Integrating Literacy and History Instruction

Cindy Okolo, Carol Sue Englert, Janet AllemanMichigan State University

okolo@msu.edu

This project is funded by a Phase 1 Steppingstones of Technology Innovation Grant from the Office of Special Education

Programs, United States Department of Education

Literacy Challenges for Students with Mild Disabilities

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Graph from: Deshler, Schumaker, LenzBulgren, Hock, Knight, & Ehren, 2011

Literacy Challenges for Students with Mild Disabilities

Literacy Skills• Basic skills• Comprehension• Writing• Studying• Cognitive strategies to

support learning from text• Motivation

Content Demands• Reading to learn• Readability levels of

textbooks & internet• Minimal time allocated for

literacy instruction• Synthesis and analysis• Increasing demands for

content mastery

Embedded Literacy Instruction

• In content-area classes• Sensitive to disciplinary practices– Epistemology– Inquiry– Content

• Sensitive to curricular demands– Teachers– Curricular coverage– High-stakes tests

History learning = general literacy skills + disciplinary literacy skills

• History learning = reading and interpreting the historical record– Reading and understanding historical texts

• print, images, audio, video, music, physical objects• History learning = critically analyzing and taking into account multiple texts

– Coordinating multiple perspectives– Critical analysis (e.g., bias in evidence)– Drawing reasonable inferences (historical record almost always

incomplete)– Historical empathy– Reasoning based on disciplinary standards (sourcing, corroborating)

• Communicating conclusions through writing or other public forms of presentation

History learning = content + literacy

• Content mastery is still important• Generic literacy strategies may sacrifice

content• Embed literacy strategies IN content• Our teachers tell us:– We need to teach content.– We know how to teach content. – Help us learn to teach literacy strategies.

Virtual History Museum• Teachers collect, create, combine:

– Artifacts: any digital media– Activities: collecting and organizing information, evaluating,

comprehension, writing – Exhibits: artifacts + activities

• Sharing• Searchable database• Managing students and classes• Runs in any web browser, works with browser tools

such as text to speech and reference tools

VHM: What Did We Learn?

• Based on use in middle-school inclusive history classrooms

• VHM use improves historical knowledge (compared to textbook only)

• Knowledge gains similar (or even a little larger) for students with and without disabilities

• Historical knowledge and reasoning moderately correlated

• Historical knowledge not highly correlated with quality or reasoning in writing about history

VHM2• VHM + literacy strategies– Learned in and applied to history content

• Instructional principles for history learning• Instructional principles for strategy learning• Lesson plans for strategy instruction and use• Content for strategy applications• Videos of students talking about/using strategies• Social network for professional development

Strategy Lesson Features

• Lessons describe prerequisite skills & knowledge

• Lessons articulate key concepts & vocabulary• Strategies support students as they read,

writing about, & interpret history. • Strategy instruction is interactive and dialogic.

Strategy Lesson Features

• Students understand why they are learning a strategy and how it will help them.

• Lessons offer guidance, not a script.• Lessons are designed so that new strategies

are learned in the context of familiar content. • Lessons are flexible: teacher can substitute

content that is better aligned with his/her curriculum

Strategy Lesson Features

• Lessons include activities that students use to learn & apply a strategy.

• Lessons include VHM exhibit that applies strategy to historical content.

• Lessons provide additional resources about literacy and content.

• Each lesson asks students to use tools and techniques used by historians.

Lessons Organized into Strategy Strands

• Three strands– Thinking Like a Historian– Evaluating History– Communicating History

• Interrelated– Build on each other, refer back to each other

• Developed in consultation with and by teachers• Topic of migration and immigration– Teachers can use alternate content

Strand One: Thinking Like a Historian

• Different lenses for viewing history– Similar to text structures

• Examine similar content from different sets of lenses– Cultural Universals– Problem-Solution-Effect– Compare-Contrast– Chronology– Personal Narrative

Strand Two: Evaluating History• Critical analysis and evaluation of evidence• Working with multiple texts

– Hypothesizing– Questioning the evidence– Detecting perspective– Sourcing– Corroborating– Backtracking– Interpreting visual information (political cartoons, photographs,

paintings)

Strand Three: Communicating History

• Transforming historical knowledge and conclusions for multiple purposes and audiences–Argumentative writing–Narrative writing–Research reports–Debating–Presenting

Strategy Example: Political CartoonsWho drew this? When did they draw it?What story is the artist trying to tell me?

Who or what is in the cartoon? What is happening in the cartoon?Did I look at everything?

Does the artist use special techniques?Symbolism?Exaggeration?Comparison?

What is the artist’s purpose?What issue or event is the artist showing me?What is the artist trying to tell me or make me think? what is a different way to think about this issue or event?

What do I think about this cartoon?How does this cartoon make me feel?Is there anything I don’t understand?How could I find out more?

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Project Status

• Redesign of VHM interface and activities to be consistent with strategy lessons (underway)

• Development of lesson plan and professional development interface (completed)

• Development of strategy lessons (underway)• Design studies of strategy instruction and outcomes

(Fall, 2011)• Strategy video clips (Spring, 2012)• Pilot study of VHM2 (Spring 2012)

VHM2 Staff• Cindy Okolo• Carol Sue Englert• Jan Alleman• Kanthakumar Pongaliur• Meena Kanthakumar• Maryl Randal• Amber Johnson• Ken Dirkin• Emily Bouck• Anne Heutsche