Literacy Strategies For Secondary Social Studies Classrooms Website

Multiple experts agree that using literacy in secondary classrooms can be a gateway in multiple content areas (Alvermann, Phelps, & Ridgeway, 2007; Kottler & Gallavan, 2008; Schneider, 1994) and this project is focused on integrating different literacy strategies into secondary social studies classrooms. The website project is focused on three main categories of literacy: Reading (pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading), Writing (formal and informal), and Speaking and Listening (discussions and debating). The website is designed with over 25 literacy strategies, each of which has its own web page with a detailed explanation of how to integrate and use the strategy within a social studies classroom as well as examples of the use of the strategy in a middle school and a high school for applicable strategies. Each web page also has an estimated preparation time for teachers, how to differentiate the activity for English Language Learners or students with lower reading levels, and has blank templates in word and Google Doc format for easy download for users. The goal of the project is to develop a website resource that can be accessed by any social studies teachers so they can utilize different activities and strategies that have a literacy focus but will increase student learning of social studies content