content (congruence, flat, etc.). I am guessing that for your content, you will probably be using a lot of essential vocabulary in the language to be learned. I think these words (and any others that you want) would really be well-placed in this Word Wall idea being thrown around. Basically, the heart of the idea is to have a space in the class where vocabulary that is relevant to current material being studied is placed. The hope is that daily exposure to the words will benefit the students, but there are ways to use the word wall as more than decoration. Dr. Mulroy has talked about this Word Wall concept before and there are some really great ways to use word walls that I found. Here are some possibilities: (1)  While the teacher can make the word wall themselves, a relatively quick opener is to have the students each write one of the words on card stock. They can do so creatively, but must do legibly and neatly. Encourage them to put any visual cues, pictures, etc. that might help them remember what the word means. (2)  As an opening work or closure activity, students could be asked to write the definition of the words they know or write sentences for each of the words they can. The teacher can collect these and quickly review them to gauge the students understanding along the way. (3)  Another activity for opening work or closure may be to ask the students to develop categories into which they can fit the words. They might also be asked to compare or contrast a selected pair of words from the wall. (4)  If the wall has enough space and is made with a background that can later be changed, the students could be asked to each add a detail or ideas around a given word. They could also be asked to each bring in a magazine or newspaper article that they can connect to the word. These could be explained then adhered to the wall. (5)  If the teacher can easily remove the words from the wall and set them to the whiteboard via a magnet, as I will be able to show with my “wall”, a student or students can be asked to lead the class in putting the words into a semantic map. (6)  Finally, if the teachers are able to retire words from previous units to an “inactive” wall, they can resurrect those words at a later date to have students complete any one of the above activities while using mastered words alongside new vocabulary.
 * Vocabulary **

If you are looking for anything else, I did find some neat vocabulary activities in my research. I haven’t used many of them, but I would always be willing to experiment with you guys if you wanted to give it a shot. Let me know.

For the whole inference, draw conclusions, and make generalizations set, I don’t think there is any replacement for good questions to be answered as a class or as individuals. If you are looking for some sort of organizer that would compel kids to think about inference while reading, this link has a pretty good one: ( http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Tools/inferencenotes.pdf ). Basically, the students will just make notes around the inner circle about what they read and make some inference or draw a broader conclusion based on that information. As they get better, it might be useful to have them identify two “things said” in the text and make a generalization based on those two items together. This could be an easy homework check or reading check in class. Also, there is a chart that asks students to select a quote from the book, paraphrase it, and identify the subtext. It is another one that might be helpful, though I wasn’t sure if it would work in your content. Let me know. http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Tools/inferencetextandsubtext.PDF
 * Inference **

Speaking of homework or reading checks, summarizing is really a great one. One way to go with this is to have the students simply sit down—independently or in pairs, groups, etc.—with the task of summarizing the text or a process in a certain number of words—usually twenty-five. It takes a little more time, but the work of using exactly the right number of words really forces them to think and rethink everything they have read or done, and it is usually really easy for the teacher to skim these to get a sense of the students understanding. The students have to determine what is important/essential and what is not to be concise. It might be a great option for closure or a bell ringer. If you are looking for something to copy, etc., here is a hand out with a sum it up approach. The students are supposed to pretend that they are printing the summary and each word costs $0.10 while they only have $2.00. They start by scribbling out some main idea words from the reading or process. I am guessing this might work really well with some of the process work that you do.
 * Distinguishing between essential and nonessential information **

A pretty easy way to practice main idea with students is to have them note the main idea of each paragraph or section read. It may be helpful to do some with them to model the process of identifying. Otherwise, you can have them jot down the main idea for each paragraph. After, have them go back and find another sentence that supports the main idea. If they do this as a guided reading in class or as a homework assignment, it should be pretty easy for the teacher to skim the sentences and check for correctness. You could even have them check each other’s quickly and ask them to share any they disagreed about. This could also serve as a pretty good set of textbook notes for the student as he or she prepares to study. Just some ideas. Let me know if there is anything I can do. If there is anything you need researched or found or if there is anything for which you want an extra set of hand, drop me an email.
 * Main Idea **