34 TESOL Journal

he issue of language rights ofsecond language (L2) learn-

ers—and how the respect and exer-cise of those rights relate toquality instructional settings andpromote successful learning out-

comes—has been thoroughly and criticallyaddressed by educational researchers (see,e.g., Corson 1999; Cummins, 1999; Shannon,1995; and Skutnabb-Kangas, 1998). Thisarticle describes a teacher-researcher’sinstructional experience with her middleschool students in the area of social studies,in which she applied strategies and tech-niques to promote the development ofEnglish as a second language (ESL) and criti-cal thinking through a literature-basedapproach to learning social studies. Her expe-rience demonstrates ways in which Englishlanguage learners, together with their native-English-speaking and fully bilingual peers,can work collaboratively and effectively tolearn within an integrated instructional con-text.

Students today have limited knowledgeabout social studies content, according torecent research (Ravitch & Finn, 1987). ESLstudents, in particular, find it problematic to

learn social studies content (Bartolomé,1994) because most of the learning

involves reading English language textbooks.Exacerbating this is the fact that most socialstudies textbooks are not written for the pur-pose of increasing students’ understanding ofideas (Leinhardt, Beck, & Stainton, 1994).Thus, it is difficult for mainstream English-speaking students as well as ESL students tolearn the required information from theirtextbooks.

Students unable to comprehend informa-tion in content subjects such as social studiesare often written off as lazy or poorly pre-pared. Although it may be said that the workethic of the current student population maybe in need of improvement, it is clear thatsome classroom practices—despite the factthat they are carried out with the best ofintentions—are counterproductive and some-times interfere with optimal learning. Thiscombination of disinterested students andunstimulating lessons may present dual prob-lems that will undermine the effectiveness ofteaching in U.S. classrooms in the future.Despite the fact that many teachers have ele-vated their teaching practices beyond the useof repetitive, fill-in-the-blank response drills,they still often teach at a low cognitive level,with little manipulation of information oremphasis on critical thought. This approachis particularly problematic for ESL students,

who must bridge both linguistic and concep-tual gaps to succeed. As a result, these stu-dents are unable to make the higher levelcognitive connections necessary to build theschema they will need for later learning.Therefore, the application of traditionalsocial studies methods regularly underminesthe language rights of ESL learners.

Changing Views ofTeaching and Learning

Although newer instructional trends areemerging and being implemented quite suc-cessfully in many classrooms, some educa-tional and societal assumptions of the pastremain ingrained in the current curricula.Historically, psychology has significantlyinfluenced our assumptions about teachingand learning.

During the 1940s and 1950s, behavioralpsychology was the dominant form of psy-chology. Behaviorists attributed changes inan individual’s behavior directly to changesin the environment, not to thought or othermental processes (Lindfors, 1987). Thus, oneof the main ways behaviorism affected peda-gogy was by having students use repetitiousdrills to acquire new information. Prevalentat this time was the practice of recitationexercises and rote mimicry. This approachwas also used to teach English to ESL stu-dents and was referred to as the audiolingualapproach (Bowen, Madsen, & Hilferty,1985). However, many researchers and edu-

Bridging Literacy and SocialStudies: Engaging Prior Knowledge Through Children’s BooksMilagros M. Seda, Olga Z. Liguori, and Carmen M. Seda

T

We now consider the journey to be more meaningful than the destination. Inother words, whereas outcomes and products are still important, it iseven more crucial that students recognize how they learn.

Autumn 1999 35

cators agree that this approach is among theleast effective ways of teaching English(Cantoni-Harvey, 1987; Collier, 1989;Cummins, 1981; Dixon & Nessel, 1983;Krashen & Terrell, 1983).

Current advances in psychology are shift-ing away from the monkey-see limitations ofthe past. With a growing body of evidencethat the brain stores information in terms ofpatterns, images, and symbols (Deacon,1997), psychologists have begun to examinethe processes by which people learn. Thus,most of the successful teaching approaches inuse today revolve around the learning pro-cess itself. We now consider the journey tobe more meaningful than the destination. Inother words, whereas outcomes and productsare still important, it is even more crucial thatstudents recognize how they learn. Thisrequires students to take an active part intheir learning. Fortunately, today, there arenumerous teaching approaches and instruc-tional activities that offer all students moreeffective opportunities to learn.

One component of the more successfulapproaches—in particular, those associatedwith literacy comprehension—is the use ofprior knowledge, which is considered bymany educators to be among the most effec-tive ways for students, including ESL stu-dents, to grasp new concepts and constructs(Bartolomé, 1994). Another component thatmany elementary and middle school teachershave applied effectively to increase literacyand the command of complex concepts is theuse of children’s literature (Freeman &Person, 1998). These and other innovativeapproaches are emerging as promising prac-tices that will facilitate students’ compara-tive, critical, and creative thinking.

Prior KnowledgeDuring the process of reading, students

construct meaning by forming connectionswith what they know—called prior knowl-edge—and what is contained in the text(Rumelhart, 1980). These connections influ-ence the comprehension of new informationand are essential in the formation of schemathat further enhance understanding(Anderson & Pearson, 1984). According toschema theory, readers extract informationprovided by the text only as it relates to whatthey already know. The meaning constructedfrom the same text can vary among readersbecause of the differences in the knowledgethey possess. Although building priorknowledge is important for all learners, it ismost important for ESL students, whoseprior knowledge and schema may be at vari-ance with that of their monolingual Englishcounterparts.

Children’s LiteratureChildren’s literature, which can be used

for reading and content-area studies, offers avariety of opportunities for teaching from aninquiry-based approach. The use of chil-dren’s literature in the classroom can alsoreduce or eliminate teachers’ overreliance ontraditional methods that emphasize memo-rization, drill, and rote learning—methodsthat have proven counterproductive to thelanguage rights of ESL students. Specifically,the application of these methods has thwartedappropriate ESL development by students,thereby negatively influencing their ability tofunction effectively in those subject matterareas where English is the language ofinstruction. Children’s literature, as a tool foracquiring an understanding of social studiesconcepts, is supported by the NationalCouncil for the Social Studies (NCSS),which has set curriculum standards that“offer students varied opportunities to engagein social inquiry and make connectionsbetween what they know, new skills they arelearning, and a sense of values rooted indemocratic traditions” (Freeman & Person,1998, p. 47). Furthermore, the NCSS stan-dards also require that students at all gradelevels learn a variety of strategies for acquir-ing, organizing, and using information, aswell as develop the ability to work coopera-tively within a group.

Reading AloudAccording to Piaget (1973), as children

explore their environment, they interpret andgive meaning to the events they experience.Thus, it is critical for them to interact withtheir surroundings and to manipulate objects.In addition, both Piaget (1973) and Vygotsky(1978) found that children’s ability to uselanguage is an essential component in theway they learn new information and processconcepts at appropriate cognitive levels. Theactivity of reading aloud to children incorpo-rates the listening component of languageand is therefore critical to the process of lan-guage development. Furthermore, picturebooks provide language scaffolding for ESLlearners inexperienced with the primary pat-terns of English.

The practice of reading literature aloud tostudents has been shown to promote “posi-tive links to their motivation for reading;vocabulary development; knowledge of thefunctions, structures and uses of written lan-

guage; general language development;and reading comprehension” (Freeman& Person, 1998, p. 2). The body of researchrelated to English language development ofESL students also supports this practice andshows how it can be used as an example ofwhat Krashen and Terrell (1983) call com-prehensible input. That is, when ESL stu-dents hear stories read aloud to them, theyare being offered another way of compre-hending how the English language is used incontext.

Emphasis on developing language and lit-eracy is equally critical for monolingual stu-dents. According to Dunbar (1996), “by theage of six, the average child has learned touse and understand around 13,000 words; bythe age of eighteen, he/she will have a work-ing vocabulary of about 60,000 words. Thatmeans he/she has been learning an average often new words a day since the first birthday,which is the equivalent of a new word every90 minutes of his/her waking life” (p. 30).ESL students are doubly burdened by havingto catch up with their English-speaking peersto learn the subject matter required in theirgrade level. However, instructionalapproaches that include reading aloud to stu-dents help facilitate language developmentand enhance conceptual understanding ofcontent.

Literature-Based Learning:An Innovative Approach

One of the authors in this study set out tofind a cohesive approach that would help hersocial studies students attain higher ordercognitive thinking and create a context forconceptual learning. During her search, shewas introduced to a literature-based writingapproach (Polette, 1997, 1999). Thisapproach incorporates the following compo-nents, which research has determined arenecessary for teachers to help develop theirstudents’ critical thinking skills:• read children’s literature stories aloud to

them;• help them integrate their prior knowl-

edge;• engage their imagination; and• provide them with a clear purpose for

each activity.The approach was designed to increase

students’ writing and imaginative repertoirethrough exposure to varied literary forms. Its

The use of children’s literature in the classroom can alsoreduce or eliminate teachers’ overreliance on traditional

methods that emphasize memorization, drill, and rote learning—methodsthat have proven counterproductive to the language rights of ESL students.

particular relevance to social studiesinstruction was its reported capacity toengage divergent thinking as a means to con-nect writing with reading and language.

The main tool in this approach is the useof children’s literature to develop criticalthinking. Through selected children’s books,students are exposed to various types of writ-ing forms, universal themes, and languagepatterns. The teacher uses literature as a cata-lyst for inciting students’ curiosity andengaging their prior knowledge. Students arethen asked to create a piece of writing thatemploys writing patterns, figurative lan-guage, or some other salient features demon-strated in the reading. To help studentsachieve these ends, the teacher engages themin three activities:1. brainstorming information, also referred

to as a divergent-thinking activity, whichdraws on their prior knowledge

2. reading aloud from a children’s book thatconnects with the divergent-thinkingactivity

3. bridging the new learning with the storyand the divergent-thinking task

This article illustrates how these threeactivities can be employed to design lessonsthat incorporate literacy skills with socialstudies content. It describes how one authorused elements of this approach to design his-tory lessons for her 7th- and 8th-grade socialstudies students, some of whom were ESLstudents. The following sections give back-ground information and describe theapproach, student demographics, and the les-son selected for the study. The article con-cludes with observations and an evaluation ofthe outcome of the study.

Creating Lessons ThatBridge Literacy and History

For many social studies teachers, teachingis often tantamount to cooking on Teflon:Nothing sticks. Those things that students dorecall, they recall in ways that will not helpthem fit future information into their currentschema. For example, during prelesson dis-cussions of the discovery of America, moststudents were unaware of any other explo-rations aside from those of ChristopherColumbus. Therefore, they were not in aposition to make the connection thatColumbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Vascoda Gama were all navigators whose signifi-cant strides in sea exploration were the resultof navigational advances. Columbus, and the

other adventurers of the Age of Exploration,were all the beneficiaries of a technologicaland intellectual boom.

Similar information gaps were also evi-dent in discussions about the history of Texasand the Mexican Revolution. Most studentshad a rudimentary knowledge of some of thehistorical facts. For example, some knew thatthe first president of the Republic of Texaswas Sam Houston, though others said it wasGeorge Washington. When asked how theyknew the information, students respondedthat they did not quite remember where theyhad learned it. This was also true of the ESLstudents, who were generally unfamiliar withMexican history. Many did not know thatMexico celebrates its Independence Day onSeptember 16, in honor of Father Hidalgo’sgrito, or call for revolution, on this day in1810. Of those students who did not know,

most guessed that Mexican independence iscelebrated on May 5, in recognition ofGeneral Zaragosa’s victory in the MexicanRevolution in 1910. From the informal sam-pling of the students’ responses, it was evi-dent that their historical literacy was clearlydeficient.

Equally deficient were students’ oral andwritten language skills. Their essays demon-strated basic, minimal writing skills, and stu-dents required heavy prompting to produceacceptable levels of writing. Clearly, the tra-ditional methods of teaching, including mem-orization, worksheets, and assigned readingwith follow-up questions would not fill in thenecessary information gaps. Nor would labo-rious research assignments that studentswould drag themselves through, submit, andforget. The approach needed to engage theirimaginations. A literature-based writingapproach showed the most potential fordesigning lessons that would incorporate lit-eracy skills, imagination, prior knowledge,language development, and conceptualunderstanding. It was vital that the lessons be

36 TESOL Journal

It was vital that the lessons be meaningful, and that the learningsituations bridge literacy and effect an understanding of complex

historical concepts.

Sample Student Comparative Essay

Conquistadors are like Bear because they are going to a new place,

see new things, and are searching for adventure. Bear and the conquis-

tadors are going to a new place, maybe a better place. They both cannot

go back to there original place.

Bear is going to a new place because he see the new place which is

earth and he wonders what it is. The conquistadors wonder what is in

the world and wanted to find out if there is any new land to discover.

Bear and the conquistadors wonder what is in the world and wanted to

find out if there is any New land to discover. Bear and the conquista-

dors go in search, Bear comes to earth from the stars and the conquis-

tadors set sail and sail across the oceans. When Bear comes to earth

the green people greet him. When conquistadors find a new land they

usually find Native Americans.

Bear sees new things, trees, dirt, and rocks. When conquistadors

find land they see flowers, better vegetation, and new cultures. Bear

learns how to live in the new place. Conquistadors developed new

things. Bear saw different places and conquistadors do the same.

Bear wants to see the world like conquistadors. They go on an

adventure to see the land. Bear does many things, eat berries, and have

fun. Bear probably came to earth for an adventure like the conquista-

dors. The conquistadors go for adventure as well as for discover new

land.

Bear and conquistadors are the same because they went to a new

place. They saw new things, new stuff and searched for adventure.

They both found new things and adventure.

(Translated by teacher. Edited for spelling.)

meaningful, and that the learning situationsbridge literacy and effect an understanding ofcomplex historical concepts.

Designing Effective Lessons:The Approach

The first step in designing effectivelessons was to examine overarching patternsand concepts in social studies, such as con-cerns, curiosity, crisis, origins, games, tech-nology, the repercussions of movement, andmany others. Overarching patterns includecomplex constellations of concerns, actions,and/or events that are found repeatedly inhuman experience. For example, the move-ment of the Mongols through Europe in the13th and 14th centuries, which resulted in thespread of a plague that decimated nearly threequarters of Europe’s population, represents anevent of mass migration. Similarly, the massmovement of Europeans into the Americas inthe 16th century resulted in small pox,measles, and other epidemics that devastatedNative American populations. The introduc-tion of the potato, a New World crop, intoIreland in the 18th century first saved andthen devastated that country, forcing tens ofthousands of Irish to immigrate. Thus, whypeople move and the repercussions of theirmovements are critical concepts for develop-ing a deep awareness of history.

Another significant step in building anunderstanding of history was to examine dif-ferent forms of writing, whose purpose wasthe transfer of ideas and experiences fromgeneration to generation. These formsincluded legends, myths, stories, articles,diaries, and journals, to name a few.Exposure to different forms of writing wouldincrease students’ awareness of the role ofwriting in the context of history and wouldalso serve to bridge specific lesson contentwith broader historical themes, in this case,Texas and U.S. history. Therefore, studentswould discover the inherent connectionbetween literature and history. They alsowould gain an awareness of the “myriadnumber of discourse forms” (Polette, per-sonal communication, 1998) available forsharing ideas, thus allowing them to developa wide repertoire of writing forms. Readingaloud would help students further by devel-oping their oral language skills through lis-tening and increasing their awareness of therole of oral traditions in history, such assong, story telling, and epic poetry.

Having learned from research the impor-tance of a sense of play in the developmentof fluency and flexibility in thinking, theteacher endeavored to create playful diver-gent thinking activities that would enable herstudents use their imagination and sense of

curiosity to interweave an understanding ofwriting forms, thematic concepts, and spe-cific content. To help readers better under-stand the util ity of this approach, thefollowing sections describe the teacher’sexperience using the approach to develop her7th- and 8th-grade history lessons. Her first-hand account offers reflections on research,student needs, planned curriculum and imple-mented classroom activities, and observa-tions of classroom events.

Applying the Approach: AFirsthand Account

Student DemographicsThe school described in this study is 99%

Hispanic and is situated in a middle to low-income area. Approximately 140 studentswere involved, ranging in age from 12 to 14years old, who were enrolled in the 7th- or8th-grade Texas or U.S. History classes.Roughly 10% of the students were desig-nated at the ESL Level 2 or 3.1 Most of therest of the students were either fully or func-tionally bilingual in Spanish and English,with a slight majority being English domi-nant. Approximately 10% were monolingualEnglish speakers. Students worked in perma-nent teams of three or four. ESL studentswere teamed with at least one fluently bilin-gual student.

The LessonThe lesson I chose for this study was on

the Age of Exploration, spanning approxi-mately 1585-1650. In an initial brainstormingsession, I asked students to list reasons whypeople move. Two of the reasons they gavewere “to find things out” and “to look forsomething.” This discussion laid the founda-tion for the next discussion dealing with thequest theme that examined why peoplesearch and the concept of origins.

I usually began the lessons with a journal-writing or brainstorming task. Whenever pos-sible, I tried to direct this activity toward alesson concept that involved the narration ofa children’s book, a divergent-thinking task,an information-gathering phase, and a writ-ing activity. In this case, I began the brain-storming session with a set of convergentquestions:• What is a quest?• What is a journey?

• How might a quest relate to a jour-ney?

• What is a question?• How might a question lead to a quest?

Because the students were accustomed tothis question approach and understood thattheir guesses were valid, they required littleprompting to form teams to discuss and com-pose their responses. During this activity,they were allowed to use a dictionary andthesaurus. After writing their answers, thestudents shared their responses aloud. Theyall seemed to easily make the connection thatone goes on a quest to answer a question, andthat a quest is a type of journey.

I then used an overhead projector to dis-play the word origins. As I usually do withkey concepts, I asked the students to writethe word in their composition books in large,bold letters. Next, I asked them to embellishthe page with flourishes, color, appropriateartwork, synonyms, and etymology so thatwhenever they flipped through their compo-sition books, they would stop at that page andrecall the lesson on origins. In the section oftheir books on origins, they would also writequestions such as Where did I come from?Where did it come from? How did it start?and other random questions I asked having todo with origin, for instance, Who put rubberon tennis shoes? Where did cotton comefrom? and What was the first Kleenex? Tohelp generate answers to these questions, stu-dents use models such as Where did_________ come from? Who (did this) first?and What was the first ________? Studentsalso created their own lists of questions relat-ing to origins, some of which were personal,such as Where did I come from? How did myparents get here? and Where did they comefrom? Others were more playful, such asWho first thought of the color pink? Whoinvented banana splits? and Where did thefirst shoelace come from?

After sharing their origin questions, Iintroduced the book When Bear Came DownFrom the Sky(De Gerez, 1994), which isbased on the myth of the origin of bears. Inthe story, Bear is one of many constellationsliving in the sky with Sky Father. Bear asksmany questions about the earth and people:“Who is Earth Maker? (p. 5) ... I have heardabout people ... Do they dance? Do they havefur coats like mine?” (p. 6). Sky Father, frus-trated by the constant questions, tells Bear

Exposure to different forms of writing would increase students’awareness of the role of writing in the context of history and

would also serve to bridge specific lesson content with broader historicalthemes, in this case, Texas and U.S. history.

Autumn 1999 37

38 TESOL Journal

that he must go to the earth to find hisanswers, but if he goes, he will not be able tocome back. Bear accepts the consequences ofhis decision to go and begins his adventuresas a creature of the earth. Thus, I asserted,Bear went on a one-way journey. I furtherexplained that once you pose a question andfind an answer, the knowledge you gainalways belongs to you. Therefore, you enter anew world, with new conditions.

Following the story, I then presented achart listing the names of explorers. I posedthe idea that all of these men are just likeBear and asked the students to explain why. Igave them time to guess by starting questionswith “Did they both ... ,” and let them makeeducated or silly guesses as to how these menwere similar to Bear. Student responsesincluded questions such as Did they bothhave hair everywhere? Did they both comefrom the sky? Did they both like honey? andDid they both ask questions? The languagepattern beginning with “Did they both ...”helped students make analogous comparisonsbetween Bear and the explorers. This type ofpurposeful patterning also helped the ESLstudents acquire the language and the con-cepts required in the activity.

Students were then assigned to gatherinformation on the explorers from the chartusing the following categories: Who(Explorer), When (Year), Where (Region),Why (Purpose), What (Discovery), and How(Mode of Transportation) (see the samplechart below).

After gathering information on each of theexplorers listed, students were asked to com-pose a five-paragraph essay to answer thequestion In what way were the explorers likeBear? Students were required to use exam-ples from the story and compare them withspecific explorers. Later, they were given theoption of creating stories replacing Bear withone of the explorers and telling of theexplorer’s adventures in story form (see thesample essay on p. 36).

OptionsIn the process of designing this lesson, I

discovered many places where the lessoncould be revised for greater impact, interest,and relevance. For example, beginning a les-son with a convergent question is a weaktechnique, as it requires students to trustwhere you are taking them, rather than engag-ing their interest and curiosity. Other optionsmight include asking students to think of off-beat answers to some of their origin ques-tions, modeled on the book, The SecretKnowledge of Grown Ups(Wisniewski,1997). Students might also be asked to createmyths about the explorers as well as picturesand information sidebars to enhance theirwork for presentation as a children’s storybook. Or a research-gathering activity mightbe used, whereby students would study cer-tain explorers in greater depth. Alternatively,students might be asked to write about Beardoing what the explorers did (e.g., “WhenBear Discovers America,” “When Bear Looksfor the Northwest Passage”).

Observations andEvaluation

Despite seeing how the lesson could berevised to improve the learning outcome, wefound the results fundamentally successful.The following are some observations wemade during this lesson that suggest thepotential of this approach.

1. Make conceptual connections.Although students were challenged by theconvergent questions at the beginning of thelesson, they were nonetheless able to makean immediate conceptual connection with thequestions and the purpose of the journalwhen they began composing their own originquestions. When Bear began posing ques-tions, students were also able to make theconceptual connection with Bear’s journeyand his questions.

2. Promote interest and further learn-ing. While creating the list of origin ques-tions, students were active, focused, andengaged. They looked for opportunities tocreate a variety of questions. In particular,ESL students participated actively in offeringsuggestions to add to their team’s list, whichsuggested that the question of where thingscome from or how things start has strongappeal and stimulates curiosity.

Students also displayed an interest in fur-ther learning. For example, one student askedif he could write an extra-credit journal andwrote about how Ursa Major and Ursa Minorwere Bear’s family in the sky. As anotherexample, two students found a book on bear

Who (explorer)

Cortés

Francisco P.

Ponce de León

Pánfilo de Narvaez

Cabeza de Vaca

Coronado

Hernando de Soto

Cabrillo

Juan de Oñate

Francisco Garay

Fray Marcos &Estavanco

Year

1519-1521

1531

1513

1527

1535

1539-1542

1539-1542

1543

1598

1527

1539-1542

Region

Teotihuacán/Tenochtitlán

The Caribbean

Florida

Cuba

Texas coast

New Mexico &Arizona

From Florida toSoutheast

California coast

El Paso del Norte

México

New Mexico &Arizona

Purpose

Just to be a conquis-tador

For great wealth

To find fountain ofyouth

To build a city inFlorida

To find gold

They were ordered toexplore

To survive

To live

To find gold

To survive

Ordered to explore

Discovery

Cotton, cloth, slaves

Wealth in Perú

Florida

Nothing

Fishing

Land

—

San Diego Bay

None

Río Grande

Cíbolo

Mode ofTransportationBoat

Overseas

Overseas

—

Overseas

Boat

Boat

Sailed

Sailed

—

Boat

Sample Student Chart

myths that they chose to read for an Englishclass.

3. Include assessment and evaluation.Students’ essays included allusions to boththe story and the explorers. Essays includedresponses such as “The explorers are likeBear because they were both asking ques-tions and wanted answers”; “Bear was start-ing a new life and had to learn new things,just like the explorers had to learn new thingsto find out their answers”; and “Bear had togo a long way from home, and so did theexplorers since they had to go so far fromhome to find their answers.”

Students’ success was high on a short-answer test about the explorers taken a weekafter the lesson. Better than 90% of the stu-dents achieved grades of 85 out of 100 orbetter. Students were particularly adept atanswering the questions about the explorers’quests or purposes: “To find an all-waterroute to Asia, “To get around the tip ofAfrica,” “To find a westward path to Asia.”On a multiple-choice test administered later,better than 86% of the students accuratelyanswered knowledge-level questions dealingwith the explorers. This percentage was upfrom previous years when only 50% of thestudents tested could answer some questionson explorers. Before, they regularly forgotnames and purposes, whereas now theyseemed better able to retain information.

4. Help students retain concepts.In alater lesson, the teacher read the quest story,The Desert Mermaid(Blanco, 1992).Without prompting, students made the con-nection that the mermaid was on a quest toanswer her question, Where are the otherslike me? After reading the story, one studentshot her hand in the air and answered that themermaid was like Bear because she was on ajourney from which she would not be able toreturn. She would have a new home. Otherstudents then began to describe other waysthe mermaid was like Bear. This allowed theteacher to introduce a lesson on the period ofcolonization in British and Texas historyusing both stories as comparatives.

5. Encourage affective observations.Participation, particularly by students whoare normally reluctant, was high, as was theirexuberance during brainstorming. Althoughwe have presented options for using thebrainstorming activity to greater effect, theability to awaken students’ awareness sug-gests rich possibilities for connecting thestory, the brainstorming task, and the keyconcept. The lesson could become a strongervehicle for learning the forms of myths.Furthermore, expanding the parameters ofthe writing task might increase the viabilityof the lesson as a launch pad for a researchactivity and presentation. Using children’s

literature and divergent thinking to makeconceptual connections will undoubtedlyhave a positive effect on students’ ability tolearn the lessons of history.

ConclusionThrough the use of children’s literature, the

teacher was able to create a supportive learningenvironment for her 7th- and 8th-grade historystudents—many of whom were ESL stu-dents—that facilitated their language develop-ment and increased their knowledge of socialstudies concepts. The students were givenopportunities to learn in innovative ways andwere encouraged to participate in a variety ofactivities that helped activate their prior knowl-edge. This allowed them to comprehend morefully the underlying themes and concepts in thestories they read and the corresponding ideascontained in their social studies textbooks.Additionally, students’ interest was piqued bythe opportunity to engage in brainstorming dis-cussions that connected their ideas with criticalconcepts. As students applied divergent think-ing through the process of elaborating on ideas,they were able to generate new ideas or pro-duce alternative interpretations of the giveninformation. This further enabled students toincrease their factual knowledge about explor-ers to a much higher level of retention than inprevious years.

A literature-based writing approachhelped the teacher in this study design anapproach to teaching social studies thatdeparts from the traditional fill-in-the-blankresponse drills and enables her students toassume ownership of their learning, ratherthan depending on teacher-directed learning.We recommend using children’s literature ina student-centered learning environment,especially to teach social studies, wherestrong connections can be drawn between thepeople and events in history and the fictionaland nonfictional characters and events inchildren’s literature. Most important, theapplication of a literature-based writingapproach to teaching social studies within alinguistically diverse middle school settingadheres to the concurrent right of Englishlanguage learners to effectively learn their L2and subject matter content.

Note1 At the Level 2 stage, also called Early

Production, students understand approxi-

mately 1,000 words and begin to developtheir receptive vocabulary. Classroomlessons continue to build vocabulary relatedto social contexts and vocabulary specific tosubject matter knowledge. At the Level 3stage, also called Speech Emergence, stu-dents speak using appropriate phrases andincrease their ability to produce completesentences. Although students’ speech is gen-erally marked by an increase in miscues(grammatical and syntactic errors), there is anoticeable increase in the quantity of speechthey produce (see Echevarria & Graves,1998, p. 16).

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AuthorsMilagros M. Seda is associate professor

of bilingual education in the teacher educa-tion department at the University of Texas atEl Paso. Her research areas include theoryand practice in language and literacy acqui-sition integrated into content-area instruc-tion for linguistically and culturally diversestudents.

Olga Z. Liguori teaches reading/literacymethodology courses in the teacher educa-tion department at the University of Texas atEl Paso. Her research areas include literacyassessment, reading practices in Spanish fornative speakers, and research in Hispanicchildren’s literature. Her other areas ofinterest include literacy instruction for cul-turally diverse and ESL students and familyliteracy.

Carmen M. Seda teaches Texas and U.S.history at the middle-school level. In her 10years of teaching experience, she also hastaught English and journalism at the highschool level, from which she developed thebelief that history is best learned through acombination of oral language, reading, andwriting.

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