PEP

**PEP**

**Content** PEP is a road map social studies teaching strategy that stand for Person, Event, Place. It is specifically used for reading text within the social studies classroom. **Grade Level** These are discussed as being used in the middle school grades. I will specifically be using 8th grade.

**Curriculum Standards**

SS.O.08.05.07: research and construct the sequence of events and site the reasons for and resulting consequences of conflicts and wars that led to the formation of West Virginia as a state.
 * There are many curriculum standards that could relate to this practice depending on which event, person, and place they are studying at the time.

**Description of Practices** This practice is used for reading social studies text. It is supposed to help readers understand the text and use a "road map" to follow it. The road map resembles that reading is a like a car as you are traveling through the text. They relate these things to prior knowledge so that students know what they are going to be reading and can relate it to every day life. Before reading, students must decide which PEP strategy will suit the reading best. A title, subtitle, or picture can trigger the choice. Here are the options:

Person: Man or woman? Read to find out: what did he/she do?, why did he/she do it?, when and where?, important words?, and connect.

Event: something happened? Read to find out: what happened, why it happened, when and where, players, important words, and connect.

Place: location: Read to find out: where it is, what it's like, why is it special, important words, and connect.


 * Connect is where the reader connects what they are reading to something in their life or something based on prior knowledge.

Along with PEP comes the mnemonic strategy of PEP TALK the TALK part stands for things that students should keep in mind while reading: Think, Ask, Look, Keep notes. Once the student chooses one of these (PEP) that fits best with their reading, they will work as a group to read, keep notes, and create e road map. The road map is a drawing like a road and there are stops along the way for students to write information and connections in about the reading. Sometimes, different groups can be assigned different things to become experts on and they will share the information that they found to the entire class. After completing all of the research, students fill out a critique form on the reading, how much they learned from it, questions that they still have, and what they think needs to be changed about the road map. **Implementation Considerations**

This would work well in a whole group setting, but broken into smaller groups to become experts on their reading. This strategy could also be used in a small group pull out room for special education. By having students make connections to the reading, they may become more motivated to learn it. **Example** Example of Critique form:

Figure 4. A PEP road map critique form.
[|PEP Road Map Critique Form] Name of Readers: - Name of Authors: - Date: - Title of passage: - Overall rating: How well did this PEP Road Map help you understand this passage? Circle only one phrase code format="ct" Very Helpful Helpful Somewhat helpful A little helpful Not Helpful at all code We circled this phrase because: - Questions from the PEP Road Map that were helpful to us: Questions that need to be changed to make the PEP Road Map more helpful and why:


 * Example of road map can be found at Ebsco Host by searching the title "Strategic instruction in middle school social studies."

**Citation**

//in school and clinic, 35(5), 280-289.// Retrieved from
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