1. Using picture books to teach integrated content
Dr. Cody Lawson
Assistant Professor of Education
Black Hills State University

2. ELED Student Presenters

3. Warm-Up/ Bell Ringer/ Do Now/ Bell Work
What does this poster mean to you?

4. “Only in education, never in the life of the farmer, sailor, merchant, physician, or laboratory experimenter, does knowledge mean primarily a store of information aloof from doing.”
- John Dewey

5. So you want to be a teacher
Where do you begin the journey in preparation to become a teacher?
Know your content
Learn the standards (based on grade level & discipline)
Research best practices in pedagogy
Collaborate in the development of integrated curriculum

6. Integrating Language Arts in Social Studies
The Common Core State Standards are here.
It seems unthinkable that a single document would be able to unify many of the educational practices in the United States. So, what exactly are the Common Core standards? Well, the English Language Arts standards are organized around a series of “shifts” in thinking about pedagogy that attempt to increase the complexity of student understanding.

7. The Three Big Shifts in Literacy for Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects:
Building knowledge through reading content-rich nonfiction
Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text
Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary

8. Strategies for integration
Consider the following ideas: Shift 1: Balancing Informational Text and Literature Shift 2: Building Knowledge in the Disciplines Shift 3: Staircase of Complexity Shift 4: Text Based Answers Shift 5: Writing from Sources Shift 6: Academic Vocabulary
Try these strategies in your classroom today to infuse the essence of the Common Core standards.

9. Strategies for Integration
Strategy 1: Include Primary Sources in Your Instruction—Often
David Coleman, one of the authors of the Common Core Standards, noted that “a student’s ability to comprehend a primary source” is usually indicative of his or her overall reading achievement.
So, include primary sources into your instruction whenever possible.
Check out Docs Teach ( an interactive website from the National Archives, for lesson plans and classroom tools that utilize primary sources in unique ways.

10. Make Themes and "Big Ideas" Transparent
Bringing information and background knowledge to a text is critical.
Daniel Willingham's viral YouTube Video entitled “Teaching Content is Teaching Reading” ( reminds us that students who are familiar with the topic, event, or story are much more able to comprehend the text.
Therefore, when you teach content, help students to see themes and “big ideas” between events and units that you teach.
For example, help students see connections between the loyalties at play in the American Revolution and the Civil War.
How did loyalty affect choices and behavior in both situations?
Emphasizing themes will encourage students to transfer their learning well beyond your classroom.

11. Use "Quick Writes" As Meaning Making Activities
The Common Core standards also highlight writing about informational texts.
Give students many different opportunities to respond in writing.
To keep things interesting and interactive, vary the format. Use post-it notes, online message boards, or blogs to heighten student engagement as they make meaning of the content that you share with them.
Update your blog entries on your teacher webpage and hold discussion groups when time is strained in class.

12. More Examples…
One thing you can do is give students a paragraph or two.
Then have them use the text to argue their beliefs by referring to factual information from the historical period of discussion.
Perhaps you give students one or two paragraphs from the Gettysburg Address.
Then you ask them to either agree or disagree with Lincoln’s tactics:
Did Lincoln’s words help to end the war? Why or why not?
It will make your students better historians, better readers, and better thinkers!

13. Using both text and illustration to develop content information
Picture Books…
Using both text and illustration to develop content information

14. Why Picture Books Rather Than a Textbook?
Textbooks are too difficult for most students to understand (Tyree, 1994).
Most students lack the ability to understand content text structures (Ciardiello, 2002).
Students use the same skills to interpret pictures as they do to interpret text.

15. Uses for Picture Books Introduce a unit Introduce a concept
Develop a concept within a unit

16. Picture Books…
Contain less text and the illustrations hold content as well as develop unfamiliar vocabulary (Huck, 1997).
Produce a variety of meanings because the illustrations enhance the story, clarify and define concepts, and set a tone for words (Vacca & Vacca, 2002).
Provide a more natural scaffold for learning (Villano, 2005).

17. Picture Books…
Add an aesthetic element to the learning process which enhances understanding.
Are extremely helpful for the less able reader, ELL, and visual learner to connect content ideas (Murphy, 2009).
Use a format that appeals to students who are increasingly visually oriented

18. Let’s read… Small Group Activity
BHSU Education majors present Picture Books to teach Integrated Content

19. Picture Book Presentations

20. Top 10 reasons to integrate
10.  Unless you have 50 hours a day to teach, you'll never get it all in.
9.   An integrated curriculum allows science and social studies to frame your reading, writing, and math.
8.   The brain thrives on connections.
7.   Life is not divided into neat little blocks of time called science, math, reading, writing, social studies, and recess.
6.  Problem solving skills soar when all of our knowledge and higher level thinking from all curriculum areas are tapped.
5.  Real literature in real books provides an authentic diving board into learning all subjects. Award-winning literature provides models for problem solving, peer relationships, character development, and skill building as students are captivated by exciting adventures with realistic characters who go through problems very much like their own or problems (like war) from which they will learn historical truths.

21. Top reasons to integrate
4. Schools have it backward! In real life you are tested with a problem and then must scramble for answers, but in traditional school you are given the answers and asked to... regurgitate them.
3. Group interaction and team building inherent in an integrated curriculum depend on using various strengths and skills to create bridges to understanding.
2. Your standardized test scores will hit the top! By inspiring students to think, to love learning, and to put their learning to work in authentic ways, your kids will be equipped for whatever curves they might be thrown...on standardized tests and in life!
1.  Students LOVE an integrated curriculum and thrive on its challenges.
- The Little Red Schoolhouse, 2002

22. Reflection
What books would you like to include in your recommended/ required readings for your future class?
Do you think using novels is an effective way of teaching key concepts/ ideas?
What other ideas do you have about Common Core Standards and integration?
Classes then
Classes now

23. References
Engage NY: Common Core Website: David Coleman’s Discussion: Docs Teach:
This website provides some really helpful videos demonstrating integration of social studies and language arts.