The Need for Integration of
Literacy and Social Studies
in the K Through Four
Literacy Block
Michael Jones
Wilmington College
What Happened to Social Studies?
The Disappearing Curriculum
By MARGIT E. McGUIRE
• Teaching civic education can’t wait until high school
• Administrators, feeling the pressure, organized the school day so
that substantial time was placed on literacy and mathematics to the
exclusion of other subjects and even recess in some districts.
• If educators continue to narrow the curriculum, reading and
mathematics test scores may rise, but at what cost? If our young
people, particularly children in poverty, do not understand or value
our democracy and their role in such a society and do not believe
that they can make a difference, why does school matter?
No Social Studies Left Behind:
Integrating Social Studies during the
Elementary Literacy Block
Leah H. Kinniburgh
• Elementary classroom teachers are required by state law to
teach the social studies standards as outlined in their state
curriculum guides, it has become increasingly common for
teachers to ignore these mandates and design a curriculum
solely around reading and math
• Teachers need to remember that if an activity does not
support the teaching of standards, it is wasting valuable
instructional time.
• Using the literacy block, the 90 to 120 minute time period
specifically dedicated to literacy instruction in elementary
schools, to integrate social studies and reading is one
solution to this problem.
Revisiting Curriculum Integration:
A Fresh Look at an Old Idea
ELIZABETH R. HINDE
• A curriculum approach is not to eliminate the
individual disciplines but to use them in combination
• Fusion design of curriculum integration merges related
subjects into a new subject. Fusion model attempts to
create generalizations in children’s minds, such as “the
decisions of human beings influence the survival of
other living things
• Teachers arrange concepts so that similar learning
activities relate to one another. The subject divisions
are retained, but relationships are developed among
them in the curriculum integration continuum .
The Need for Integration of Literacy
and Social Studies in the K Through
Four Literacy Block
• The current problems with the integrated
teaching methods are that the teachers today are
more worried about the letter of the law in
meeting state standards in literacy and
mathematics that social studies are being cut out
of the curriculum almost completely.
• It is possible to include social studies within
literacy block of teaching skills interactively,
making the students want to be more enguaged.
Examples of Integration
• If you are covering the Pilgrims landing with a group of students, you could
have the students divide into groups and discuss what they know or think
know about the Pilgrims landing, an example of anticipation guides. After
the discussion, have the students form questions based on their
discussion. Have the students read the selected passage out loud in class
with the teacher assisting where necessary joining in group discussion.
Once the reading is completed, address the questions that the students
had previously listed causing the use of grand conversations. Through
class discussion, cover each of the questions and finish the lesson by
having the students write a comparative list showing what they thought
they knew prior
• Students were asked to design the park in each of the classrooms. The
students had to design a park as a group in all four of the classes the
students learn to work together and decide through compromise what
was going to be in their park. During this exercise the students were
required to look at all aspects involved in designing and building the park.
We’re literacy came into play was through the new vocabulary introduced
during this project. Through the use of word banks, visual aids, and text
all the curriculum skills for literacy were accomplished. The completed
park projects were displayed on the walls of each classroom.” The literacy
skills were developed such as listening with a purpose, noting details, and
visualizing.”
Conclusion
• What is needed to fix this problem is for teachers to start thinking outside
the box. The way the integrated curriculum is being taught in the lower
grade levels today is not helping students learn what is needed.
• Instead of teaching social studies in the lower grades as should be done
the students are being taught basics of social studies in middle and high
school.
• These articles (Hinde, 2005, Kinniburgh, 2008, Mcguire, 2008) all depict
the situation that is growing in our society due to removal of social studies
from the curriculum in grades K through four.
• Teaching social studies must incorporate ideas and situations that cause
the student to think about the topic and questioning the ideas relating to
the topic. It is not enough for students to memorize materials for test
purposes only. Social studies are the ideas and beliefs behind who we are,
and where we have been, which leads to thought of where we are going.
• All these articles also agree that incorporating social studies into the
literacy block of learning can be achieved while upholding all the
requirements and standards attached to both subjects.