CSMP

Program: Program: Building Academic Literacy through History (BAL) Summer Institute or School-Year Workshop Series

WHEN & WHERE:  BAL is offered in summer both as a stand-alone institute and integrated with content institutes offered around the state. Some sites provide school-year monthly BAL work- group programs.  Versions of BAL are offered at all sites

STANDARDS, CONTENT, & GRADE LEVEL:  This program is designed for HSS teachers, 4 -12 and is, in general, aligned with the California HSS Analysis Skill Standards for grades K-12.  Specific BAL offerings at local CHSSP sites can also be tailored to a particular era, region, or grade level.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:  The Building Academic Literacy through History program is a discipline-specific approach to history instruction to help develop reading comprehension and expository writing ability, based upon the theory of systemic functional linguistics.  Because the program incorporates much of our work designed to develop historical thinking, the course also offers teachers specific methods to promote a healthy critique of both primary and secondary sources, identify patterns and trends in both historical content and writing, and develop a student’s ability to seek answers to questions relevant to a particular course of study. This initiative, which has demonstrated its effectiveness through a number of experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations, provides teachers with a grade-level specific approach to curriculum development and instruction. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: BAL helps teachers engage and support students in learning by offering strategies to improve students understanding of more complex text structures, such as those found in historical arguments. The focus on student skill development combined with content provides a framework for developing student literacy, helping teachers organize the curriculum for student learning, plan instruction, design reading and writing learning experiences for their students, and assess the outcome of those experiences.

FUNDING:  Individual CHSSP sites fund Building Academic Literacy through History programs through a variety of sources:  contracts with local schools and districts, state and federal grants, and individual teacher registration fees.  To find out how you can bring academic literacy programs to your school or district, contact the CHSSP Statewide Office (chssp@ucdavis.edu; 530.752.0572).