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Why Teach Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom?

6. Informational Text: Exploration of Multiple Sources

ANSWER:

How do you currently use primary sources to engage students to use higher order thinking skills?

READ: 

Teachers must plan intentionally to offer students support they will need to frequently engage with complex texts. Knowing next steps in content learning which emerge from reading informational texts is important in guiding students on paths of inquiry.  These next steps also include reinforcing disciplinary oriented ways of thinking about texts. 

Disciplinary thinking gives us a framework of questions to ask texts. Questioning is a "universal" strategy that goes across disciplines but the questions that are asked to the text are specific to the content.

As you view and read the selections below, consider and discuss the following questions:

  • What information do these sources confirm from our previous readings?
  • What information do these sources add to our knowledge about beliefs in vampires?
  • What questions drove your inquiry?  What answers did you find?

View the following videos to examine how these teachers use multiple sources to explore historical thinking:





EXPLORE:

How does the analysis of primary sources align with the skills in Reading, Writing, and Communicating?  


While the above example is for secondary students, primary source analysis sheets for elementary students can be found here: https://www.cde.state.co.us/cosocialstudies/pssets 

Take a few minutes to look at the primary sources sets available for your grade level.  How do you envision utilizing these primary source sets in your classroom?  

Supporting students that struggle:
  • Be more specific.  Give students a choice between a limited number of sources (e.g. 2 sources)
  • Develop a WebQuest with clear tasks and defined process steps.
  • Use iChart (information charts like the one developed for the Close Reading video examples).
  • Create Graphic Organizers that demonstrate text structure and orientation of content within text.  These are purposefully relational.
  • Have students work in Thinking Teams (small groups). 
  • Use Jigsaw to scaffold reading of various parts of text.