Supporting Readers in Social Studies: Effective Strategies for Learning

by Brenda Shelton, Cox Elementary School, Xenia, Ohio

In explaining the philosophy that underpins Ohio's social studies academic standards, the Ohio Department of Education states, "Effective social studies integrates history, geography, economics, political science, other social studies, and humanities in order to prepare students to be participating citizens." That statement translates into a tall order for teachers of fourth graders―children who have been on this planet not even two hands' worth of fingers. (Most fourth graders begin the academic year at age nine.) To teachers of fourth graders, the content standard goals can be quite challenging. Challenging, yes, but not impossible.

The first question I must ask myself after studying the standards and my Ohio history teacher's manual is this: "How am I going to teach so that my students will not only learn, but also retain, the wealth of information that is going to be given to them?"

Nine- and ten-year-old children do not have extremely long attention spans and have great difficulty sitting still after about twenty minutes of listening, reading, or writing on any subject. Therefore, I really try to keep this in mind when planning my lessons. As well, I believe the students must be excited about what they are learning and must have fun in class, or skills will be forgotten soon after the lessons have been taught. Thus while it is essential for me to use the teacher's manual and content standards as guides to help me stay focused, it is important to make use of the many resources and strategies that are available.

Supplementing Textbooks with Other Books
 
Sometimes the text in social studies textbooks can be a bit boring―full of just facts. Trade books, and even encyclopedias, can make the content more appealing to the children. There are numerous fiction and nonfiction books on each of the content standards in social studies (see the list of suggested books), and they are so much more interesting than just the textbooks.

Sometimes trade books can be used to set the stage for a unit and to clarify and illustrate concepts that are hard to grasp. As an example, I have just begun a unit on economics. This is a difficult concept for children to comprehend. The best way I have found to teach the skills and vocabulary of economics is to start by reading stories. I have just finished reading Max Malone Makes a Million, by Charlotte Herman. It is a very short chapter book about a little boy who decides to begin his own business. The book uses words such as quality and profit. The story also shows children why it is important to add, subtract, multiply, and divide properly. The students have really enjoyed this book, and it was a great way to introduce the concepts of goods and services and the factors of production. This chapter book took only about forty-five minutes to read to my social studies classes.

Illustrating to Support Learning
 
Construction paper, crayons, scissors, and glue sticks are used in abundance in my classroom. Fourth graders love to draw pictures. Why not use these talents for creating factual pictures?

As an example, instead of just having students look up vocabulary words, encourage them to draw the definitions too. My students also become engrossed when we play our own form of Pictionary. I put vocabulary words or facts on index cards and drop the cards into a bag or box. Students then come up to the front of the class and pick a card from the bag. The student must draw the word in a picture on the board or overhead. (Students love to do this!) The class guesses the fact or vocabulary word. This is an especially great way to review.

Acting Out

My students love to read a section of the social studies book and then act it out. I will divide the text into segments for groups of three or four children to read. Then I ask each group of students to act out what they have read. The students really study what they are reading because when it is their group's turn to act, they want the class to understand what they are doing. This activity can be used for almost any subject. The children are very creative and usually comprehend and remember what they have read.

Making Worksheets Engaging

You can even make a simple worksheet from the lesson more fun by having the students answer the questions and then draw pictures about the subject to help them remember important points or facts.

Sometimes creating your own worksheets to make lessons more exciting will help students remember certain skills. And personalizing the worksheets by placing teachers' names in sentences or paragraphs enhances interest in the content. For instance, my students got caught right up into the following worksheet that I created to teach the factors of production:

Note: To assess the factors of production activity, I usually divide a paper into four sections for each paragraph. The students must put each item under the correct factor of production (Land, Capital, Labor, Entrepreneurship).

Satisfying Results
 
Supporting readers in social studies and the other content areas is indeed a challenging endeavor, but it can be quite exciting, especially as I see my students engaged in learning. It is also exciting for the student. And if you don't wish to take my word for it, check out Student Voices written by some satisfied consumers.

Brenda Shelton has been teaching since 1979. She received her BS in elementary education from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and her master's in elementary education from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She has been teaching fourth and fifth graders for fourteen years. She is currently teaching language arts and social studies at Cox Elementary School in Xenia, Ohio.

Return to top