The eWorkshops available for Social Studies Teachers explore various aspects of learning concepts while also learning about language. We also recommend that Social Studies Teachers utilize the eWorkshops available for All Teachers here.

These are the available eWorkshops:

Scroll down to see more details about each eWorkshop

*If you are located outside of Nebraska, this eWorkshop is available through the WIDA Consortium.  Nebraska residents may contact ICMEE to enroll in this course.

Powerful Social Studies and Multilingual Learners

Essential Question: How can social studies teachers provide culturally and linguistically responsive instruction for multilingual learners?
Guiding Questions: 
  •  Unit 1: How can I make social studies content meaningful for multilingual learners?
  • Unit 2: How can I effectively integrate sources--both primary and secondary sources--with multilingual learners?
  • Unit 3: How can we encourage active participation within the context of academic (classroom) discussions, that support language and content development of multilingual learners? 
  • Unit 4: What are some tools and ideas that I can use to promote disciplinary skills in my social studies classroom with multilingual learners?
  • Unit 5: How can I promote a collaborative/democratic learning community where multilingual learners feel their voice and contributions are valued?
  • Unit 6: Answer the essential question. 
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Grouping Strategies for Multilingual Classrooms (Grades K-12)*

Essential Question: How can I maximize opportunities for all learners in a multilingual setting?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1:  What are the dynamics of grouping and regrouping in a multilingual classroom?
  • Unit 2: What is the unique nature of teaching and learning in groups where some students are fluent in the language of instruction and others are not?
  • Unit 3: What is the nature of grouping where all students are second language learners of the language of instruction
  • Unit 4:  How can I support students learning in their home language and connect it to their learning in English?
  • Unit 5: How can I build on the opportunities of a multilingual classroom in my planning?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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Home Languages in the Classroom (Grades 2-8)*

Essential Question: How can I set up routines and learning activities that promote the use of home languages in my classroom?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1: What are some warm-up activities to bring home languages into my classroom?
  • Unit 2: How can I leverage the use of home languages when studying vocabulary?
  • Unit 3: How can I structure learning activities that require two or more languages, even if I am not in a bilingual school?
  • Unit 4: How can I help learners reflect upon their own bilingualism?
  • Unit 5: How can I encourage conversations about the language use of our students, families and communities?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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Language and Concept Development (Grades K-12)

Essential Question: How can I provide bilingual learners the greatest opportunities to acquire both the knowledge and the language needed to be successful in my classroom?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1: How do I distinguish the key concepts of instruction from the language used to communicate about them?
  • Unit 2: How do I identify and make understandable the essential concepts of the curriculum?
  • Unit 3: How can I uncover the language demands of my instruction?
  • Unit 4: How can I support students in taking on the language demands of content instruction?
  • Unit 5: How can teachers engage families in order to help students (and themselves) access and deepen what students know about the topics of instruction?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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Learning Through Two Languages (Grades K-12)

Essential Question: How can we build on students’ linguistic and cultural assets to foster additive bilingualism?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1: How does speaking a language other than English benefit students in U.S. schools?
  • Unit 2: How do bilingual learners access information and express what they know when they are learning through two languages?
  • Unit 3: How is teaching on the “Second Language Pathway” different from teaching on the first?
  • Unit 4: How do bilingual learners transfer the knowledge they have gained through one language to express themselves in another language?
  • Unit 5: How can I help bilingual students increase their communicative competence in a second language?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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Race and Education (Grades K-12)

Essential Question: What is the role of race in the classroom? What do I REALLY know about race and how can it help me become a better teacher?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1: When did you first learn about race?
  • Unit 2: Where do racial disparities come from?
  • Unit 3: What is racism?
  • Unit 4: What terminologies and concepts help us understand race and racism?
  • Unit 5: How does race and racism work in my classroom?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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Second Language Acquisition (Grades K-12)

Essential Question: How can my knowledge about second language acquisition improve my instruction with bilingual students?

Guiding Questions:

  • Unit 1: What are the similarities and differences between learning a first language and second language? Why does this matter in your classroom?
  • Unit 2: What are the similarities and differences between social and academic language? How does your school attend to the social and academic repertoires of your students?
  • Unit 3: How am I providing cognitively challenging tasks for learners at all language levels? What types of scaffolds am I providing for my bilingual learners?
  • Unit 4: How can I incorporate native languages in instruction to support bilingualism and academic achievement?
  • Unit 5: How can the knowledge of language proficiency levels help me differentiate instruction for my bilingual students?
  • Unit 6: Answer the Essential Question
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“I became more aware of how deficit thinking pervades many of the structures of our educational system, from the "ELL" label to the kinds of micro-aggressions that take place in scheduling, family outreach (or lack of), and assumptions about culture and language that underlie the way we speak about our multilingual students.”

(eWorkshop Completer)