Disciplinary Literacy in Secondary Social Studies/History, for a Professional Learning Session.

Disciplinary Literacy in Secondary Social Studies/History, for a Professional Learning Session..

[Audio] Hello everyone I am Phillip, welcome to my presentation that aims to examine disciplinary literacy and its critical role in social studies education. Disciplinary literacy instruction incorporated in teaching of historical things offers students cognitive strategies to understand challenging and rigorous texts (Claravall & Irey, 2021). In social studies, students become active researchers thus sustaining an interest in history sources and procedures (Cinnamon et al., 2021). The main question guiding this session is how disciplinary literacy can revolutionize instruction and foster civic-minded, literate students. This study aims to examine literacy strategies and its application in the classroom. The aim is to make the practice of disciplinary literacy an integral part of classroom practice..

[Audio] Disciplinary literacy goes beyond teaching general reading skills. It prepares students to think and write like professionals specialized in a given area of study (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012). This entails dealing with approaches to historical evidence, sources, and reasoning in historical arguments in history. General literacy is about general skills while disciplinary literacy is intended to teach students how historians can interpret history. Participation in this class requires students to read and think critically to master the forms of historical thinking. Through these strategies, teachers help their students become real historians in the classroom and to deal with the complex text enabling them to be capable of creating insight into the events of the past..

[Audio] Disciplinary literacy plays an essential role in social studies because it enables students to transition from passive academic recipients toward active investigators. The process of teaching source analysis and argument development helps students acquire critical thinking abilities required for active citizenship (Cinnamon et al., 2021). The learned skills enable pupils to go beyond examination success toward making informed decisions and participating in a democratic society. These practices encourage students to challenge historical content through discussion and interpret various historical viewpoints..

[Audio] According to Basri et al. (2023), Five Cs of History include, Change Over Time, Causality, Context, Complexity, and Contingency to facilitate the development of historical thinking. Change Over Time helps students see how ideas, societies, and systems transform. Similarly, cause-and-effect makes the students consider why something occurred and what exactly resulted from it. Context implies putting the event in its proper historical perspective. In Complexity, students are taught that there are multiple points of view. Likewise, contingency teaches that outcomes were not guaranteed. These components require essential and closely related literacy activities such as the ability to read closely, reference, and argue. Consequently, historical thinking is central to disciplinary literacy in social studies classrooms..

[Audio] In traditional history classes, teachers normally involve the students in learning event- and date-oriented contents and figures (López-Fernández et al., 2023). Disciplinary literacy intervenes in this direction to teach the students to read, think, and inquire in the manner historians do (Sedita, 2024). They spend much time working with the primary and secondary sources instead of numerous textbooks. The responsibilities also include the abilities to question the sources, find similarities and differences, and make conclusions based on the gathered evidence. This assists in the development of critical thinking and makes students ready to use historical skills and knowledge in other aspects in life. This represents a shift from the acquisition of factual knowledge to analytical and interpretational concepts necessary for historical learning..

[Audio] Core literacy demands in social studies focus on composition and inquiry skills. Students have to practice writing for an audience, to edit the thoughts that are to be presented, and language characteristic of the discipline (Rogers, 2024). Consequently, they develop constructive thought process, critical reading skills, and communication abilities. Academic skills are also personalized although they possibly facilitate quest and research skills in that they help the children generate questions, analyzing possible source material, and deriving conclusions (Rogers, 2024). These habits of learning, foster thinking skills and cooperation which are valuable for academic achievement and for any other activities..

[Audio] SAC (Structured Academic Controversy) is an effective way of learning to read in social studies. It supports co-operative learning and imparting ways to approach contentious historical issues critically (Parker, 2021). Students search for information enabling the opportunity of discussing the issue with other people and develop new attitudes. This process enhances reading, courtesy, handling of evidence and arguments, and logic. Thus, SAC improves the level of content knowledge and the skills of citizens. For instance, students can debate on whether the New Deal was effective using real historical sources. SAC is beneficial for the teachers at all stages, and the service ensures a rational approach to developing and delivering tests..

[Audio] Source analysis is essential for developing foundational proficiency in history lessons.. Students should be taught to ask important sourcing questions such as who wrote this? Why? Can it be trusted? (Kipping et al., 2013). Due to this, history can be told or recorded in a biased or skewed manner because the materials that have been retained have undergone a tremendous amount of change over time. Thus, in teaching students, they recommend source criticism approach to determine the credibility of the sources, use multiple documents to support findings and recommended hermeneutic approach to understand the context of the documents (Kipping et al., 2013)..

[Audio] Literary analysis differs from close reading in history. It entails a consideration of the background knowledge of a document, its origin and its historical repercussions (Shanahan, 2013). Historians always tend to know who wrote the text, why he or she wrote it and how this text relates to other texts. According to Ohrvik (2024), students have to be taught to develop critical thinking skills in relation to bias, perspective, and purpose. They should relate a document to the sources connected with this document to get more understanding. For instance, a WWII propaganda poster is not just "read" as students explore its creator, audience, and message. It also helps to develop skills beyond the memorizing of historical facts making it more effective as a learning method..

[Audio] Critical thinking is one component that necessitates various aspects such as questioning, synthesis, and interpretation of information. In social studies, these skills are best learned through historical learning where we teach the students how to conjure deeper issues-focused questions and analysis. Acquiring historical information assists the learners in understanding the correlation of events between the past and present. Situation problem solving skills are created through evaluative evidence where the student is prepared to act correctly in certain circumstances (Witarsa & Muhammad, 2023). Students do not automatically develop these skills and thus, they must be explicitly taught..

[Audio] Resor (2019) explains how testimonials, almanacs, and trade cards were powerful historical marketing tools, much like today's online reviews and social media ads. Therefore, when these strategies are demonstrated and compared to the concepts related to digital marketing, the students learn how to critically think through the materials provided to them. It focuses on additional features like images, trust-building tactics, and a more significant focus on content marketing. This enhances the thinking, media referral, and citizenship competencies required when confronting the challenges of today's world..

[Audio] In this mini-lesson, we model how disciplinary literacy strengthens students' historical thinking. Start by posing the DBQ: "What Caused the American Revolution?" Then provide primary source documents like letters, pamphlets, and government acts. Students should take notes in line with facts and features of events under consideration by summarizing opinions and views formulas. After that, guide them to argue and endeavor to provide concrete documented evidence to support this claim. Likewise, students write the argumentative essay. This approach develops reading, analytical and historical writing skills necessary for the social studies classroom..

[Audio] Sourcing should be done at the most basic level which is introducing sourcing questions with each text to make the students reason as historians. Modelling while reading and critiquing permits students the opportunity to see how the process is done. Additionally, a technique that is favorable is using scaffolding where students are allowed to work on the first stanza before they are introduced with sentence starters and graphic organizers that will help them develop the next stanza. Similarly, cultural sensitivity and acknowledging student's learning culture to enhance learning accessibility (Cullen, 2016). Think-alouds can also be employed as the students gain ownership of the discipline-specific practices by encouraging them to verbalize their thought processes (Cullen, 2016)..

[Audio] Kurniawati and Rahman (2021) points out the difficulties of employing historical literacy during the COVID-19 outbreak. They conducted in a private school in East Jakarta where history teachers faced difficulty in finding time and effective ways to introduce multiple historical sources in an online learning environment. Some challenges that the students faced mainly affected the use of primary sources. They also pointed out that it is challenging to determine the students' historical literacy levels effectively through online learning tools such Zoom..

[Audio] Disciplinary literacy is a promising avenue to revolutionize social studies classrooms. Incorporating inquiry, critical thinking skills, and argument building into our instruction prepares the students for participating as engaged citizens in society, and other political and social forums. Disciplinary literacy requires students to think critically and look past the surface to provide argumentation and to analyze sources in history. Practicing these skills, and discussing with colleagues how they can be effectively integrated, is our responsibility as educators..

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