Enhancing Literacy Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom

Strategy
Name
Discussion
and Debate

History
Frames

APPARTS

PEP Strategy
and Roadmap

Description

Citation

Discussion and debate are both strategies that can

be implemented with social studies material to help
build critical literacy. Students have the opportunity
to read and reflect on text, communicate their ideas
with their classmates, and engage in structured
debate about their opinions and analysis of different
modes of social studies material.
A history frame is similar to a story map in that
students are prompted to identify key events, key
players, conflict, resolution, and relation to
universal truths. This graphic organizer will be
given to students as they read
Social Studies texts, including trade books, to
promote comprehension.
This strategy provides students with a framework
for analyzing primary sources. The prompts include
Author, Place, Prior Knowledge, Audience, Reason,
and The main idea. By activating prior knowledge,
students are better prepared to
draw conclusions about an unfamiliar primary
source.
This strategy is used to help students interact with
social studies text, specifically helping them to draw
in their schema. Before reading, students predict
about the purpose of the text, whether is is
discussing a person, event, or place (PEP), as
social studies text often does. This strategy can be
used when reading both primary sources as well as
textbooks, and once students predict after
examining titles/subtitles, they then ask questions

Wolk, S. (2003). Teaching for critical

literacy in social studies. The Social
Studies,94(3),
101-106.

Retrieved from
http://www.readingquest.org/strat/storym
aps.html

Greer, C. (2006). Primary source

strategies. College Board.

Katims, D.S. & Harmon, J.M. (2000).

Strategic Instruction in Middle School
Social Studies: Enhancing Academic and
Literacy Outcomes for At-Risk Student.
Intervention in School and Clinic, 35 (5),
280-289.

from their predictions which they then seek to

answer through the text.