Beaman, Bruce. “Writing to Learn Social Studies.” In
Roots in the Sawdust.
Ed. Ann Ruggles. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1985. Article focuses on integrating reading in the content area with writing strategies.
Carter, Betty, and Richard Abrahamsom. “Castles to Colin Powell: The Truth about Nonfiction.” In
Into Focus -- Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers
. Eds. Kylene Beers and Barbara Samuels. Norwood, Massachusetts: Christopher Gordon Publishers, 1998. 313 -- 332.
Fiderer, Adele.
25 Mini-lessons for Teaching Writing
. New York: Scholastic/Professional Books. 1997. Although the teaching strategies focus on Grades 3-6, the ideas can be used and adapted for a higher grade. The section on organization stresses sentence and paragraph development with activities that break apart writing skills with practice lessons that can be modified for your own curriculum.
Hayes, Nan DeVincentis.
Grammar & Diagramming Sentences
:
Advanced Straight Forward English Series.
Liverpool: Garlic Press, 1997. Text guide for diagramming sentences.
Hoose, Phillip. We Were There Too: Young People in US History. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001. Stories about real children who experienced the historical events we will read about in class.
Hoyt, Linda.
Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension
. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1999. Nice graphic organizers for pre and post reading.
Levadi, Barbara.
Writing to Explain
. New Jersey: Globe Fearon Educational Publisher, 1996. Step by step guide to planning, organizing, and editing reports, summaries, and directions and descriptions. Helps a social studies teacher understand elements of writing.
Lewis, Merewether, and William Clark.
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
. Ed. Bernard DeVoto. New York: Mariner Books, revised edition 1997. Inexpensive paperback edition of the journals.
McCarthy, Tara.
Expository Writing: Mini-lessons, Strategies, Activities
. New York: Scholastic/Professional Books, 1998. Activities include how to develop a purpose statement; how to use cause and effect and comparisons in expository writing; how to develop a main idea from definitions and explanations. Useful for brushing up quickly on language arts skills.
National Archives and Records Administration.
Teaching with Documents
. 2 vols. Washington, DC., 1976. Collection of 52 primary source documents spanning 200 years of American History with teaching suggestions.
Norris, Jill, and Don Robison.
Writing Fabulous Sentences and Paragraphs
. Monterey, California: Evan-Moor Educational Publishers, 1997. Filled with good ideas for helping students develop writing skills.
O’Connor, John R..
Exploring American History
. Paramus, New Jersey: Globe-Fearon Book Company, 1994. This is the textbook we use; Globe-Fearon has just come out with a 2002 edition but the new edition eliminates the numbered paragraphs that we find so useful for note-taking.
Santa, Carol and Lynn Havens.
Project CRISS: Creating Independence Through Student Owned Strategies.
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1996. Chapters on formal and informal ‘writing to learn’ include strategies for note-taking, comprehension, and writing. This book is great for ideas on developing worksheets.
State of Connecticut Department of Education.
Connecticut Academic Performance Test -- Second Generation, Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines, 2001
. Connecticut State Board of Education, 2001. A useful handbook developed by the state with sample CAPT material and guidelines for teaching. Available online (PDF) and in paperback