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Big Question: Should historians emphasize the Aztec's agricultural revolutions or their practice of human sacrifice?
Big Question: Should historians emphasize the Aztec's agricultural revolutions or their practice of human sacrifice?
In this unit on the Aztecs, students used The DBQ Project's curriculum with a collaborative model and Common Core Standards in History to take part in a socratic seminar to examine the big question stated above. Students will examine a background essay and five documents to gather evidence for their seminar. All documents will be examined using close reading techniques.
Time Frame two-three weeks.
Culminating activity: Students will take part in socratic seminar answering the question, "Should historians emphasize the Aztec's agricultural revolutions or their practice of human sacrifice?"
CALIFORNIA HISTORY CONTENT STANDARDS
7.7 Students compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations.
7.7.2. Study the roles of people in each society, including class structures, family life, warfare, religious beliefs and practices, and slavery
7.7.5. Describe the Mesoamerican achievements in astronomy and mathematics, including the development of the calendar and the Mesoamerican knowledge of seasonal changes to the civilizations' agricultural systems.
COMMON CORE READING STANDARDS FOR LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES 6–12
RH 1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
RH 2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
RH 8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
Students were then given 5 historical documents to analyze. The students used close reading technique to read and re-read documents to then answer text dependent questions for each document. After the students answered the text dependent questions individually they were then given a window to fill out a Google Form that contained some of the text dependent questions that focused on the big question. By filling out this form they created a class data pool of information about the documents and the big question.
Then students were able to analyze ALL the text dependent answers and collaborate to collect evidence to produce a group presentation. Below is the responses to the Google Form in a spreadsheet. I have removed students names from their responses.
Students are asked to read all the answers for one question and decide on one that answered the question in the best way. They are given three criteria to judge the answers: restate the question, provide evidence from the document, and give a reasonable explanation connecting the evidence to the question. Their answers appear below.
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