Chapter 1 - Learning to Think, Read, and Write Like Historians
Posted May 14, 2017 by Carmela Gustafson, Connetquot Teachers Association; Mary McGonnell, Connetquot Teachers Association
Two social studies teachers with more than 35 years of combined experience share their three-fold approach to teaching literacy in the content areas. The authors use a flexible, mixed-bag of both generic literacy strategies and disciplinary literacy routines; collaborating across grade levels to scaffold and reinforce skills; and collaborating across subject areas with English teachers both to establish consistent expectations for students about reading and writing, and to highlight the distinctive literacy practices of history as a discipline.
Carmela Gustafson is a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School on Long Island and a member of the Connetquot Teachers Association. Most of her 19-year career has been at this grade, but she has also taught fourth and fifth grades, as well as high school English. Gustafson is an advanced doctoral candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College; her dissertation is on literacy in the social studies classroom.
Mary McGonnell is a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School on Long Island and a member of the Connetquot TA. In addition to her 15 years of experience at OBMS, she taught eighth-grade cultural history. In 2012, McGonnell received Harvard University’s Long Island Distinguished Teacher Award.