English Learner Collaborations

Teaching the Language of Social Studies

Language-aware lessons support all students, especially Multilingual Learners who are still developing in English, access primary-source rich learning. 

Document Based Question (DBQ) Access for Multilingual Learners. Materials will be freely available and adaptable, with teaching examples and step-by-step instructions for scaffolding for early-proficient and later-proficient multilingual learners. An open source lesson is analyzed step-by-step to show teachers how to adapt DBQ-type lessons to fully include English newcomers at all levels of proficiency. 

Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies TPS Project

Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies, funded by a grant from the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program of the Library of Congress, has collaborated with the Collaborative for Educational Services and other organizations to increase multilingual learner access to the social studies. Read the project announcement post.

• Discussions about increasing the inclusion of multilingual learners in civic and social studies education led to Considerations and Contributions of Multilingual Americans and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap. 
• A professional learning community (PLC) bringing together social studies teachers is in its second year.
• "Strengthen Language Proficiency Through Primary Source Inquiry: Supporting Multilingual Learners," a chapter in Teaching With Primary Sources for Cultural Understanding, Civic Mindedness, and Democracy (Waring, Teachers College Press, 2024) describes principles and offers strategies illustrated by piloted examples from the lessons below.
• Rules of Thumb

Lessons developed and piloted, and teaching strategies illustrated

The English Learner Collaborations project commissioned the development of lessons to illustrate applying English Language Development (ELD) teacher resources to History and Social Studies content.  

• Language-Aware examples are written for classrooms that have one or more multilingual students, and support elementary and social studies teachers in seeing ways to support language learning while teaching content with primary sources.
• ESL examples are written for classrooms where language acquisition is the focus, and support English Language Development specialists in using primary sources as they support language skill development. 

^{Suggested citation for language-aware lessons linked below: Audet, A. and Noyes, A. (2022). Suggested citation for ESL lessons linked below: Audet, A. and LaFrance, J. (2023). Title for all citations: Primary source lessons demonstrating practical applications of WIDA 2020 principles and resources for elementary, middle school, and high school social studies teaching. Extending the reach of primary sources: English Learner Collaborations project of the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies. http://www.emergingamerica.org/english-learner-collaborations}