Top Guns: Social Studies and Literacy

Presenters:Kim Brock

Sarah CoyleLisa Mathis

Barbara Wagher

Wren Elementary School

Literature StudiesNovel studies allow literacy teachers to

build background knowledge before and

during social studies units.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background knowledge for Explorers unit

• Pedro keeps a journal of his voyage with Christopher Columbus. Troubling truths confront students as they read this novel.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for Native American unit

• Tells the story of a settler boy who finds himself leaning on the mercies of an Indian boy who isn’t that fond of him

Novels That Build Background

• Continues to build background for Native American unit

• Learn about life with the Seneca Indians as the captive girl shares her heartbreaking journey

Novels that Build Background

This trilogy focuses on the arrival of settlers in the Jamestown colony. Elizabeth records her experiences and hardships as a young colonist struggling to survive in the New World.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for the colonization of America

• Tells of the trials and tribulations of those who sailed to the New World

Novels that Build Background

• A young boy goes against his family’s wishes and joins the local militia to fight the British and gain freedom from King George’s tyrannical rule.

• Is he too young to join the fight?

Novels that Build Background

• After witnessing Nathaniel Hale’s hanging, Sophia becomes a Revolutionary spy who plays an integral part in uncovering the identity of an American traitor.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for Westward Expansion

• Live the struggles of a family torn apart by death as they learn to love and grow in the prairie lands of Kansas.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for the Westward Expansion

• Students get a glimpse of the dangers of life on the Overland Trail.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for the Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation

• Travel West with two boys who form an unusual friendship, and learn the hardships of being black in the 1850’s.

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for Westward Expansion

• Find out what life was like on the prairie with these special Christmas stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Novels That Build Background

• Builds background for the Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation

• Live life as a slave girl in the late 1800’s

• Students learn empathy and injustice while being introduced to terms associated with slavery.

Novels that Build Background

• Sent to stay with his grandmother for Spring Break, Benjy explores the New Market Battlefield near the Virginia Military Institute. During his time on the battlefield he meets a very unlikely friend.

Novels That Build Background

• Students learn the hardships of life during the Civil War.