Scaffolded Models for the Integration of Language and Content in Social Studies for Multilingual and English Language Learners

Global society in the twenty-first century demands knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for informed and thoughtful participation in society and civic life. How do we guarantee that our linguistically diverse learners develop twenty-first-century competencies while still learning a new language?

To facilitate this process, the Division of Multilingual Learners and the Department of Social Studies collaborated in the development of this resource, Scaffolded Models for the Integration of Language and Content in Social Studies for Multilingual and English Language Learners. The primary goals of this guide are to support social studies teachers and English as a New Language (ENL) teachers to center social studies texts in the learning process, to further their understanding around the text genres/ types that historians write, and to use authentic writing in history as models for textual production by students. With the understanding that historians write to learn and to demonstrate knowledge, this guide also aims to exemplify these writings through a Teaching-Learning Cycle (TLC) that includes building of shared knowledge, sustained reading, deconstruction, reconstruction, and collaborative as well as independent writing practices.