Middle Level Social Studies (Grades 5–8) Subtest 1
Subarea I.1. Social Studies Skills
0001
Understand social studies skills.
- analyzing the purpose and perspective of diverse sources of social studies information
- recognizing central theses, main ideas, and supporting details in various sources of social studies information
- applying knowledge of how to define a social studies research topic and how to find, collect, organize, and present social studies research
- distinguishing between fact and opinion in sources of social studies information and evaluating social studies texts and graphics for credibility, bias, and stereotypes
- drawing inferences and conclusions from social studies evidence and using various modes of social studies inquiry to analyze historical and contemporary developments and evaluate public policy issues
- interpreting social studies issues represented in graphic formats (e.g., charts, diagrams, maps, political cartoons, graphs)
0002
Understand the content and methods for developing students' content-area reading skills to support their reading and learning in the social studies.
- demonstrating knowledge of key components and processes involved in reading (e.g., vocabulary knowledge, including orthographic and morphological knowledge; background knowledge; knowledge of academic discourse, including the syntactic and organizational structures used in print and digital academic texts; print processing abilities, including decoding skills; use of cognitive and metacognitive skills and strategies)
- demonstrating ability to plan instruction and select strategies to support all students' content-area reading (e.g., differentiating instruction to meet the needs of students with varying reading proficiency levels and linguistic backgrounds, identifying and addressing gaps in students' background knowledge, scaffolding reading tasks for students who experience comprehension difficulties)
- demonstrating knowledge of explicit strategies for facilitating students' comprehension before, during, and after reading content-area texts and for promoting their use of comprehension strategies
- demonstrating knowledge of explicit strategies for promoting students' academic language and vocabulary development, including their knowledge of domain-specific vocabulary words
- demonstrating knowledge of explicit strategies for developing students' critical literacy skills (e.g., encouraging students to question texts, developing students' ability to analyze texts from multiple viewpoints or perspectives)
- demonstrating ability to plan instruction and select strategies that support students' reading and understanding of social studies texts (e.g., recognizing words that signal opinions and judgments, distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, drawing inferences and conclusions, analyzing author's purpose and point of view, discerning cause-and-effect relationships, interpreting graphic presentations of social studies information, using a variety of social studies reference sources)
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