Page 66 - EdViewptsSpring2017

Collaboration: Going the

Distance Together

By Patricia S. Dent, Supervisor of Language Arts Literacy and ESL; and
Dr. Marisa M. King, Supervisor of Social Studies, Business, and Practical Arts,
from the Teaneck School District

With the changing tides of Additionally, high-stakes assessments between the content areas of social
have changed to include a greater studies and English. However, as
education, specifically with the amount of informational texts, includ- students move through the grades, the
implementation of the Common Core ing scientific reports, primary sources learning of these two content areas
State Standards and the New Jersey and historical media clips. As our becomes compartmentalized. Our goal
Student Learning Standards, the departments analyzed these shifts, was to bring our high school English
teaching of English has shifted from we knew we needed to collaborate in and social studies teachers together
a traditional focus on canonical liter- order to ensure that our curricula and to address the challenges students
ature to a strategic focus on reading instruction were appropriately aligned. face with reading and comprehending
for information. These shifts have nonfiction text.
required educators to rethink the role Research Lee and Spratley (2010) explored
of reading and its connection to career Academically, we understood that the problems students face when
and college readiness.
there is a natural literacy connection interacting with written texts in history,

Educational Viewpoints -64- Spring 2017