Instructional practices for secondary social studies teachers: Describing a curricular program designed to improve language, content knowledge and literacy outcomes for emergent bilinguals

Abstract

This article describes a curricular program for use in middle school social studies classrooms that supports the development of emergent bilinguals' language, literacy skills, and acquisition of content knowledge. The program leverages four supports found to be impactful for emergent bilinguals: 1) foregrounding content to increase students' readiness to learn language through content instruction; 2) making meaningful and relevant connections to students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds in complex disciplinary texts and activities; 3) engaging students in discussions and collaborations through heterogeneous teams that include students with a variety of linguistic proficiencies; and 4) using formative assessment to increase feedback and instructional responsiveness. The article presents illustrative examples of how these supports were embedded within a unit on ancient Greece and offers guidance on how middle school social studies teachers can incorporate supports in their units.