Art and Identity in Mexico, from Olmec Times to the Present

Classroom Activities

Three lessons follow that address the Columbian Exchange and the Spanish Invasion of Mexico. They make use of the strategies outlined in the narrative.

Lesson One: Examining the Columbian Exchange

(image 05.02.07.01 available in print form)

Objective: Students will examine and discuss an illustration of the Columbian Exchange and prior knowledge of the Columbian Exchange.

Illustration from the Florentine Codex (figure 1) 16

Objective: Students will examine and discuss an illustration of the Columbian Exchange and prior knowledge of the Columbian Exchange through the reading strategy: Think- Pair- Share

Instructions/Steps:

2. Which items do you think come from Spain?

3. What Native American items are portrayed in the picture?

4. What else was part of the exchange that is not in the picture?

Lesson Two. Launching the Columbian Exchange into Mexico.

Objective: Students will interpret a quote from, Crosby's The Columbian Exchange Chapter 3 through the reading strategy: It says- I say- And So

Steps: Have students answer the following questions after reading the caption provided below. Use the It says- I say- And so… answering format. A worksheet is provided as an addendum in figure 2

Question 1: What evidence in the quotation from Crosby shows that the Spanish are poised to conquer?

Question 2: What evidence shows that the Spanish were already adapting aspects of native culture?

Students will be assessed on the following criteria:

1. Student provides accurate evidence from the text, offers a reflection, and infers a conclusion from the reading
2. Student provides accurate evidence from the text, offers reflection, and infers a conclusion but work could use more detail and/or neatness
3. Student work provides some accurate evidence from the text, limited reflection and conclusion
4. Student work provides little or inaccurate information form the text, little to no reflection, and little to no conclusion

• Student work contains little to no response. Responses listed are inaccurate

By the time of Cortés' assault on the mainland (1519), the Spaniards had created in the Caribbean a perfect base camp for that assault. When the conquistadors moved into Mexico, Honduras, Florida, and elsewhere, they carried smallpox and many other maladies, freshened by recent passage through the bodies of the Arawaks. The Spaniards rode on horses bred in the Antilles, and wardogs from the same islands trotted beside them. Their saddlebags were packed with cakes of Caribbean cassava. Behind the conquistadors, herded along by Indian servants, came herds of swine, cattle and goats all of which had been born in the islands. In the span of the first post-Columbian generation, the Spanish had created in the Caribbean the wherewithal to conquer half a world. (p. 77 Crosby, The Columbian Exchange Chapter 3)

Figure 1. Worksheet for Launching the Columbian Exchange into Mexico.

What leads you to believe that the Spanish are poised to invade and conquer the New World?

It (the text) says:

I say

And so...

What evidence shows that native culture was being adapted by the Spanish?

It (the text) says

I say…

And so….

Lesson Three: Investigating Multiple Texts for insight into Aztec and Spanish Culture

Content Objective: Students will be able to describe and explain 3-5 aspects of Aztec culture and Spanish culture through examining multiple texts.

Performance Objective:

Students will apply reading strategy: Interpreting laws/rules, common practices, and dominant assumptions to excerpts from Multiple Texts:

Florentine Codex, Broken Spears, Mirrors of Disaster, Cortés, Díaz, Thomas, Todorov

Students will read texts, record observations in journal, share responses, and discuss.

Activities: Students will read and apply reading strategy about laws/rule, common practices, and dominant assumptions to assigned readings.

Students will record observations in their journals in light of the following questions:

What rules/laws are evident in the reading regarding the Spanish? What rules/laws are evident in the reading regarding the Aztec?

What common practices are evident in the reading for the Spanish and for the Aztec?

What assumptions about the Aztecs and the Spanish can one make as one reads each text?

Students share the content of their journal entries orally and perhaps through some presentation. Pairing and sharing might be used to narrow responses.

Again, the guide questions are as follows:

What are the laws/rules/policies (both written and unwritten) which have been designed to govern the behavior of the individuals in that particular society?

What are the common practices which are considered to be "normal " or "natural"?

What are the dominant assumptions which seem to underlie the belief system of most of the individuals in that society?

Lesson Three: Reading Multiple Texts

For each text read, students list and describe rules/laws, common practices, and assumptions: Student responses will be assessed a letter A, B C, D, or E based upon the accuracy and thoroughness of the work.

1. Student lists, describes, and comments on examples that are evident in the reading.
2. Student lists and describes examples but offers little comment.
3. Student lists some examples but offers little to no description.
4. Student lists responses that are primarily inaccurate
5. Student writes no response

(table 05.02.07.01 available in print form)

Lesson Four: A Look at the Spanish Invasion

Objective: Students will summarize the major characteristics of the Columbian Exchange in a RAFT Letter

Steps:

• Read a selection from We People Here
• Read a selection from Díaz
• Read a selection from Cortés

RAFT Activity: Imagine you are one of the items in the picture (figure 1 from lesson 1.) Write a letter to a friend describing the ordeal of the Spanish Invasion of the New World.

You may be a horse, Montezuma, a Spanish ship, a soldier, a pig, a sheep, a goat, the seashore, an Aztec woman, a feather in Montezuma's headdress, a smallpox germ etc. You may be as creative as you like but you must get the facts straight.

Your letter should indicate at least 3 of the following:

Change in animal life in the New World

Change in plant life in the New World

Change in human population as a result of the Spanish Invasion

A description of an account between Cortés and Montezuma

A description of an Aztec reaction to the Spanish

Assessment: Student's Assessment for the letter will be based on a rubric that accounts for the student's demonstration of adopting a role, addressing an audience, keeping a format, and staying on topic (accurately describing three of the five criteria).

Appendix 1: Performance Standards / Objectives

The following standards are from the New Haven Social Studies Curriculum. Those

included here are addressed directly or indirectly in this curriculum unit.

Students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the ways that cultural encounters and the interaction of people of different cultures in pre-modern as well as modern times have shaped new identities and ways of life. [SS12:3c]
• explain relationships among the events and trends studied in national and world history. [SS12:2c]
• gather, analyze, and reconcile historical information, including contradictory data, from primary and secondary sources to support or reject hypotheses. [SS12:1b]
• describe, explain and analyze political, economic and social consequences that came about as the resolution of a conflict. [SS12:3e]
• evaluate data within the historical, social, political and economic context in which it was created testing its credibility and evaluating its bias. [SS12:1d]
• describe and analyze, using historical data and understandings, the options which are available to parties involved in contemporary conflicts or decision making. [SS12:4b]
• demonstrate an understanding of the ways race, gender, ethnicity, and class issues have affected individuals and societies in the past. [SS12:3f]
• describe relationships between historical subject matter and other subjects they study, current issues, and personal concerns. [SS12:4e]

Appendix 2: Reading Strategies to choose from in examining excerpts from primary and secondary sources about the Spanish Invasion

Activities that prepare students to read include:

Brainstorming

Clustering

KWL

Anticipation guide

Reading aloud.

Activities that help students construct, process, and question ideas as they read include:

Using Post-It Response Notes

Coding Text

Double Entry Journals

Sketching information in the Text

It says/I say

Activities that help students process after reading to reflect on, integrate and share ideas include:

Exit Slips and Admit Slips

Mapping

Written Conversation

Save the Last Word for Me

RAFT

From: Daniels and Zemelman, Subjects Matter

Resources:

The following resource list contains three annotated lists: a resource list for teachers, a reading list for students, and a list of materials needed to teach the unit.