Connect Content to Students’ Lives
Students learn when they see how content relates to their own lives.
About this practice...
Learning is enhanced when teachers provide explicit opportunities for students to make connections with what they are learning. Making connections between new concepts and students’ prior knowledge and lived experiences benefits all students but is especially important for ELs as they navigate the language of social studies, complex text and rigorous content.
Central to disciplinary literacy in social studies is seeing how social studies- the combination of history, geography, civics, economics and sociology- matters in today’s world. Middle school students, especially ELs, typically find social studies lessons irrelevant, with little understanding of how this knowledge is useful in their current or future lives. Additionally, the academic language of social studies often proves challenging for ELs. Effective social studies teachers provide purposeful opportunities for students to understand a particular historical context and its impact on the people in that culture and era. Teachers create opportunities for students to make explicit connections between then and now, enabling students to see relevant connections between content and their lived experiences.
Why is Making Explicit Connections Between Content and Students’ Lives Effective?
Research validates the importance of students making direct connections with social studies content. It is an important step in social studies content acquisition for all students, but essential for ELs because of their need to build academic language. Making overt connections with content enhances ELs’ development of academic language and content acquisition.
- Asset-based pedagogy emphasizes that all students, especially those from historically marginalized groups such as ELs, have rich cultural and linguistic resources that enhance their social studies learning. Designing instruction that emphasizes connections between historical texts and students' lives is consistent with this approach. Teachers can tap into students’ resources to not only enrich personal connections with content but also to draw in students who have typically felt excluded from curricular discussions. (Ladson-Billings, 2014; Moll et al.,1992)
- Interactive dialogue is an essential element of enabling ELs to make connections between what they are learning and their own lives. Peer discussion guided by open-ended questions facilitates the process of articulating and sharing students’ personal connections. (Martinez, et al., 2024; NASEM, 2017; 2018)
- Establishing and deepening students’ background knowledge of the social studies context enhances ELs’ grasp of how social studies content relates to their current or future lives. For example, viewing photos or videos of a historical period, such as what life was like in ancient Pompeii before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, sets the stage for students to see how a natural disaster might impact the lives of people in current times. Framing oral and written activities around how past events and current events connect makes the relevance of historical events concrete. (Martinez, et al., 20204; Vaughn, et al., 2017)
Citations
Duhaylongsod, L., Snow, C., Donovan, S., & Selman, R. (2015). Toward disciplinary literacy: Dilemmas and challenges in designing history curriculum to support middle school students. Harvard Educational Review, 85(4), 587–608.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: aka the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84.
Martinez, L. R., Fishstrom, S., Vaughn, S., Capin, P., Carlson, C. D., Andress, T. T., & Francis, D. J. (2024). Supporting knowledge and language acquisition of secondary emergent bilinguals through social studies instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 59(3), 349-370.
Moll, L. C. (1992). Bilingual classroom studies and community analysis: Some recent trends. Educational Researcher, 21(2), 20–24.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Promoting the educational success of children and youth learning English: Promising futures. National Academies Press. Available from: https://www.nationalacademiesorg/our-work/fostering-school-success-for-english-learners-toward-new-directions-in-policy-practice-and-research
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). English learners in STEM subjects: Transforming classrooms, schools, and lives. National Academies Press. Available from: https://nap.natinalacademies.org/catalog/25182/english-learners-in-stem-subjects-transforming-classrooms-schools-and-lives
Vaughn, S., Martinez, L. R., Wanzek, J., Roberts, G., Swanson, E., & Fall, A. M. (2017). Improving content knowledge and comprehension for English language learners: Findings from a randomized control trial. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(1), 22–34.
How it Works:
Examine the unit objectives, lessons and materials to identify an overarching, unit-level issue and create a guiding question throughout the unit (See Organize the unit around a guiding question). This open-ended question will anchor each lesson and guide peer discussions.
In the unit introduction, build and deepen students’ background knowledge through visual or media activities and interactive discussions (See Provide access to challenging text: Previewing content). Include in the unit introduction discussion opportunities for students to explore and express how the unit content relates to their current knowledge and experience.
In subsequent lessons, identify a current dilemma or situation that parallels the open-ended question or dilemma of the unit. Use contemporary readings or visual content to design discussion prompts that require students to take a perspective and provide evidence from their personal knowledge or experiences to support their argument.
At the culmination of the unit, prepare a writing prompt for students to answer individually or within their peer group that focuses on how the unit content is relevant to a current situation or their own lives.