1. Liberty and Justice for All: Literacy in the Social Studies. February 16, 2011 Jennifer McCarty Plucker, Ed. D. Reading Specialist, Eastview High School (Apple Valley, MN) Carl Plucker American Studies Teacher, BlackHawk Middle School (Eagan, MN)
You can’t learn from books you can’t read. science is one content area with particularly intense literacy expectations. “The sheer number of science concepts included in science texts almost precludes anything but listlike study of vocabulary that can only be cursorily explained in the space allowed. Often the vocabulary in a 1-week science unit is greater than that of a similar unit in a foreign language” (Elyon & Linn, 1988, as cited in Grossen, Ramance, & Vitale, p. 444).