Native America: Understanding the Past through Things

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 06.04.08

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. What is a Myth?
  4. Religion and Human Sacrifice
  5. Writing and Literature
  6. Popol Vuh
  7. Brief Look at Inca Civilization 1200-1534 A.D.
  8. Inca Wealth
  9. Inca Human Sacrifice
  10. Inca Writing System—Khipu—Destruction and Impact on Literature
  11. Mythology of the Inca—Common Features
  12. Inca Myth Choice #One—"The Rod of Gold"
  13. Inca Myth Choice #Two—"The Boy Who Rose to the Sky"
  14. Inca Myth Choice #3—"Why the Fox Has a Huge Mouth"
  15. Inca Myth Choice #4—"The Mouse Husband"
  16. Other Tools Used in This Unit
  17. Fun Notes/Activities on This Unit
  18. Classroom Activities
  19. Pennsylvania Academic Standards
  20. Works Cited and Resources for Teachers
  21. Resources for Students
  22. Appendix A

Mythology of the Inca and Maya

Janelle A. Price

Published September 2006

Tools for this Unit:

Other Tools Used in This Unit

Journals

Journal writing is used extensively in this unit for several reasons.

  • They are fantastic at allowing students of all abilities to gather their thoughts on a subject before discussion.
  • Periodically used in the freewrite method as proposed by Peter Elbow, they allow students to once again open up the floodgate of thoughts to paper.
  • Allows for a flow of information to go directly from student to teacher and teacher to student.
  • Is endorsed by the National Writing Project as a proven way of improving student writing as it allows them to think clearly and express themselves fully (Nagin 73).
  • Can be used as an entry and exit slip. For use as an entry slip, students will begin class by writing about their previous night's reading assignment. For use as an exist slip, students will write about what they learned or did in class that day.
  • Reflection writing, which allows a student to record their learning or growth from an assignment, can be accomplished through journal writing.

A final note of importance on journal writing, like all writing in the classroom, it is important for students to see the teacher writing and for the teacher to share her writing as well (Bishop 23-49).

Role Play Writing

Role play writing uses the same format as role play games. This format will allow students to create well-thought-out characters for their myths. I recommend following the format for at least the hero and the mentor. See Appendix A for the format.

Comments:

Hayden O'rourke

February 28, 2019 at 3:53 am

Inca Children at Work and Play

Dear Yale National Initiative, I wanted to thank you for creating a great lesson on having students use picture analysis skills and background knowledge of children for this activity. I really think the requirements and assessment anchors are well thought out and have a clear goal in the end. My only suggestion is if there is a way to make the images bigger?

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