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Spanish Influence in California
Spanish Influence in California
Indigenous People and the Spanish Missions
Objectives:
The writing objective today is to improve writing fluency; the reading objective is to read to research, finding details; the history objective is to learn about Father Serra's contributions.
(1) Play the video
To get the discussion started on Spanish missions specifically, I have another writing fluency video. The one called "Writing Fluency: California Missions" shows how the modern California, and their lives, connects to the Missions System, such as images of a Catholic baptism. Just get a blank sheet of paper (or writing notebook) in the kid's hands, and push play. This video is to start the conversation.
(2) Read the textbook
Now, we bust out the textbook, (or an article) and I specifically teach about Father Serra, If your textbook has comprehension questions at the end, sweet! Use that! I also have this worksheet for kids to do some further research.
Great Videos:
Gabrilenos and Missions and Mexican Independence and Pio Pico from PBS
Great Websites:
California Mission Trails Maps and Website
Art
for the Spanish Missions
Timeline of the Missions
If you play your cards rights, one half of the class can make a timeline of the Missions while the other half prepares for a little puppet show where they read in English and Spanish the primary sources of the Missions.
Here is a different version of a timeline, if you want more pre-made image and more detailed dates.
Finally, here is a timeline from the Bear Flag Revolt with lots of room for art and creativity!
Performance Art
These are some primary sources for students to read aloud to represent the times The quick reader's theater here is just some primary sources and quotes. There is some Spanish to read. It is short and quick.
Other Ideas
Color in the missions; Do some guided drawing with the friar model.
These are coloring pages of three missions: San Diego, San Miguel, San Clarita.
Writing:
Now that students have a general idea, students can write a paragraph that generalizes. The task is for students to sort some sentences and sentence fragments into paragraphs. Here are the paragraph fragments. Students can work in groups of five: Students 1-4 sorts the fragments into a coherent paragraph. Student #5 reads the paragraphs out loud to make sure it sounds good and makes sense. In other words, the kids are hearing the same information over and over again and reorganizing it.
Videos:
The Mexican Era Video by The Cynical Historian
The Bear Flag Revolt by The Cynical Historian
The Mexican- American War
Objectives:
The reading objective is to read to quote accurately from a text and make an inference. The history objective is to understand the causes of the Mexican-American War and to use some primary sources.
DAY ONE
(1) First, we have a quick discussion, just on the carpet with some chart paper about primary sources, secondary sources and "other sources." I usually just make a three columns and start asking the group questions. (1a) First, I tell the class that a primary source is when the eye-witness tells what happened. The secondary source is when someone tells what the eye-witness said happened. The last column, "Other," is when no one talked to the eye-witness but reported it anyway, like class textbook writers or Wikipedia editors. (1b) Then, I ask students for examples of an eye-witness who recorded their experiences. For example, the president of the nation might keep a journal, a solider in a war might take a picture, an immigrate from the Ukraine might answer interview questions, a police officer might make a tally of the number of people present at a rally. I ask the same about secondary sources: examples pf secondary sources, people who wrote down stuff when they were not there. I use my own example of September 11: I watched it on TV and then wrote in my journal about my predictions, my fears, my friends serving in the miltary, the eerie-ness of seeing no one on the freeway, no planes in the sky. I would be a secondary source.
(2) Next, I tell students that we are going to analyze some primary documents: (a) President James Polk's journal and (b) maps of the USA in the 1800s. I tell the students that the US and Mexico and Texas were all upset about the borders and there was some confusion about where exactly the USA ended. We are going to look at some primary sources and try to figure out what the president was thinking. I hand out the worksheet and let the kids work through it. Then, I hand them the questions for discussion.
(3) Finally, I show them the 1848 map of the USA. I ask students to do the following activities:
Highlight the edges of the USA on both maps.
Measure the distance between San Diego and Las Vegas on both maps.
Trace the rivers in blue: Colorado River, Sacramento, Rio Grande on both maps.
(3) We end the day with a summary. I bring students back to the chart we made about primary and secondary sources. Then, I ask them "So why do we have to learn about old border disputes today?" Hopefully, kids can see that borders are always changing, people are always changing, nations are always changing. If we study old changes, we can predict new changes coming and stop problems before they start.... you know, if you are looking at the really big picture.
DAY TWO
Today, we revisit the chart from yesterday and add another part: Why were these documents created? What was the purpose of creating the text in the first place? In more kid-friendly terms that would be "Why do people write down stuff that happened to them?" I start with Primary Sources and record what the students say. Hopefully, the kids answers with things like "People write stuff because they like to keep a diary" or "Your boss tells you to write it down" or "to communicate with people who are far away." There are lots of reasons.
If you get nothing from kids, you can spin it in the modern world: Why do you put stuff in Instagram? Why do you use Social Media? What do you say on it? Why?
We are going to look at a second source today: a newspaper article telling about the new war with Mexico. Click here for the Google Doc with the article and the questions to help kids analyze it. Remember, the lesson objective is for kids to quote a text and then make inferences from the text. I just wrap that up with the history standards of knowing about the Mexican-American War.
These are the notes for the class chart. I want the class coming up with the ideas for themselves, but, you know, sometimes kids need a push, right?
This is the worksheet that I hand out: There are two additional pages with primary sources on them to analyze.
This one is all about the analysis of the primary source: the journals.
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