|
The Road North/Camino al Norte
Learning Activities A Note for Teachers This section features learning activities that can be used in classrooms along with the travel game. The exercises in reading, researching, writing, translating, mapping and drawing can be adapted to classes in Social Studies, English language arts, Spanish language, and Fine Arts, for grades 5, 8, 9-12, and advanced academic study. Students will master research skills, patterns of organization, and appropriate expression of ideas, and they will become familiar with the multiplicity of cultures that make up the story of America. For students in Grade 5, these activities meet TEKS Social Studies Standards B 4-5, C 7-9, F 20-21, G22-25. In Grade 8 Social Studies, activities relate to TEKS B 5-8, C 9-13, F 27, G31-35. For High School students, they relate to G 26-32 (World Geography, Social Studies Research Methods, Special Topics in Social Studies, and Advanced Academic Studies). In English Language arts, Spanish language, English as a Second Language, questions 1-5 and 8 will meet many of the requirements for Goals 1-5 and Goal 8. Selected activities may be adapted for use in college courses. After playing the game, everyone should be prepared to get down to more serious business. 1. Look through the exhibit and select one picture that really appeals to you. Write a paragraph of three to five sentences describing the picture and explaining why you especially like it. Exchange your paragraph with another student who wrote about the same picture, and compare your responses. Do you both like the picture for the same reason? Does the other person see something that you do not see? What do you learn about the art of reading pictures? 2. Here is a list of Spanish words used in the Trailblazers travel game. Using a Spanish/English dictionary, find and write down the English translation of each word. You may use an on-line Spanish/English dictionary. Try, for instance: New Spanish to English Dictionary, but be aware that all words may not be in this reference: http://grub01.physto.se:8080/cgi-bin/ssis/~calcato/espanol.html Spanish Word English Translation hacienda _________________________________ hidalgo _________________________________ camino _________________________________ jornado _________________________________ cacique _________________________________ real _________________________________ pueblo _________________________________ reconquista _________________________________ entrada _________________________________ encuentro _________________________________ muerto _________________________________ peso _________________________________ caballero _________________________________ vaquero _________________________________ 3. You are a member of Don Juan de Oñate's expedition to the far northern frontier, writing in your journal about each days experience for a week. Before you begin writing, assume an identity (age, gender, your place in the family, social class, etc.) and select any two images in the exhibit as your starting and stopping point. In your journal, you will report on the weather, the landscape, traveling conditions, things that happen to various members of the expedition, things that happen to you, and how you feel about this experience. To get a sense of what may happen on an expedition, you may read "Spanish Road, American Destinies," but be sure to create your own character and express your own feelings. Weblink: WALSH-01.ART http://www.millersv.edu/columbus/data/art 4. Imagine the leaders of two very different races of people coming face to face for the first time. You may express this meeting in a drawing, a poem, a short story, or a dramatic vignette, or monologue. If you develop a drama, work with a partner to present both points of view. Where will you do research to make sure that your characterizations are reasonable? 5. Discuss the difference between Spain’s official policy on treatment of native Americans and the practice of the colonists. Research and report on the Colonization Laws of 1573, which were supposed to govern all contact between Spaniards and Indians. What status was conferred upon the Indian by these laws--and why? 6. What was the Strait of Anián? Why did Europeans think it existed? Why were explorers always instructed to look for it? Find a map of the world from the early 1500s (look in the Crossroads of Empire exhibit) and draw a copy on paper. Indicate on this map where you think the Strait of Anián would be. Design an illustration for your map that shows important features of the Strait (such as giant fish, mermaids, heaps of gold, or something modern, like a helicopter). 7. Research from both the Spanish and the Indian point of view the history of Acoma Mesa and the war by blood and fire conducted by Don Juan de Oñate. Where will you look for information about the Acomas' viewpoint? Why did this war occur? What happened to Don Juan de Oñate, both immediately and in the long run, as a result of the war? 8. Read two or three stories about the celebration that Don Juan de Oñate held at the Río Grande. Was this the first Thanksgiving? Name all the ways in which it was different from the First Thanksgiving held by the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Write a one-page argument that this was or was not the true first Thanksgiving in America. Discuss in class the steps that you should follow in presenting a successful argument? Identify all the steps that you use in your paper. Websites to check: The First Thanksgiving http://www.cibola.net/missions/ft_canto.html Vista Magazine Archives http://www.vistamagazine.com/thank.htm (The First Thanksgiving) Also read the account in The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest, by Marc Simmons. 9. What does the phrase "Camino Real" mean? Were there other roads in the Spanish territories named "Camino Real"? Where were they located? What was unique about this one? 10. Read about Don Juan de Oñate's life after he returned to Mexico in 1610. What happened to him? Do you think he was treated unfairly? Why did Spain treat its conquistadors so harshly? What was being protected? Write an essay of five pages discussing his fate in the context of the times. 11. The website below is a multimedia project designed for Spanish classes, grades 10-12, to acquaint them with Spanish influence on the livestock industry in New Mexico; it can apply also to other areas of the U.S.-Mexico border and upper Southwest. Sixteen Horses: Vaqueros http://ladb.unm.edu/retanet/plans/soc/16horses.html (Week-long lesson plan for 10-12th grade Spanish dealing with introduction of horses and cattle into the Southwest.) |