Our essential question for this unit: What events led to California becoming a U.S. state?

By the end of the unit study, students will

• Compare and contrast personal and historical experiences.

• Analyze images and interpret maps to predict the reasons for and challenges faced by early expeditions to California.

• Identify the early land and sea routes to California, noting especially the importance of mountains, deserts, ocean currents, and wind patterns.

• Explain the function of missions, presidios, and pueblos in early California settlements.

Our essential question for this unit: What was life like in Mexican California?

By the end of the unit study, students will

• explain the decline of the mission system in California.

• identify attributes of life in California under Mexican rule.

• describe Mexican land grants.

• compare and contrast the daily lives of different groups living at the ranchos.

• analyze effects of foreign trade on Californios.

• deliver an oral summary with main ideas and details.delivering an oral summary with main ideas and details.

Our Essential Question: How did the mission system change California?

By the end of the unit, students will 

• describe the impact of the missions on the daily lives of people who lived in and near them.

• identify the geographic and economic factors that helped determine the placement and functions of the missions.

• explain how the missions created an agricultural economy in California.

• deliver a detailed informational presentation.

• examine and recognize differing points of view

• evaluate primary sources written by Spanish leaders. They will use these accounts and an additional source to write about what it was like to found a mission

Saint Mary's Press will be taught in collaboration with the TCI curriculum 

• The Outside World Encounters California

• Junipero Serra: "Heart on Fire"

• Development of the Missions

• Mission Life

• Impact on California Native Peoples

• Secularization of the Missions

Our Essential Question for Unit Three: Why did Europeans first come to California, and what challenges did they face?

By the end of the unit two study, students will 

• Analyze images and interpret maps to predict the reasons for and challenges faced by early expeditions to California.

• Identify the early land and sea routes to California, noting especially the importance of mountains, deserts, ocean currents, and wind patterns.

• Explain the function of missions, presidios, and pueblos in early California settlements.

• Make and confirm predictions about text. (reading)

• State and support a position. (writing)

• Students create a poster for an early expedition to California

Our Essential Question for Unit Two: 

How did American Indians adapt to California’s varied geography?

By the end of our unit two study, students will 

• Identify the six cultural areas of the California Indians. 

• Explain how environmental factors affected the way of life in the six culture areas. 

• Compare and contrast the ways of life in the six culture areas.

• Use details and examples to explain predictions. (speaking) 

• Write a summary. (writing)

Our Essential Question for Unit One: What geographic features make California a special place?