I’ve been teaching these two subjects together for many years now and can’t imagine teaching one subject without the other.

Integrating social studies and writing is a great way to save time.

Students who write about what they’ve learned tend to enjoy deeper understanding and retention of information.

Writing uses a different skill set and requires higher levels of thinking than simply filling in multiple choice answer bubbles.

Keep reading to find out how I integrate 5th grade social studies and 5th grade writing.

Are you looking for upper elementary social studies/writing resources and ideas? I’d love for you to join my weekly VIP email club with no spam, just helpful tips, ideas, and resources!

Social Studies Writing = Nonfiction Writing

Many years ago, a wise principal told me that teaching social studies is the same as teaching nonfiction reading. I completely agree with this!

When social studies is taught correctly, students are learning ALL of the nonfiction reading skills, including cause/effect, compare/contrast, summarizing, sequencing, and much more.

By the same token, social studies class is an ideal setting to teach nonfiction writing.

Of course, there are plenty of ways to integrate fiction writing into social studies class, but nonfiction writing should be the shining star in your social studies/writing integration efforts.

Generally, I start with sentence improvement, followed by five paragraph essays and paired passages.

Additionally, I use people, places, and events in my social studies curriculum to create nonfiction writing prompts.

This will be so easy for you to do with your students! You already know the information students need to learn and review, so why not make it into a writing prompt?

Nonfiction Writing Prompt Examples:

a. Georgia was founded in 1732 by James Oglethorpe as a place for English debtors to work off their debts as an alternative to spending time in prison. Do you think that work colonies would be a good alternative for prisons today? Explain your answer fully!

b. One of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, often shared his wisdom with others in the form of short, wise quotes. For example: Well done is better than well said. Create two original, short quotes to share your own wisdom. Be sure to fully explain the meanings behind your quotes!

c. When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution, they divided the power of the federal government into three branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. How might our nation be different today if they’d only created one all-powerful branch of government?

Looking for more social studies journal prompts?

Grab 50 of my best prompts in this blog post (free): Big List of Social Studies Journal Prompts

Use social studies facts to write fiction, poetry, narratives, & more!

Writing in social studies class doesn’t always have to be nonfiction.

We can and should encourage our students to write in other modes.

With my students, I find it’s best to take facts and combine creativity and critical thinking to write something new.

Historical Fiction Idea: Dining with George and Martha at Mount Vernon

• First, take students on a virtual tour of George Washington’s Mount Vernon. They’ll need to gather facts, check out landmarks, and even examine dining room decor.
• Second, ask students to combine what they know about George and Martha Washington with what they saw on the virtual tour to write a fictional account of dining with the Washington Family at Mount Vernon.

Use social studies topics to teach research skills!

When you mention the term “research report” to your fifth graders, you’ll hear a collective groan, guaranteed!

Research is never high on the list of things our students are excited to do BUT we can help our students feel confident in their research skills and make the process painless!

It’s all about taking it one step at a time and modeling, modeling, modeling 🙂

The post below will show you how I teach the research process to my 5th graders AND there are some step-by-step videos that you can use yourself or show to your students as they embark on the research process!

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Teach writing using history-themed paired passages!

Paired passages are common in 5th grade writing standards.

I find that many sets of paired passages include one nonfiction text and one fiction text.

Exposing your students to history-themed paired passages is a fantastic way to practice this skill before students are required to use them on state assessments.

I use three steps to teach students how to write with paired passages:

• First, dissect the prompt.

• Second, closely read the paired texts.

• Third, organize thoughts using the prompt.

Check out all of the details on how I use the steps above in this post:

How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Ask students to respond to history-themed quotes!

Quotes are short, but powerful, reinforcements for what students are learning in social studies class.

They lead students to critical thinking and interpretation.

I ask students to respond to quotes in their journals because they are using what they already know about a topic and/or individual to draw conclusions and interpret meanings.

Responses to quotes will vary by student, so this always leads to fascinating debates and discussions.

John Adams Quote, 1777

One of my favorite quotes to have students write about is from John Adams, Revolutionary leader and 2nd President:

“You will never know, how much it cost (my) Generation, to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it.”

When responding to this quote, some students zoom in on “how much it cost my generation to preserve your freedom” and discuss some of the sacrifices, difficulties, and frustrations faced by the founding generation.

Other students zoom in on “make a good use of it” and talk about how we can make a good use of the freedom we have today and/or ponder the question – Are we making good use of our freedom?

Some questions I pose to students: Would the founders approve of the state of our nation today? Is this what they envisioned? What do we know about John Adams? Why was he qualified to make this statement?

This resource provides a large collection of social studies quote images: Social Studies Quotes Image Bundle

Include Freewriting and Writing Choice in Social Studies Class!

I’d like to encourage you to give students the opportunity to just write without worrying about punctuation, structure, or grading.

We shouldn’t be requiring publishable writing assignments every single time.

Students need at least a little time to write simply for the fun of it, to get their ideas down on paper, and to express their thoughts.

One way I use freewriting in my classroom is to give students a wide topic and allow them 10 minutes of freewriting on a narrow topic of their choice.

For example, if we are studying Colonial America, I might say, “You have ten minutes to freewrite on an aspect of the New England colonies that you find interesting.”

When I glance at their freewriting compositions, I know that I will see a large variety of topics, like Puritans, the shipbuilding industry, town meetings, artisans, and Anne Hutchinson, to name a few.

Ask students to write using various perspectives!

Considering multiple viewpoints and lived experiences is a critical skill in social studies, reading, writing, and life in general.

Social studies content is a great resource to use when asking students to consider and write from other viewpoints.

One way to engage students in this is to have them consider a well-known event, like the Boston Tea Party.

Ask students to work in pairs or small groups to write a paragraph response from some or all of the following individuals:

• A casual, impartial observer who witnessed the tea party
• A participating member of the Sons of Liberty
• A Loyalist living near Boston
• A tax collector whose job was to collect the taxes owed on the tea
• A member of Parliament

Another way to engage students in writing from various viewpoints is to use primary sources, like the image below:

I use this image with my students while teaching my Road to Revolution Unit. The image is a political cartoon poking fun at the comically short life of the Stamp Act imposed by Parliament.

My students choose different people from the image and write the dialogue and/or inner thoughts the person may have had.

Using primary sources to help students write from different perspectives is definitely a highlight of any social studies unit!

Teach students how to write biographies!

When you need to integrate social studies and writing, biographies are a sure bet!

Biographies are common in social studies instruction and provide great writing practice.

Students must choose the most important facts and details from their subject’s life and synthesize that information into a manageable biography.

My students generally enjoy spending time diving into the story of a person’s life, especially if it’s someone they’ve chosen themselves.

I highly recommend completing a Biography Deep Dive with your students.

This post will tell you how to implement a Biography Deep Dive. You can even grab a free annotated list of suggested individuals for study!

Are you looking for upper elementary social studies/writing resources and ideas? I’d love for you to join my weekly VIP email club with no spam, just helpful tips, ideas, and resources!

Want to keep this blog post for later? Simply save this image to your teacher Pinterest board!

The post Integrate Social Studies and Writing – Quick Tips & Ideas appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

If you’ve been frustrated with the quality of your students’ sentences, this blog post is for you!

Writing sentences is just one aspect of teaching 5th grade writing. Hop over to this post if you’d like to find out How I Teach 5th Grade Writing!

Help students change their thinking! Writing is NOT texting or social media!

OMG, what up, LOL – Our students have certainly developed habits when it comes to expressing themselves.

Texting and social media have a place in our everyday lives but students need to understand the difference between formal writing and the “writing” we do when communicating with friends and family on technology outlets.

Writing should be considered formal communication.

When we communicate formally, there is no place for slang, shortcuts, or informal language.

I remind my students that their readers usually cannot hear their voices or see their facial expressions when reading their written compositions, so they must make every effort to communicate clearly and in an interesting way.

Just a quick note before we go on… If you’d like to join my VIP upper elementary teacher email club, it’s free! You’ll receive weekly tips, resources, and fun in your inbox. No spam – promise!

Students need to see and study examples of excellent sentences!

When I was a brand new teacher, I was frustrated with my students’ poor sentences.

“This is not a complete thought. I don’t know what you are trying to say here.”

I would say these things all.the.time.

Later, luckily, it dawned on me that I was expecting students to write amazing sentences, and later Five Paragraph Essays, without showing them great examples first.

How obvious, right?!?

My students’ writing skills improved tremendously when I began to show them multiple excellent examples of writing before asking them to compose on their own.

Teach sentence structure and help students vary their sentence length!

Our students need to have a firm grasp on sentence structure.

First, I lead students in a review of complete sentences.

They need to understand the parts of a complete sentence because they’ve probably been using fragments, phrases, and incomplete sentences in their texting/social media lives.

Eventually, writing complete sentences becomes an internalized process, but first, we must teach, practice, and reinforce the writing of complete sentences.

I keep this simple: We look for subjects and predicates in example sentences. We also discuss appropriate punctuation and capitalization.

We revise sentences that are missing a subject, predicate, capitalization, or punctuation.

Once students are pros at writing complete sentences, we work on expanding simple sentences into compound sentences and adding dependent clauses.

Examples

Simple Sentence: Marley went to the park.

Compound Sentence: Marley went to the park, but she decided to go home early.

Sentence with Dependent Clause: Because there was a large dog loose at the park, Marley decided to go home early. (Dependent clause is bold)

It’s important to explain to students that all sentence types should be used in our writing. If we use ALL simple sentences, our readers will become bored. If we use ALL complex/longer sentences, our readers will become overwhelmed. We need to VARY our sentence length to keep readers interested.

Vivid language makes a difference!

When writers use vivid language, they paint a picture in their readers’ minds.

Vivid language helps readers to feel more connected to the text.

I use the following example with my students.

Original text: My neighbor rode her bike away from the dog.

Question: Does the sentence above paint a picture in your mind?

Probably not… It’s quite general and maybe a little boring.

Text with vivid language: I looked up from my tree swing to see my sweaty, terrified 8-year-old neighbor pedaling her bike away from the yappy chihuahua that was chasing her down the block.

Question: Does the sentence above paint a picture in your mind?

It sure does! Can you see the girl desperately pedaling her bike while being chased by the little chihuahua?

#vividlanguagematters

Let’s wave goodbye to boring words!

As we all know, some word choices are better than others.

Words like talk, walk, and said are boring.

I tell my students that they can absolutely use boring words in their writing BUT they shouldn’t use them over and over.

For example, if they find that they are using the word said multiple times in their writing, they should find a better, more interesting word.

Original: Paul said he didn’t want to go to the party.

Improved Text: Paul let out a small whimper and whispered, “I don’t want to go to the party.”

That second sentence is so much more interesting than the first, right?!?

To help my students remember to cut boring words out of their writing, I create this display every year.

The hands belong to my students. They really get into creating their handprints with construction paper 🙂

Near the Wave Goodbye to Boring Words display, I create a Sparkle Words display.

Sparkle Words are special words that take your students’ sentences from dull to dazzling.

Our Sparkle Words include mostly adjectives and adverbs. Check out the display below:

My students create gems and diamond rings out of construction paper. We even jazz up the display with peel and stick gem stickers.

As students read on their own and progress throughout the year, they often come across sparkle words that they want to add to the display.

I allow and encourage this! Students find it motivating to add words to the sparkle board.

I also have them keep their own list of sparkle words in their Writing Interactive Notebooks.

Great readers are usually great writers!

Where do students find sparkle words and how do they internalize sentence structure and learn new ways to say things? By reading widely!

I encourage frequent reading for my budding writers. I firmly believe that it’s not possible to be a great writer if you aren’t reading the work of other people often.

Don’t create your own Sentence Improvement materials for students! This mini-unit is ready-to-use! To view my Sentence Improvement Mini-Unit, click on the image below:

To keep this blog post for later, simply save this image to your teacher Pinterest board!

The post How to Help Your Students Write Better Sentences appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

Do you dread giving your students a writing assignment because you don’t want to hear the whining? I’ve been where you are! 

Students become top-notch writers by writing in a wide variety of genres, about many different topics, and this is important… writing all.the.time.

So, my goal in this blog post is to give you practical ideas to help you get those pencils moving in your classroom!

I’d love to send you a sample of my Weekly Writing Choice Boards. Enter your first name and email address below. You’ll also become a member of my upper elementary teacher email club!

Why are many students reluctant writers?

There are a million reasons for this but one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that some students tend to see writing as a chore… a boring academic chore.

I’ve always worked in lower-income schools and it’s the same thing every year. Lower grade teachers are required to push reading and math, so when students come to my 5th grade classroom, they haven’t had much experience with writing and it’s usually something they don’t want to do. 

How do I make my students fall in love with writing? 

I do this in two ways: Giving Choices and Providing Structure! 

We don’t jump right into heavy-duty writing at the beginning of the school year. Instead, I assign lots of choice-based writing, i.e. Weekly Writing Choice Boards. 

Further into the school year, we move to more structured writing, specifically Five Paragraph Essays. 

But I do keep the Weekly Writing Choice Boards going all year for consistency and because students truly enjoy the boards.

Let’s Talk About Giving CHOICES…

Engagement is EVERYTHING.

A student who is interested in the lesson is bound to be a better learner than a student who doesn’t care.

So, how can we increase engagement in our students? CHOICE

When given options, students immediately have some agency over what they’re learning.

They’re not being told what to do, they get to decide what to do – this is critical with upper elementary students.

Learners are more excited about learning when they have some decision-making power.

However, giving options doesn’t mean saying “do whatever you like,” because our students need structure, too.

How can we give them choices while retaining some structure? After all, we have a curriculum to follow, schedules to keep, and administrators to whom we answer.

It can be overwhelming. Still, there are ways to integrate choice into writing curriculum while continuing to meet state standards. If this sounds like too daunting a task, you’re in luck, because it’s all been done for you here.

What other benefit does choice bring to learning? Higher engagement leads to deeper learning, and more on-task behavior. That means fewer classroom management issues. BOOM.

A writing choice board with relevant, well-thought-out prompts like these will help your students grow as writers and learners.

Incorporate a choice board into your academic day – you’ll see the benefits – and so will your students!

How to Create Weekly Writing Choice Boards

All you have to do is create a list format or a grid format, add the writing choices, and make it clear how many assignments you expect from students per week. 

The image below shows the Weekly Writing Choice Boards that I create for my students:

Be sure to include a variety of writing choices on your weekly boards, including lists, letters, fiction, nonfiction, opinion, narrative, informative, sequential order writing, and etc. 

I would love to share a set of six free Writing Choice Boards with you! Enter your first name and email address below to have the file sent to you right away. 

How to Assess Weekly Writing Choice Boards

Once I’ve given students writing choices and collected their weekly assignments, then I have to assess. 

If you are imagining yourself sitting on the couch all weekend grading your students’ writing, you can put that out of your mind right now! 

Contrary to what our teachers did when we were in school ourselves, you don’t need to make a million marks all over your students’ papers and correct every single spelling and grammar mistake. 

Seriously, when teachers do that, they are spinning their wheels.

Students take one look at their marked up papers and immediately think, “I am a terrible writer. I give up.”

If you’d like to read more about how I grade my students’ writing, you’ll want to visit this post: Tips for Teaching and Grading Five Paragraph Essays. 

I grade my students’ weekly writing using more of a holistic approach. 

First of all, did they complete the required number of writing assignments? 

Second, I look at the content of students’ writing. Did they stay on topic? Does their writing make sense? Is it engaging? Is it easy to read? 

Finally, I assign a grade of 100, 90, 80, 70, or 60. This is quite subjective but I can always back up my grades with why I felt that a particular assignment deserved the grade it received. 

This will become second nature to you because you’ll be completing this same assessment process every week.

That’s all for now, teacher friends! I would love to see your comment below telling us how you use weekly writing choices in your classroom! 

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher Pinterest board!

The post Weekly Writing Choice Boards: The Why and How appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.