The Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects standards strongly align with current research within educational communities about the importance of "reading and writing across the curriculum." One common factor presented in most reports state that
all teachers are literacy teachers.
When looking in the social studies classroom, teachers and students use many genres of text from presidential proclamations to private letters and political cartoons. Students "read" images and analyze/synthesize videos, objects and art. They review primary sources to reflect on perspectives and secondary sources in order to gain support for arguments and counterclaims.
Through the social studies classrooms, students learn that audience, place, purpose, and time matter when evaluating how authors crafted and delivered their messages. In the these classrooms students learn to read like historians and ask questions such as: Whose voice is missing? What is the evidence to support that claim? How are the conclusions on this topic limited?
Literacy in the social studies classroom provides opportunities for students to use close reading and other reading strategies to extend learning instead of memorizing historical facts.
Resources:
Stanford History Education Group. Reading Like a Historian.
teachinghistory.org Blog September 26, 2011
