Preparing Preservice Teachers to Make the Literacy/History Connection

ABSTRACT

The arrival of the Common Core State Standards changed the landscape of teacher preparation for many teacher education programs by highlighting the importance of growing students as readers, writers, and communicators. This study focuses on the instructional literacy practices of preservice teachers enrolled in a co-taught course with a literacy instructor and a history/social studies methods instructor. Study participants engaged in practicum experiences in high school history classrooms that provided an opportunity for them to use the literacy strategies learned in their co-taught course. A major finding of this study revealed that participants were able to gain knowledge that better prepared them to integrate literacy strategies in their practicum experiences that helped to engage high school students with texts in discipline specific ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Content area reading
• qualitative research
• teacher education