Social Studies Text Research Articles

THE EFFECT OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ON STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION AND RECALL OF EXPOSITORY TEXT: A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Many students, particularly those who are difficult to teach, find learning from expository text materials a difficult task. We review the use of the graphic organizer as a means to assist students in the complex act of making sense of content‐area (e.g., science and social studies) text. After exploring the theoretical and historical foundations of the graphic organizer, we review the current research. Finally, we derive implications for the classroom teacher and future research.

HOW KNOWLEDGE INFLUENCED TWO INTERVENTIONS DESIGNED TO IMPROVE COMPREHENSION

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to compare two interventions designed to improve students’ comprehension of a problematic text. The first involved revising the text to improve coherence, and the second was designed to promote active engagement through asking inference‐promoting questions. Three groups of 18 fifth graders read either an original social studies text, a revised version of the text, or were asked questions while reading the original text. While the quantitative results showed no differences among the three groups in amount of information recalled and the number of questions answered correctly, qualitative analyses showed that those students who were asked questions tended to recall the central points in the passage. The lack of advantage for the revised text is in contrast to findings from previous research on promoting text comprehension through text revision. Explanations for this difference are offered by considering the unexpected effects of students’ knowledge. Further, the...

Considerateness of Fifth-Grade Social Studies Texts

Abstract This article describes an investigation which examined the “considerateness” of five recently published fifth-grade social studies textbooks using the following selected elements of considerateness: (1) “readability” level; (2) placement of relevant pictures/illustrations; (3) use of subtitles; and (4) use of words and phrases to connect ideas within and between sentences. The results revealed that the publishers of the analyzed social texts made extensive use of relevant pictures/illustrations and subtitles; however, they rarely used words which connected ideas between and within sentences, and readability level determinations were considered appropriate for these fifth-grade texts in only 8 of 25 analyses. We determined that these textbooks were considerate of the reader when dealing with factors other than those related to connected discourse. Subtitles and graphic aids were numerous, compensating for inconsiderate text. The discussion concludes with an examination of the implications for writ...

Elementary social studies textbooks

Recent criticisms of textbooks have included accusations of favoring breadth over depth, dry writing, lack of context, failure to integrate minority groups, and overillustration. Social studies texts have, in addition, been criticized for meaning-less content, unclear goals, inadequate explanation, separation of knowledge from skills, and other failings. The authors of this article have specified other common faults. As a corrective, they suggests a return to the notion of developing curricula as means to accomplish major goals phrased in terms of intended student outcomes, and aligning social studies instruction with major social education goals.

Selecting social studies textbooks

Because dissatisfaction with textbooks usually arises from issues of content and philosophy, we would expect those who select elementary social studies texts to focus on these issues. This article reports on a study of the instruments used to evaluate elementary social studies texts in thirty-three school districts. The study found the process to be haphazard and the general instruments to be poorly formulated. Instruments created specifically for evaluating social studies materials were better focused.

Historical Literature and Democratic Education

STUDENTS OF HISTORY NEED ACCESS TO SOURCES of information that provide direct or primary evidence about reality. Primary sources are those records that people in the past have themselves created. In each generation those who would learn about the past must go back to these records and examine them for themselves. This is not a privilege to be enjoyed merely by professional historians. Without access to primary evidence nobody can make contact with life as it has passed through time, nor become fully aware of the historically created community to which each of us belongs. The universal use of history or social studies texts in the nation's schools contradicts this rule. Textbook writers usually put together their material by relying upon secondary sources. They tell of events which too often they have only read about in the works of others but which they themselves have not examined at first hand. The result is a dull, lifeless narrative. The history text may serve a purpose as a work of reference where one may check a fact, an event or a date. It is not easy to give such a book the title of literature. It fails to capture the drama of human existence or to mirror its joy and its pain. Because they dehumanize the story of humanity the texts stunt the intellectual and spiritual development of students and teachers alike. Daily contact with these books generates boredom rather than curiosity. The judgment of numberless Americans is summed up in six words: I hated history in high school.

Research Directions: Social Studies Texts Are Hard to Understand: Mediating Some of the Difficulties

Research Directions: Social Studies Texts Are Hard to Understand: Mediating Some of the Difficulties

Colonialism demystified: a semiotic reading of Puerto Rico in a social studies text

This study uses semiotics to analyze the presentation of Puerto Rico in a fourth‐grade social studies textbook. A process of distortion and omission legitimizes certain perceptions about society and its institutions and ignores or devalues others. The anlaysis reveals the successive myths which naturalize the contradiction of the United States’ colonial relationship with Puerto Rico. The theory of semiotics has implications for educators and minority communities, who might use it as a critical pedagogy.

What Must Not Be Taught

Abstract The impetus for the present study derives from a United States district court's condemnation of 44 history and social studies texts for failing to include any references to religion in shaping America's past. Further examination of nine of these texts, all senior high school American history works, reveals them to be defective in providing a historical framework for understanding another of the most fundamental changes in American life, that is, the extension of the United States market over the entire globe. Four “imperial” wars provide the basis for this analysis: the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. The conclusion reached is that historical continuity, on which an objective analysis should be based, is almost totally lacking.

Revising Social Studies Text from a Text-Processing Perspective: Evidence of Improved Comprehensibility

THE PURPOSE of the present study was to use a cognitive processing perspective to revise fifthgrade social studies texts, to describe those revisions, and to demonstrate their effects empirically. Four segments of text from a U.S. textbook about the period leading to the American Revolution and their revised counterparts were presented to 85 fourthand fifth-grade students. Students were presented with the text materials in individual sessions with an examiner and were asked to recall what they had read and to answer questions on the material. Students who read the revised text recalled more material and answered more questions correctly than students who read the original text. Differences in understanding between the two groups were also captured in qualitative analyses of recall protocols and question responses related to specific ideas in the text. Overall, the effects of the revisions demonstrate that a text-processing approach to creating comprehensible text is a viable one. Furthermore, the description of revision goes beyond how revisions have been described in past research by exposing the reasoning underlying the identification of problems and the changes made.

Effects of Previews on More Skilled and Less Skilled Readers' Comprehension of Expository Text

Comprehension of expository material by 76 more skilled and less skilled fifth-grade readers was assessed when written previews were used before reading social studies text. The previews were designed to take into account those features of previews that previously had been successful in increasing comprehension of narrative material, but also included features specifically related to exposition. The results indicated that (a) both more skilled and less skilled readers' test scores were significantly increased when previews were used, (b) less skilled readers scored higher on explicit than on implicit questions, and (c) previews did not have a differential effect on question type, or on comprehension type.

The effects of an interactive instructional strategy for enhancing reading comprehension and content area learning for students with learning disabilities.

This study investigated the effectiveness of an interactive vocabulary instructional strategy, semantic-feature analysis (SFA), on the content area text comprehension of adolescents with learning disabilities. Prior to reading a social studies text, students in resource classes either completed a relationship chart as part of the SFA condition or used the dictionary to write definitions and sentences as part of the contrast condition. Passage comprehension was measured on a multiple-choice test consisting of two types of items, vocabulary and conceptual. Comprehension was measured immediately following teaching and again 6 months after teaching. Prior knowledge for the content of the passage served as a covariate. Results indicated that students in the SFA instructional condition had significantly greater measured comprehension immediately following and 6 months after initial teaching. These results are discussed in relation to concept-driven, interactive strategies for teaching content and facilitating text comprehension.

An examination of summary writing as a measure of reading comprehension

Abstract This study investigated the effects of topic interest, writing ability, and summarization training on seventh‐grade subjects’ ability to summarize a social studies text. In addition, subjects’ performance on a multiple‐choice text was examined in relation to their summaries. These effects were then considered for their concomitant effect on the issue of using summaries to measure reading comprehension. Results indicated that multiple‐choice and summarization measures shared very little overlap in the kinds of text comprehension that they assessed. Additionally, it appeared that each of the three factors investigated had some degree of influence on summarization scores. Recommendations for future research are presented.

Learning Disabled and Nondisabled College Students' Use of Structure in Recall of Stories and Text

This study compared LD and average college students' use of expository text structure and story grammar to recall social studies text passages. Students simultaneously read and listened to three passages with different structures: story grammar, comparison, and causation. Results were analyzed for structure use in immediate oral recall. No difference was found between the groups on the use of story grammar and comparison structure. However, the LD students scored significantly lower than their average peers on the causation structure. The results support research showing that LD students use story structure as well as nondisabled students and suggest that structure use is developmental, with use of comparison structures preceding use of causation.

Toward Students Learning through the Social Studies Text

Toward Students Learning through the Social Studies Text

Searching for Substantial Knowledge in Social Studies Texts

Searching for Substantial Knowledge in Social Studies Texts

Beyond decoding: Pictures of expository prose

Just as success in decoding complex spelling patterns requires strategy and structure, so does the "decoding" of complex expository writing. We discuss the specific sources of difficulty in technical writing and distinguish between content structure and text structure. Next come presentations of the basic building blocks for expository writing and techniques of text design. Patterns from American science and social studies texts are described and contrasted with Japanese materials. We finish with suggestions for promoting the comprehension of expository materials.

A Critical Thinking Map to Improve Content Area Comprehension of Poor Readers

A mapping strategy for thinking critically about expository text was used with six high school students who had difficulties in reading comprehension: Four were sophomores in a remedial reading program, and two were juniors in a special education program for the mildly retarded. Subjects read passages from an unfamiliar textbook on U.S. government history. The format was model- lead-test; that is, the teacher first modeled the strategy, then led the student in completing the map, and finally allowed the student to complete the map independently. The components of the critical thinking map were main idea of the passage, major points that support the main idea, other viewpoints, reader's conclusion, and relevance to a contemporary situation. All subjects improved substantially in daily comprehension of lessons. Remedial reading students showed maintained improvement over time. All subjects improved comprehension of passages from a different social studies text indicating ability to generalize to similar content. Four students also showed generalization of improved performance to reading in a different content area. All subjects improved in a standardized test of reading vocabulary and five of the six improved on a test of reading comprehension. All but one subject demonstrated improved generalization to nonverbal thinking tasks and all improved for verbal thinking.

Vocabulary Difficulty, Prior Knowledge, and Text Comprehension

In order to examine the relative importance of vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge to the comprehension of a narrative passage taken from a social studies text, 61 sixth graders were given either an easy vocabulary or a difficult vocabulary version of a text. They also were given either relevant or irrelevant preinstruction about the culture described in the text. Both vocabulary difficulty and type of preinstruction had significant effects on comprehension, but the two effects did not significantly interact, partially replicating the findings of Freebody and Anderson (1983b). The results indicate that knowledge-based preinstruction can significantly improve comprehension of a text written about an unfamiliar topic but cannot compensate for the effects of text difficulty in itself.

Critical Thinking in Elementary Social Studies Text Series

Critical Thinking in Elementary Social Studies Text Series