Causes of the Texas Revolution

TEKS: 

analyze the causes, major events, and effects of the Texas Revolution, including the Battle of the Alamo the Texas Declaration of Independence, the Runaway Scrape, and the Battle of San Jacinto [4.3A]

Social Studies Objective:

We can rank the causes of the Texas Revolution.

Proof:

We can rank the causes and explain our reasons to the class.

Materials:

video

causes cards printed out–these cards come from a lesson that is a really cool lesson that I didn’t design, but I do think it is really great.  You might want to read it just to see what you could use.  I personally just don’t have the time.  I print out the modern cards only to use with my lesson.  They are at the very end of the lesson.  There is one blank card.  On that, I hand wrote, “You won’t let us have slaves.” This was an issue that many (not all) Texans had with Mexico.

Vocabulary:

revolution

cause

effect

impact

rank

important

least important

Questions:

How did your group rank the causes? Which were the ones you had the most trouble deciding on? Which were the easiest? Why?

Lesson:

When I have a little extra time, I begin the lesson by telling the students that the rules have changed for the cafeteria. No more cookies allowed. No more talking allowed at all. They must mop and clean instead of going to recess.  I then prepare for the chaos to happen.  You could choose a different way to “change” the rules that you know will cause an outcry.  If you have a really compliant class, you might ask them the following: How do they feel about the new rules? What are they going to do about it? Usually they are ready to charge the front office.  It makes a point that they won’t soon forget about how upset the colonists were, but I actually have left this part of the lesson out for the past several years due to time constraints.

Even if I don’t do the rule change part of the lesson, I always begin by explaining that the rules suddenly changed in Texas when a new president, Santa Anna, took over.   I ask them what they think will happen, and they always come to decide that they will argue the rule change.

Watch the short video at www.txindependence.org. You will see the movie link on this page. One warning about the movie.  I have had students misunderstand that Santa Anna built a physical wall in Texas.  I explain that this is just a way of showing that he made the border legally closed.  In practicality, nothing much changed with the border.

There is also a game.  The game is worthwhile, but I seldom have the time or technology to use it (doesn’t work well on chrome books).

I then give students the causes cards and divide them into groups. I ask them to sort them from the most important to the least with their group.  We then discuss how they ranked them and why.  I then explain that we will see what the Texans did about these rule changes in the coming weeks.