TBH Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Digging Deeper: Mission San Sabá

Subject: Texas History

Grade Level : 7

Rationale: This lesson should be used when students already have an understanding of the Spanish mission-presidio system in Texas. The purpose of this lesson is to have students understand Spanish motives for establishing Mission San Sabá and the reasons for the mission’s failure.

Materials:

• Computer lab w/ online capability
• Mission San Sabá Study Questions* (pdf, 14k) and corresponding Answer Key* (pdf, 10k)
• Overhead projector
• Visual activator - Transparency of Mission San Sabá painting* (pdf, 842k)
• PERSIA categories* (pdf, 5k) (Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, Area) and examples - student handout
• PERSIA chart* (pdf, 5k) - student handout and overhead transparency
• Massacre or Victory reading* (pdf, 14k) - student handout

Lesson Duration: 2 days, 90 minutes each or 4 days, 45 minutes each

Objectives:

• Social Studies 113.23 (2B),  identify important individuals, events, and issues related to European exploration and colonization of Texas, including the establishment of Catholic missions
• Social Studies 113.23 (21A), use primary sources such as computer software, databases, and artifacts to acquire information about Texas
• Social Studies 113.23 (21B), analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions.
• Social Studies 113.23 (21D), identify points of view from the historical context surrounding an event
• Social Studies 113.23 (21E), support a point of view on a social studies issue or event
• Social Studies 113.23 (22C), transfer information from one medium to another
• Social Studies 113.23 (23B), use a decision-making process to identify a situation that requires a decision, gather information, identify options, predict consequences, and take action to implement a decision
• Art 117.35 (2A), create artworks based on direct observations, personal experience, and imagination;
• Art 117.35 (3A), analyze ways that international, historical, and political issues influence artworks;
• Art 117.35 (3B)  analyze selected artworks to determine cultural contexts

Activity:

Part I

1. Show students a transparency of the painting “The Destruction of Mission San Sabá in the Province of Texas and the Martyrdom of the Fathers Alonso de Terreros, Joseph Santiesteban” on the overhead projector. Ask students what they can infer about the following details in the painting:

• Time frame
• Location
• People involved
• Conflict
• Point of view of the artist

Advise students that they will use a website to discover the facts of the story told in the painting.

2. Distribute the Mission San Sabá Study Questions. Have students answer the questions using information from the Texas Beyond History Mission San Sabá exhibit at: www.texasbeyondhistory.net/sansaba/

Part II

1. KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) activity: On butcher paper or overhead transparency write the letters K, W, and L across the top. Under the letter K, have students list facts they already know about the Spanish mission system in Texas. Under the W have them list what they want to learn about this subject. The last part of the activity (what they Learned) will be completed at the end of part 2 of the lesson.

2. PERSIA Activity – Contrast Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual and Artistic ways of Spanish and Native Americans. Distribute the PERSIA model and PERSIA chart to students. Depending on the level of the class, the teacher may fill in a transparency of the chart with student participation or students can use their Mission San Sabá Study Questions, textbooks, and the Mission San Sabá website to fill in the PERSIA chart with a partner or in small groups.

Modification: Provide an answer bank for the San Sabá Student Handout questions. Help students highlight or underline strategic points in the “Victory or Massacre” reading.

Student Product:: Answers to Mission San Sabá Study Questions and Massacre or Victory essay

Closure: Fill in the L (what students learned) on the KWL chart from Day 1.

Assessment:
Distribute the “Massacre or Victory” reading student handout and have students read it aloud. Ask students to consider everything they have learned and then decide whether they believe the event at San Sabá was a massacre or a victory. They may use their Massacre or Victory Study Questions to help with this. Once students have formed an opinion, they will write a brief (one page) essay explaining and defending their position.

 Extension Activity: Have students share their essays with the class.

Links: www.texasbeyondhistory.net

Sarah Steger, Henry Middle School, Leander ISD

Rand Scheutzeberg, Leander Middle School, Leander ISD

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