Empresario Project

After we learn about the empresarios, we spend a few days working on a project.  This idea was not mine originally.  I saw another teacher friends use this project.  I just made my own grade sheet and information cards to tweak it and make it more usable for me.  She had the students research all the empresarios on their own, which is a good skill.  I just don’t have that kind of time in class.

Here is my lesson sketch.  You can click on the materials in the materials list to download the things you will need.

TEKS

identify the accomplishments and explain the economic motivations and impact of significant empresarios, including Stephen F. Austin and Martin de León, on the settlement of Texas [4.2E]

Social Studies Objective: We can apply our knowledge of the empresarios to create an imaginary desktop.

Proof (Assessment): We can prove we met our objective by completing all the tasks on the instruction sheet.

Materials:
blank paper and art supplies (map pencils, etc)

Empresario Fact Sheet printed out (I print out only enough for a class set.)

Copy of empresario desktop.docx

various photos and maps of the emprasarios around the room

Vocabulary:
empressario
colony

Questions:
How is your project going? How is your project showing what you have learned about this empresario? What are you going to work on next? Are you working at a pace that will get the project done on time?

Lesson:
Explain the project to students and make them aware of the room resources. No technology will be needed for this project (students easily get off task looking at photos). Students will work on the project when not working on writing lessons. Make sure to use the above questions each day as a quick check in/status of the class.  Students use the fact sheet to create a desktop scene for the empresario of their choice.

I begin by showing them my example of my desktop that I create each year for Jane Long.  If I feel like I have time, I model making it right in from of them (without coloring) to show them how I used the facts of her life to make my scene.

Empresario Lesson Videos

These lessons come along during the third six weeks, which I usually find one of the most difficult grading periods.  We are deep in the weeds of expository writing, all the while starting and stopping around Thanksgiving break, Christmas parties, etc.

That’s when I push almost all of my lessons out to video centers.  If you have read any of my previous posts, you know already that my videos are located on my Youtube channel most of the year.  However, I take all but the first grading period videos down in August and add them back up as I go along.  If I leave them up, the students end up watching them when I’m not ready.  If you need them and don’t find them loaded, please just email me.

I load them in Edpuzzle so that I can see if they have actually finished watching the videos.  You can add questions in Edpuzzle to go along with the videos.  I just don’t because I would rather them have something we can talk about after easily.  I have found that talking about what they learned makes the biggest impact for the amount of time I have…which isn’t much.

We learn about an empresario with the videos one day in a center.  The next day, I spend 5-7 minutes reviewing what they learned the day before.  If I am pressed for time, we may do a video one day, a discussion the next, another video the following day, etc.  It really just depends on how many open days I have that grading period.

When I have a day with an extra minute or two, I show a map of the empresarios and explain there were many other empresarios that came to Texas that we don’t study in the fourth grade simply due to time. My favorite map is here. I also make sure to explain that some of them were not as successful due to their location.  We talk about why that might have been (geography, Native Indian issues).   I also make sure to talk about why they came to begin with (money).

Here is the written lesson plan I use.  I just insert the empresario names as I go along (Moses Austin, Stephen F. Austin, Green Dewitt, and Martin de León).   I begin with Jane Long because she is a good bridge between the Mexican Revolution and empresario period. Although she is not an empresario, she did come back with Stephen F. Austin, and her husband came to Texas to fight in the Mexican Revolution.

TEKS:

express ideas orally based on research and experiences [4.21C]

identify and explain the patterns of settlement such as the location of towns and cities in Texas at different time periods [4.7B]

identify the accomplishments and explain the economic motivations and impact of significant empresarios, including Stephen F. Austin and Martin de León, on the settlement of Texas [4.2E]

Social Studies Objective: We identify the accomplishments and explain the impact of ……………..

Proof (Assessment): We can prove we met our objective by filling out a T-Chart.

Materials:
notebook paper
pencils
chromebooks
video loaded into Edpuzzle linked to Google Classroom

Vocabulary:
empressario
colony
accomplishment
impact
t-chart

Questions:
Today’s questions will center around the video from ……..from yesterday. Students will begin by discussing their t-charts with a partner (turn and talk). Students will then have a whole class discussion at the rocking chair. Use the cold call sticks for the discussion questions.
Questions—What accomplishments did you list? What did you think his impact was on the future of Texas? What did you find interesting about his life? What would you want to know if you could talk to him today? Do you have any questions about him that you wanted to know that were not answered in the video?

Lesson: Students then watch the video and prepare their chart for tomorrow’s discussion of ——–.  Students will make  a t-chart.  They will put the name of the empresario at the top.  They will then list two accomplishments the empresario had along with one impact on the future of Texas.  These answers can be varied and very interesting.  🙂