Targeted and Effective NJSLA Strategies for Social Studies

This professional development session equips Social Studies teachers with strategies to improve student performance on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA), particularly the ELA components embedded within social studies content. The workshop centers on aligning reading and writing strategies with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) for ELA. Participants engage in practical activities to explore evidence-based reading, writing, and vocabulary techniques tailored for social studies classrooms. The session emphasizes leveraging ELA skills to enhance comprehension, critical thinking, and performance on NJSLA-aligned tasks.

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• A lack of integration between ELA skills and social studies instruction that can hinder student performance on NJSLA assessments.
  
  
• Difficulty preparing students for NJSLA question formats.
  
  
• Challenges in teaching students to analyze informational texts and respond with evidence-based written answers.
  

1. Implement Close Reading and Annotation Techniques in Social Studies Contexts: Teachers will learn how to guide students through multiple, purpose-driven readings of complex texts using structured annotation strategies. This builds deeper text comprehension and prepares students to extract relevant evidence efficiently.
   
   
2. Design and Use Text-Dependent Questions to Develop Analytical Thinking: Educators will practice creating and applying questions that require students to cite textual evidence rather than rely on prior knowledge or opinion. This promotes analytical skills crucial for success on the NJSLA and for interpreting primary and secondary sources in social studies.
   
   
3. Integrate Writing Strategies Like Claims-Evidence-Reasoning (C-E-R) to Strengthen Argumentation: Participants will explore how to scaffold students’ writing using the C-E-R framework, helping them craft coherent arguments supported by textual evidence. They will also learn how to construct and evaluate NJSLA-aligned writing prompts and rubrics.

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