Examining vocabulary, reading comprehension, and content knowledge instruction during fourth grade social studies teachi
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Examining vocabulary, reading comprehension, and content knowledge instruction during fourth grade social studies teaching Philip Capin1 · Elizabeth A. Stevens1,2 · Alicia A. Stewart1,3 · Elizabeth Swanson1 · Sharon Vaughn1 Accepted: 31 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Teaching vocabulary and reading comprehension during social studies instruction is critical for reading development and the acquisition of content knowledge. This study systematically investigated how elementary teachers integrate vocabulary and reading comprehension instruction during social studies teaching, as well as the extent to which this instruction aligned with evidence-based practices. Thirty-three fourth grade teachers from 12 schools across three school districts recorded their social studies instruction for a total of 2429 min. Findings revealed that two-thirds of social studies instructional time integrated practices for developing vocabulary and reading comprehension. Yet, the approaches for teaching comprehension and methods for instructional delivery (e.g., explicit instruction, high-quality feedback) teachers used infrequently aligned with those identified as effective in previous research. We present opportunities for improving content-area instruction and future research. Keywords Elementary education · Reading · Content-area instruction · Social studies · Vocabulary · Reading comprehension
* Philip Capin [email protected] 1
Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, College of Education SZB 228, The University of Texas at Austin, 1912 Speedway, D4900, Austin, TX 78712‑1284, USA
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Present Address: Department of Learning Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA
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Present Address: Department of Special Education and Interventions, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, USA
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Introduction The consistent finding that many students in late elementary are unable to read and understand grade-level text remains a serious educational challenge (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Although there is agreement about the scope and significance of this problem and there have been substantial investments to identify evidence-based practices (for example, see Douglas & Albro, 2014; Pearson, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Berman, 2020), the proportion of U.S. students who achieve a basic level of proficiency in Grade 4 has not significantly changed over the last decade (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). One solution to the problem of underdeveloped reading proficiency in the upper elementary grades and beyond is to dedicate more instructional time to understanding complex texts by integrating effective reading practices during contentarea teaching. There are reciprocal benefits to integrating reading instruction within contentarea teaching for reading proficiency and content acquisition. For one, developing students’ knowledge is central to supporting reading comprehension proficiency (Cervetti & Hiebert, 2018; Hirsch Jr.,
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