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Health & Fitness

L-W East Faculty Share Teaching Tips at State Conference

Presentation focused on how Lincoln-Way East uses six-way paragraphs, ACT-style readings and other excerpts to help student practice their reading skills for success on standardized tests.

A group of social science teachers from was in Bloomington recently to share teaching strategies with educators from across the state.

U.S. History/AP Government teacher Eric Byar, AP Government teacher John Cupp and Western Civilization/History of Religions/Civics teacher Peter Bonebrake were among more than four dozen educators from the high school and college level to present at the Illinois Council for the Social Studies (ICSS) conference, held Jan. 27 at the McLean County Museum of History.

Their presentation, Practicing Standardized Testing Using Content Readings in the Social Science Classroom, focused on how Lincoln-Way East uses six-way paragraphs, ACT-style readings and other excerpts to help student practice their reading skills for success on standardized tests.

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It’s a strategy that the social science department at Lincoln-Way East uses with all of its teachers to raise the reading abilities of students in all social science classes.

“In the past decade, it has been fashionable for school districts to use the social science classroom as an enhanced reading class in order for students to practice their skills for success on standardized tests,” said Byar, who chairs the social science department at Lincoln-Way East.

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“The dilemma for social science teachers is to be able to maintain their content and still offer this reading component,” he added.

At Lincoln-Way East, social science teachers have used ACT-style readings and six-way paragraphs to help students build their reading skills while learning the social science content.

Byar, Cupp and Bonebrake shared some examples of those readings and questioning styles with middle school and high school educators at the ICSS conference.

“Through the use of six-way paragraphs, ACT-style readings, and other excerpts and questioning, Lincoln-Way East has found success in both areas for students in regular, advanced, and collaborative classes,” said Byar.

The Illinois Council for the Social Studies, which invited Byar, Cupp and Bonebrake to present at the spring conference, was founded in 1938 in order to improve social studies teaching, to develop the professional interests of social studies instructors, and to cooperate with other organizations working for a better social understanding in the state, nation, and world.

The council provides professional development opportunities, publications, and service to Illinois teachers.

“We are pleased the Illinois Council for the Social Studies wanted Lincoln-Way teachers to share their teaching strategies with other educators,” said Dr. Sharon Michalak, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum for Lincoln-Way High School District 210.

“The teaching and emphasis of reading skills in the Social Science content has helped our students gain a better understanding of the social science curriculum and increased student scores on state and national tests,” she added.

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