For each issue, TPS partners submit summaries of and links to online resources—articles, research reports, Web sites, and white papers—that provide research and current thinking relating to the theme. This issue's Research & Current Thinking focuses on literacy.
"Enhancing Social Studies through Literacy Strategies" (Judith Irvin, John Lunstrum, Carol Lynch-Brown, and Mary Friend Shepard; National Council for the Social Studies) presents approaches and strategies for integrating literacy acquisition into social studies content and processes, for deepening student understanding of the social sciences, and for motivating students to read and write in the social studies class.
The Knowledge Loom Web site (The Education Alliance at Brown University with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education) provides a forum for educators worldwide to review research that identifies promising practices and contribute knowledge about those practices. The site's "In the Spotlight" features adolescent literacy in the content areas with links to strategies, research, and real stories of application.
NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) offers a variety of resources specific to support adolescent literacy, including a link to the downloadable "Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Research Brief."
"Research Link / Family Literacy" (John H. Holloway, Educational Leadership) highlights the importance of home and family contributions to educational success and identifies common components of successful family literacy programming models.
"Rethinking Literacy," a chapter from Family Literacy Experiences (Jennifer Rowsell), expands the traditional definition of literacy and of text and shows teachers how to make the world outside the classroom an integral part of compelling instruction.
"'What Does This Picture Say?' Reading the Intertextuality of Visual Images" (Walter Werner, International Journal of Social Education) explores how the interplay of texts, both written and visual, are "interpreted one in the light of another to produce new meanings," and the implications for educators.
"What Happens When Students Read Multiple Source Documents in History?" (Steven A. Stahl, Cynthia R. Hynd, Bruce K. Britton, Mary M. McNish, and Dennis Bosquet, National Reading Research Center) examines processes students use when presented with multiple source documents to study history. The authors explore which teaching strategies will enhance students' historical thinking.