Engaging Students With Disabilities in Text-Based Discussions: Guidance for General Education Social Studies Classrooms

Teachers are required to support students with disabilities in middle school social studies classrooms so that they can learn content from reading and comprehending complex text. One way to enhance comprehension of text is to facilitate text-based discussion; however, teachers often face difficulties when trying to engage students in this type of conversation. In this article, we first review what text-based discussion is, why it is challenging for some students, and how it can improve the reading comprehension performance of students with disabilities. Next, we provide a guide for teachers so that they can initiate and maintain high quality, text based discussion that provides opportunities for students to engage in higher level thinking about text and improve reading comprehension. This guide will help teachers understand, prepare for, and use text based discussion within their social studies classrooms.