Promoting Humanities Learning in Elementary Schools

FAIN: AC-264286-19

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX 78539-2909)
Jennifer Joy Esquierdo (Project Director: July 2018 to October 2022)
Stephanie M. Alvarez (Co Project Director: December 2018 to October 2022)

Collaboration with local school districts to design a social studies curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade that focuses on the history and culture of the Rio Grande Valley community.

Project SSTARC (Social Studies Through Authentic and Relevant Content) is a 2-year collaborative project between the Center for Bilingual Studies and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and local school districts in south Texas. The project aims to provide an opportunity for local K-5 teachers to gain better knowledge of local and regional history, create relevant social studies content for their students in both English and Spanish, and disseminate the content on a wide scale to enrich the schooling experience of students by exposing them to authentic humanities content. This project will bring together four humanities scholars of Mexican American Studies to work with a total of 42 K-5 teachers during two different 4-day workshops. At the workshops teachers will collaborate to design lesson plans based on the content presented by the scholars. In Year 2, a one-day conference will showcase the redesigned curriculum to 100 K-5 teachers.

Associated Products

Enriching Social Studies with Authentic and Relevant Content in Dual Language Classrooms (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Enriching Social Studies with Authentic and Relevant Content in Dual Language Classrooms
Author: Joy Esquierdo
Author: Stephanie Alvarez
Author: Yajaira Rivera
Author: Josue Puente
Abstract: This session demonstrates the goals of Project SSTARC (Social Studies Through Authentic and Relevant Content), a two-year collaborative project between the Centers for Bilingual Studies and Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and local school districts. This project provided an opportunity for local teachers to gain deeper knowledge of local and regional history, create relevant social studies content for their DL students in both English and Spanish, disseminate the content to enrich the schooling experience of DL students, and expose DL students to authentic and relevant humanities content early on in their lives.
Date: 02/27/2020
Primary URL: http://nabe.org
Conference Name: National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) 2020 Conference

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