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Textbook Reflection: Informational, Persuasive, & Narrative Text
Sydney Fontenot
School of Education, Liberty University
EDUC 322: Teaching Elementary and Middle School Social Studies
Professor Benson
February 10, 2025
Textbook Reflection: Informational, Persuasive, & Narrative Text
Part A – Textbook Information
Read each of the three prompts below and respond by writing one solid paragraph of at least
five sentences. Make sure you use your textbook to support your responses.
1. In your view, how should a social studies teacher integrate texts (including primary and
secondary sources) with other verbal, written, and visual sources? Describe one example of a
classroom activity for this. Explain your viewpoint on this with at least one solid paragraph of
five sentences.
[A great activity that I witnessed during a social studies segment while completing my
last practicum was “Continent Detective”. Students were provided with a library of books in Epic
(app on iPad) on a certain continent, and they had to go through the books to find famous
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places, the animals, the land, major landforms, climate, etc. They then used the internet to find
photos that matched their facts. This was in 2nd grade. This is a great way to make learning
different aspects of a continent fun and interesting.]
2. How does engaging students with personal narratives enhance their understanding of
social studies content? Explain your viewpoint on this with at least one solid paragraph of five
sentences.
[Providing personal narratives throughout a lesson is a great way to connect real people
and real experiences to a lesson. It gives students the opportunity to open their eyes and realize
that these things happened to real people. Imagine studying Civil Rights in class, it may be a
good and strong idea to include the speech from Martin Luther King Jr (I Have a Dream) or a
speech from Parks. I feel as this allows students to form connections with these major
monumental people that this era is built on. It will also help with information retention and may
even excite them to learn more.]
3. Explain how social studies teachers should help students to learn social studies content
vocabulary with artifacts, primary, and secondary sources. Explain your viewpoint on this with
at least one solid paragraph of five sentences.
[ I know as a child vocabulary was something that did not come easy to me throughout
my elementary and middle school years. When it comes to vocabulary in Social Studies, there
are so many new words from different cultures, geographical areas, or political views, it can
sometimes be hard to retain. Using a physical object or primary and secondary sources will give
students something concrete to connect the vocabulary words too and not only help with
memory retention but also keep them interested. When studying different cultures, maybe the
focus is different foods that culture may consume. It would be fun if allowed to potentially bring
in that food for the class to taste while learning about it. This keeps the learning fun and
increase the memory retention.]
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Part B – Biblical Worldview
Select one of your responses to the prompts above and fully explain your response utilizing a
biblical perspective. Make sure you include a Bible verse and explain how this verse is relevant
to the prompt and supports your biblical perspective. This section should be two solid
paragraphs of five sentences each.
[ When it comes down to learning about the world around us, it all connects back to the
personal relationships we build along the way. Whether that be with the people around us or
the content being taught, a personal relationship is truly important. The personal relationship is
what drives the retention of the content being taught or the information we know. The personal
relationship we share with a topic, is what drives the reactions and emotions we feel when
something happens in the world around us. While thinking about the personal relationships I
have with certain topics and situations, I think about my relationship I share with God and my
own biblical world view. Even though sometimes my relationship with God struggled, I still
always find myself working my way back to Him.
Revelations 3:20 tells us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My
voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me” (NKJV). This
just solidifies the relationship that God has with us, whether we have one with Him. He will
always be there waiting for us to come back to Him if we stray too far no matter the
circumstances. That just shows and proves how much God loves us and will always invite us
back to Him.
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References
Maxim, G. W. (2017). Dynamic Social Studies (11th ed.). Pearson Education (US).
https://libertyonline.vitalsource.com/books/9780134286709
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