History Lesson!

 In this lesson we taught about the history of Mexico! We specifically focused on the Aztec period, from about 1347 to 1522. First thing we did was have students take a pretest, which was a cut and paste activity where students had a picture or short definition and glued it under the correct term! (Link to Pre- and Post-Assesment).

Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students! Again, the vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each a student was able to come up with and reveal it! I think it went well and made the vocab chart paper not seem too overwhelming since it was just one new word each time! After each word was revealed we read them together and practiced examples with them or gave background information on the word!

After we had our background knowledge of the Aztec period, we began to explore our primary sources! These primary sources were codexs written by the Aztecs 500 years ago. First, we looked at a small frame of these codexs and had a student, using the I see, I think, I wonder chart to try and figure out what was going on in the picture! We had four frames, and students were pretty successful at figuring out that they were fishing. Finally, we showed them a complete codex, and students using the chart worked in pairs to try and decipher what this codex was used for! After exploring these codexs, students were tasked to create their own. First, they made their own animal hide covers like the Aztecs did, only they were construction paper, and the students drew animal prints!

This is an example of a student's crocodile cover, and another's zebra and giraffe cover!
This codex for future lessons will be used for students to write their reflections and other writing prompts throughout the remainder of the lessons! When they finished assembling their codex, adding their map from last lesson and lined paper, students were asked to write about their day, similar to how the Aztecs used to recount their day (the four frames we had

shown them the first primary source). After all of the students' hard work, we had a movement break! Students were given five popsicle sticks and eight pipe cleaners and were tasked to create the tallest pyramid in four minutes! This connected to the Aztecs pyramids who had the world's largest pyramids.

Then we read aloud, Montezuma and the Fall of the Aztecs by Eric Kimmel, this discussed how the conquistador Cortes led to the fall of the Aztecs. It worked well to prep the students for the timeline as they had a general understanding of the cause and effect relationship between the Cortes invasion and the Aztecs' battles and losses against Cortes. 

Next, we began to construct our time. Each student was given their very own year of the timeline, and a bag of secondary sources and photographs that explained different events that had happened that year. Students were asked to look through their sources and pick out two facts they would like to include about that year, and include at least one picture. Students did really well choosing two facts and including a picture, many of which included more than one picture! A student and I discussed how she had not wanted to draw because she did not enjoy it, and we worked out that as long as she could identify what was happening in her photograph then she would not have to add it. Then we combined the years together to create a timeline of the Aztec period! We also came to an agreement that we would no longer make it mandatory for drawing to be included in our work.

       I have really noticed how important it is to give students a few choices in how to complete work. I think there will still be requirements for certain parts of lessons that students must complete, but I think for the creative part of lessons students could have different options of how they want to complete it! Up until now, I have only worked with kids who dive for the opportunity to color, but every student is different and it is good for students to have different choices of how they think their strengths would work best on an assignment!. Going forward, drawing will be a choice but not mandatory and we will formulate other ways for students to have options to participate creatively rather than just free hand drawing! We want all of the students to feel comfortable while still getting the chance to practice creativity! In the end we were really proud of all the students' work and they were proud of what they had created while still feeling comfortable!