Teaching Social Studies to Multilingual Learners in High School: Connecting Inquiry and Visual Literacy to Promote Progressive Learning

Teaching Social Studies to Multilingual Learners in High School: Connecting Inquiry and Visual Literacy to Promote Progressive Learning explores effective strategies for teaching social studies to diverse learners. The centerpiece is a visual literacy framework that integrates inquiry, primary source analysis, and visual literacy to provide a progressive learning sequence to meet the varied needs of learners. The visual literacy framework brings together related aspects of progressive, sequential learning into a cohesive whole. It has an adaptable structure that allows teachers to customize learning activities to meet individual student needs. The progressive learning sequence has varied modes of learning that help teachers move students from basic to proficient to advanced levels of support. The book is organized into two related parts. The first three chapters provide important content and context on social studies, multilingual learner education, and the visual literacy framework. The remaining chapters discuss civics, U.S. history, world history, geography, and economics and social sciences. Each chapter defines the subject area, briefly traces its development as a high school subject over time, and then offers classroom exercises for using the visual literacy framework in these disciplines. The exercises are plotted so that differing levels of the visual literacy framework are explored throughout the book.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Exploring Social Studies Chapter 2. Working with Multilingual Students in High School Chapter 3. The Visual Literacy Framework Chapter 4. Teaching Civics Chapter 5. Teaching U.S. History Chapter 6. Teaching World History Chapter 7. Teaching Geography Chapter 8. Teaching Economics and Social Science About the Authors

About the Author :
Mark Newman is professor of social science education at National College of Education, National Louis University. He has published books and articles on primary sources, visual culture, geography, and visual literacy. He has directed Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources and National Endowment for the Humanities grants. Newman won the National Louis Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016. Xiaoning Chen is assistant professor of ESL/bilingual education at National College of Education, National Louis University. She has published articles and book chapters on multimodal analysis of visuals in science textbooks, translation issues in dual language children’s literature, and visual literacy and English language learners. Her research focuses on leveraging visuals and visual literacy to provide equitable access to content for multilingual learners. She has directed the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Regional Grant to enhance multilingual students’ engagement in STEM.

Review :
Embracing ALL learners in social studies classrooms, Mark Newman and Xiaoning Chen provide important insights into how to make social studies teaching and learning more inclusive, equitable, and engaging. Blending an embrace of students of every background with their visual framework, Teaching Social Studies to Multilingual Learners in High School: Connecting Inquiry and Visual Literacy to Promote Progressive Learning adds important and engaging approaches to every social studies teacher’s toolkit. Mark Newman and Xiaoning Chen do a great job of addressing the challenges multilingual students face while weaving together best practices and the visual literacy framework, all the while staying rooted in the inquiry-based learning model. Being a novice not only to the visual literacy framework but to teaching in general, I was able to walk away with a firm understanding of the visual literacy framework and how it can be applied in the classroom with my multilingual students. Furthermore, the authors explain why it is beneficial for students. It provides a level of authenticity and mirrors what teachers encounter in the classroom.