Teaching Strategies
The reading challenges increase considerably when Oklahoma State Standards require my struggling students to read and comprehend the meaning of historical texts like the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, George Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. My students also examine the differences between primary and secondary source material. They have to determine the central ideas or information of the sources, accurately summarize the source distinct from their prior interpretation or opinion, and then I require a cited five-paragraph argumentative essay to display the understanding of the material. To do this, they will need some help in analyzing the text.
Teaching Literacy through History24
One strategy I use is the Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History “Teaching Literacy Through History” program that helps students comprehend complex texts. The Gilder-Lehrman Institute acted proactively when Common Core standards started being the norm and created a program that would assist social studies teachers with teaching literacy through their history instruction. The TLH program strategy allows me “chunk” or segment reading selections to help my struggling readers. The Gilder-Lehman Institute offers free associate membership for participating schools. An associate member can access the full range of “TLTH” strategies and other extremely valuable sources of history and literacy instruction. The last critical step is citing the texts in the appropriate manner.
The DBQ Project.25
DBQ stands for “Document-Based Question” which bases a question on selected texts or documents. The DBQ Project offers a five paragraph essay writing strategy that contains graphic organizers and primary and secondary sources on U. S. History topics and essential questions that work for both elementary and secondary classrooms. Their use of graphic organizers works well for both “on level” and struggling readers.
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