This year I will be teaching 6th grade. Due to the high demand to be College and Career ready and the frustration of not having enough time to teach the social sciences, I plan to integrate social studies with the reading curriculum to provide more rigorous content.
Webster Elementary is a Title I school and is in the highest poverty level at 98% free and reduced.
Although we are Title I and receive funding, there is not enough money to purchase new literature sets for grade levels. The students look to us for motivation, stability, and support.
My Project
This coming school year, I will be teaching 6th grade. We plan to departmentalize and I will be the reading teacher. Our rotations, plus reading and math intervention groups make it very difficult to ensure quality teaching in the social sciences. I will be integrating our social studies content with our reading. This integration will increase the rigor needed to be College and Career ready. I have divided the main cultures that 6th graders study by quarters (1st qtr - Ancient Mesopotamia, 2nd qtr - Ancient Egypt, 3rd qtr - Ancient Greece and Rome, 4th qtr Medieval Times). I want to use these two literature sets to end each semester with a book study. The Egypt Game ties with Ancient Egypt, which is the last quarter before winter break and Crispin ties with Medieval Times to close the school year.
This project will provide the needed rigor for our social studies and reading curriculum for many years to come.
In my years teaching in a high poverty school, I have found that the students become excited about learning when quality literature is introduced to them. Many of the students, don't go to public libraries because of lack of transportation or their parents are working two jobs. I feel it is my job to expose them to as many things as possible.
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