Teaching Social Studies to Multilingual Learners: Strategy of the Week

Each week we share one strategy that you can use to meet the needs of your diverse multilingual learners in secondary content classes. This week’s strategy is specifically for secondary social studies teachers but could be adapted for use in many content areas.

• Download Teaching Social Studies to Multilingual Learners: Strategy of the Week Flier

Strategy: Chunk & Chew Review

• Language Objective: I can summarize what I have learned through listening or reading.

Chunk & Chew Review: How-To

1. Before the Activity
   • Post sentence stems for students to see. For example: -You read about________. -______ reminds me of ___________. -The teacher just taught about __________. -_________ is significant because________.
2. Select a passage for students to read or plan a lesson presentation.

During the Activity

1. Organize students into groups.
2. Present the lesson. If you are presenting information, deliver your lesson in chunks of no more than 10 minutes. If students are reading a text, have them read 1-2 paragraphs at a time.
3. At each stopping point, have students process the information they have just learned by using the sentence stems.

Extra Support for MLs

• Provide visuals during lesson delivery.
• Post vocabulary words that students should use during their processing discussions.
• Allow students to write their responses before participating in a group discussion.

Helpful Links

• Ideas for the “chunk” section from Better Lesson 
• Chunk & Chew video with teacher and learner responsibilities

Examples: Primary Sources

LT: I can determine the central idea of a primary source.

Review how to determine the main idea and purpose of a primary source. Students then work in groups to read a primary source document from an event. After reading 1-2 paragraphs, students pause to discuss the central ideas. Repeat until they have finished the document; review the main idea together at the end of class.