Social Studies and ELA are ripe for collaborative opportunities but so often we silo these disciplines into separate spheres in both elementary and secondary settings. This session will engage teachers in planning instruction through the lens of literary themes, historical patterns, Utah’s Portrait of a Graduate competencies, and Utah core standards. We will collaboratively work to make connections between historical patterns such as power or perspective and literary themes like identity or survival. We will then connect these patterns and themes to Utah’s Portrait of a Graduate competencies like hard work and resilience. This approach helps students ask deeper questions, make meaningful connections to themselves and the world, and also build their literacy and historical critical thinking skills. Participants will leave with the skills to build and use rich text sets – including novels, picture books, primary sources, and nonfiction – that are connected to these themes and develop student skills.
After teaching sixth grade for 21 years in four Utah school districts, JoAnna Sorensen is now the PreK-6 Social Studies Specialist at the Utah State Board of Education. As a classroom teacher, JoAnna served on the Writing Committee for the Elementary Social Studies Standards Revision... Read More →
Secondary ELA Specialist, Utah State Board of Education
A former middle school English Language Arts teacher and instructional coach, Naomi Watkins is currently the Secondary ELA Specialist at the Utah State Board of Education.
Robert Austin is the Humanities Team coordinator at the Utah State Board of Education. Prior to coming to the USBE he taught middle school language arts and social studies for ten years.
