After reviewing the West Test data at Jayenne Elementary School, I found that 33.32% of students in reading, 52.67% of students in math, 42.21% of students in science, and 31.86% of students in social studies scored mastery or above in those content areas. With that data, its obvious that students need the most improvement in reading and social studies; social studies being the content area in greatest need of improvement.
A good instructional intervention for social studies would be to make connections from old material to new material by expanding on previous learning and relating it to new material.
(http://www.jackson.k12.ky.us/readingstrategies/more/video/milanich2.htm)
Through the use of blogs, reflective journals, and other strategies teachers can help students make connections in the content. For example, blogs can be used for students to post opinions, thoughts, connections to content, and real life stories in their blogs. Then students could share their blogs with classmates then read, compare, debate, and share their knowledge.
Evidence strategy works:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8295798_connect-ideas-comprehension.html
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/491717_there-are-ways-to-improve-memory
http://www.federal-linguists.org/business/ways-to-improve-memory.html
Question
Can we improve content comprehension and retention in social studies by connecting new knowledge with old knowledge?
To collect data, compare scores between students when they utilize this strategy and when they do not.
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