Making Language Visible in Social Studies

by Sharon Besser, Ruslana Westerlund

As the first book in the Making Disciplinary Language Visible series., this practical toolkit helps teachers promote disciplinary literacy development for Multilingual learners and their peers in the 5–12 social studies classroom. Using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the SFL-informed genre pedagogy, the Teaching and Learning Cycle for Disciplinary Genres, the book shows teachers how to teach content using language as a meaning-making resource, Besser and Westerlund provide clear guidance on understanding how language is used in the discipline and provide practical tools to empower teachers to teach language in the service of social studies disciplinary genres. Chapters feature authentic vignettes to illustrate problems of practice, annotated social studies texts, practical curriculum design tools, exercises for readers to develop knowledge about language, and sample scripts for practical application.

222 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2024

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you can get past the shoddy editing (typos galore), the actual content is phenomenal, the missing piece of most literacy instruction in the US. Extremely practical and approachable for any teacher, including and especially those without any background in linguistics or language