The Implementations Classroom Teachers Use In Order To Reinforce Literacy Skills in Social Studies Classes

Social Studies course mainly deals with people, society and the relationship between people and society. Therefore, one of the basic goals of Social Studies course is to provide students with many distinct literacy skills. Literacy skills covered in Social Studies course include those about environment, law, economics, technology, history, media, maps, geography, critical and political. The aim of this study is to reveal which activities are used by teachers to reinforce these literacy skills. The participants of the study were a total of 110 classroom teachers working at nine different public primary schools in Afyon during the spring semester of the school year of 2015-2016. The study was designed as a descriptive research. The data of the study were collected through a survey questionnaire developed by the authors. The data collection tool included 105 items about ten distinct literacy skills. The data were analysed using frequency and percentage. The findings of the study showed that the participants conducted activities about literacy skills, but they less dealt with those activities which related these activities with daily life practices. In addition, it was found that all activities concerning literacy skills done by the participants were consistent with the goals of Social Studies courses. Based on the findings of the study it can be suggested that in reinforcing literacy skills out of school environment should be used by teachers. This requirement can be emphasized both in teacher training programs and in in-service training courses. On the other hand, the activities about literacy skills should be analysed in future studies.