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History-Social Science

History-Social Science

Go to: Video Brief | About Literacy Learning | History | Geography | Economics | Teachers Guide

History Social Science Video Brief

 
Matt Hayes, History and Social Science Coordinator with the San Diego County Office of Education, discusses the purpose of the Discussion Cards and how they help students deepen their conversations and thinking. Click play to watch the video below.
 

Visit the SDCOE History-Social Science page.

Go to: History | Geography | Economics

 

What is literacy learning in history-social science?

It is the particular kind of reading and writing involved in history–social sciences that will be most relevant to students’ daily lives as they mature and learn to craft argumentative essays in college or develop the skill set necessary for careers now and in the future. Text-based disciplines, such as history, demand student proficiency in content-specific informational text. Studying these disciplines involves vocabulary, reading, writing, and discourse patterns that are difficult for students. Literacy and language, along with positive dispositions toward learning and breadth of exposure to extraordinary literary and informational text and other media, enable students to consider the thinking of others — their knowledge, perspectives, questions, and passions — and to share, ponder, and pursue their own.

Content-area literacy development can improve the reading comprehension of all students with a focus on informational primary and secondary source texts that align with the California Standards for ELA/Literacy and the ELA/ELD Framework. For example, by learning how to identify different kinds of text and how to read a text closely, with different purposes each time, students are taught to slow down and read on a level that transcends simple vocabulary or content comprehension; it heightens student critical thinking. Students explore a variety of texts, learn to identify a document by its purpose — whether it be persuasive, narrative, or auto-biographical — and evaluate its agenda and context.

It is important that students who experience difficulty with reading are supported as they learn from texts; teachers should not avoid texts as sources of knowledge with students who find them challenging and rely exclusively on non-text media and experiences. Replacing texts with other sources of information or rewriting them in simpler language — in spite of the intention to ensure access to the curricula — limits students’ skill to independently learn with texts in the future. In other words, instruction should be provided to enable all students to learn with texts alongside other learning experiences. (Chapter 13, page 284)

Adapted from the California History/Social Science Framework Chapter 1. "Literacy." Curriculum Frameworks. California Department of Education (2018)

 

History

What is literacy learning in history?

Rafael Heller and Cynthia Greenleaf (2007) in Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement state:

In particular, historians tend to be more exacting readers . . . when it comes to details that made an important difference in people’s lives, and they tend to take a special interest in the circumstances in which written documents were produced, particularly when reading primary source materials. Here, the context in which materials were written matters as much as the literal meaning of the text itself, and students need to know that it is crucial to take note of who wrote the given document, under what circumstances, for whose eyes and ears, and to what ends. To fully comprehend the significance of a Civil War–era speech, for example, students must understand that it matters greatly whether it was composed in 1860 or 1862, or whether it was delivered by a senator from New Hampshire or one from Georgia. (Page 11)

Furthermore, Seixas and Morton  (2013) in The Big Six: Historical Thinking Concepts identify six historical thinking concepts that guide the way historians approach text and influence what they are reading for.  They are:

  • Primary source evidence

  • Cause and consequence

  • Continuity and change

  • Historical significance

  • Historical perspective taking

  • Ethical dimensions

Texts that students create, read, view, or listen to in history include but are not limited to:

Primary sources (e.g. government and workplace documents, images, artifacts, speeches, letters, diaries, and other first-hand testimony) and secondary sources (e.g. research reports, arguments, textbooks, podcasts, and analytical magazine and news articles from print and online sources)

Downloadable Formats

The Discussion Cards by the San Diego County Office of Education are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

 

Order a Printed Class Set!

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Geography

What is literacy learning in geography?

According to the National Geographic Resource Library. "What is Geo-literacy?"

Geo-literacy is the ability to reason about earth systems and interconnections to make far-reaching decisions. Whether we are making decisions about where to live or what precautions to take for natural hazards, we all make decisions that require geo-literacy throughout our lives.

Students also use geospatial and related technologies to:

  • Create maps to display, analyze, and construct arguments by using geographic data about the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics.

  • Evaluate the relationships and interactions within and between human and physical systems, the influence of long-term climate variability, as well as the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes, on resource use, trade, politics, culture, and human migration and settlement patterns on both local and global scales.

  • Explain how economic globalization and the expanding use of scarce resources contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among countries.**

The California History/Social Science Framework Chapter 13, page 280.

Texts that students create, read, view, or listen to in geography include but are not limited to:

Geographic data, maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions, and the political, cultural, and economic dynamics. 

Downloadable Formats

The Discussion Cards by the San Diego County Office of Education are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

 

Order a Printed Class Set!

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Economics

What is literacy learning in economics?

According to the The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards by Kathy Swan et. al. (2013): 

Literacy learning plays an important role in teaching students effective economic decision making. An economic approach to reading, viewing, or listening to text entails looking for  “the ways in which individuals, businesses, governments, and societies make decisions to allocate human capital, physical capital, and natural resources among alternative uses. This economic reasoning process involves the consideration of costs and benefits with the ultimate goal of making decisions that will enable individuals and societies to be as well off as possible. The study of economics provides students  with the concepts and tools necessary for an economic way of thinking and helps students understand the interaction of buyers and sellers in markets, workings of the national economy, and interactions within the global marketplace.” (Page 35)

Texts that students create, read, view, or listen to in economics include but are not limited to:

Tables, charts, economic reports, news, magazines, and journal articles, trade books (excerpts), business and financial reports, and media and social media sources that indicate consumer trends.   

Downloadable Formats

The Discussion Cards by the San Diego County Office of Education are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

 

Order a Printed Class Set!

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