Inclusion in Social Studies

Without knowing anything about their specific deficits, it’s possible that my advice will be off base. You’ve said that their main problem is that they can’t read well. Are they able to learn and remember what they hear, as opposed to what they read? If the answer is yes, maybe you could persuade the school to get them their textbooks on tape. The ones whose reading skills are at the higher levels you mentioned could use their textbooks to follow along while they listen to the books on tape, and the ones who read on the 3rd-grade level could just listen to the tapes while they’re receiving remediation in reading and writing (which I HOPE they’re getting!). You could also use films, videos, etc., to supplement what the tapes are teaching them. As for evaluating what they’ve learned, there’s a number of ways you could do that: oral exams, art projects, etc.

Hope my suggestions help! I’m not a teacher myself, but the posters here who are could give you more specific suggestions.

Yours truly,
Kathy G.

Theteach wrote:
>
> I’m having a difficult time teaching inclusion students in
> Social Studies. Students have to read in order to understand
> what I’m teaching and unfortunately they don’t read well.
> What can I do to teach these students. Are there any lessons,
> ways to assess their learning, or something that can make
> learning easier for them. I teach 8th grade Social Studies
> and have students who are functioning at a 3rd, 4th and 5th
> grade reading level. I’m becoming frustrated because I
> really want to help them but it is very difficult. I do have
> a Special Ed teacher in the classroom, but he’s new and
> really doesn’t understand either. I have a total of 25
> students in class with 8 who are inclusion students. Any
> help in teaching the lessons would be greatly appreciated.

I see spec. ed students in Social Studies as virtually needing everything to be different and for just the reason you offer - they cannot read the textbook. I came to teach a ‘no-textbook’ Social Studies class and that worked well for me. Textbooks tend to be so dry anyway that my reg. ed students lost little when I stopped using them and it truly freed up my spec. ed kids and enabled them to learn on a more level playing field.

If, though, you can’t toss the textbook into the trash can, then I’d give alternative assessments to the spec. ed children and exempt them from reading the textbook. I never do memorization based tests and tend to give short term projects as tests of their learning. My spec. ed kids for the most part are as successful as the reg. ed kids when accomodated in this way.

You might also dip into Mel Levine’s book called Educational Care for his suggestions.

Thank you Kathy and Sara. I appreciate the help. Unfortunately I have to use the text book and yes Kathy they are receiving remediation in reading and writing. I’ll try to use the different assessment methods you both mentioned. I really want to help these children but it’s so frustrating at times. Thanks again for your help

If you have to use the textbook, I’d do this. I’d boil a chapter of the textbook down to a page - even a half page- for them. The “everything you need to know about this chapter” page or a synopsis of the chapter. They could read that and get the gist of the chapter. That way they keep up with your good readers in the textbook and its content and your class is still textbook based as it must be.

If you then use light project based alternative assessments with them that don’t lean upon their weaknesses, they should be fine.

Good luck.

When I taught “self-contained” social studies, I “used” the regular textbook because I wanted to be doing what the other classes were doing. However, we really didn’t spend much time *in* the book.
I figured out what I wanted them to learn — as in, really learn, take wiht them into the next grade. Then I picked the most exciting ways I could to teach that. So, for example, I wanted them to know that there was a war of 1812 and it was against England (and spent a fair amount of time & effort making sure they knew that we had this other independence thing wiht them in 1776 — most of these guys didn’t know what we celebrated on Fourth of July beyond “oh, Freedom!”)… and that everything was shipped on ships back then and one of the big deals was being impressed into the British Navy.
So we did spend a little time each day reading orally from the text book. Then I told ‘em about boats & stuff and read a little something from a cabin boy’s logbook, about eating hard biscuits in the dark so you couldn’t see the slime on them but it sure felt cold and wet sliding down your throat… and dramatically “impressed” one of ‘em into the Navy and had them dramatize it too.
What might be more useful in your situation — I used a *lot* of pictures to match wiht vocab. terms. We made vocabulary index cards with pictures and definitions and played quick draw — they knew what a blockade was and they could find England on a map.
They made their own matching quizzes with vocab. terms, and then I’d find other stuff for them to read that was basically what they had already heard about and done, but now they had to read about it. (Sometimes I found it in the library or on the INternet, sometimes I had to write it myself).
There’s an article about lowering the language barriers for LD kids in content areas at http://www.resourceroom.net/myarticles/barriers.asp — maybe it will have a few more ideas.

Hey, You brought up an interesting question from a teachers point of view. How can you teach social studies to 8th graders with 3rd or 4th grade reading level. Well, Is their understanding at a 4th grade level? Probably not>>>>>>> The way you do this is by giving those students a way to first of all, ”ACCSESS THE CIRRICULUM.” If these students can not read this means they can not effectivley accsess the couse. They need text books on tape!!!!!If these students are reading this far below grade level I would hope they have been thouroghly evaluated. There must be an underlining L.D. If so then by law they must be served under a 504 or an I.E.P. A free and appropriate education is not one if you can not read what is required to to meet a course objective. You are half way through the school year. Someone needs to get on the horn pronto and give these students access to the couse by AUDIO>>This is very sad to me.. This is like having a blind child watch a silent movie. “They ain’t gonna get much out of it.” I feel soooo strongly because I have a ninth grader who reads at 4th grade level. I had to purchase the texts myself because my district never got around to it. I read every thing I can to him. But, I can not be at school with him. He reads what he can and takes the rest home to read. He made the A B honor role first nine weeks. That is because he is determined to succeed, even when society thinks he will probably flip hamburgers with a 4th grade reading level. Tell that to Charles SCHWABB, or Paul Orphelea, KINKO’S founder. Or my sons Dyslexic dad- An engineer. Give these kids a fighting chance and they may surprize you. Hand them a broken crayon, when the rest of the class gets water colors and you will have given these students a sub-standard education.