Texas Missions

I usually spend about a week on this lesson.  Students have about fifteen minutes each day to work on the project and investigate the missions of Texas.  I usually ask to have the mission turned in the following Monday and give extra time on Friday to complete what is left.  I usually like to leave some space on Fridays when I plan my writing lessons.  When I don’t, I always end up frustrated and rushed.  It is really nice to have a project like this to finish up on a Friday.  The students can work mostly independently while I finish up conferences and small groups for the week.

You can do this the old-fashioned way and do a little bit whole class each day, or you can load all of it in Google Classroom and let them work away if you have the tech to pull that off.

Here is the official plan on paper:

TEKS:
explain when, where, and why the Spanish established settlements and Catholic missions in Texas as well as important individuals [4.2C]

identify the effects of exploration, immigration, migration, and limited resources on the economic development and growth of Texas [4.11C]

organize and interpret information, outlines, reports, databases, and visuals, including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps [4.19C]

identify different points of view about an issue, topic, historical event, or current event [4.19D]

Social Studies Objective:
We can illustrate where, when, why and how the Spanish built missions.
Proof:
We can prove we met our objective by following the project checklist.

Lesson:

First, introduce students to the concept of missions by reviewing what they learned about the Texas Explorers.  I often compare missions to the way my sister and I fought over our living room recliner.  The person who was sitting in the chair, got to keep it.  When Spain found out that LaSalle had claimed their land for France, they rightly worried.  The best way to hold their claim was to sit on it.  I also review the reasons for Texas Exploration (God, Gold, and Glory) and spend a few minutes talking about how the missions  were designed to make money and to convert the Native Americans to the Spanish religion.

I prefer to drop the following in Google Classroom after this brief introduction and give the students some time to explore the mission story on their own.  Some of the websites do require some reading.  You can always assign partners to research together, but there are also a lot of apps and Chrome extensions to help students.  My favorite is Read&Write for Google Chrome.  Students can highlight what they want to read and then click play.

A website from the Bob Bullock Museum (great timeline with photos)

https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/missionaries

A short Youtube video about Jose de Escandon

I take a screenshot of the Texas missions map on the THSA online site and copy it into a Google Doc to upload into Google Classroom.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/its02

Another short Youtube video summarizing missions

Here is my favorite.  If you don’t show any other video, show this one.  It gives a great summary of the missions in the simplest of terms.  You also get to see four of the five Spanish missions in San Antonio.

Once students have had some time to explore the missions, give them the materials for the assignment.

Materials:

White paper ( no lines)

Rulers

Map pencils (preferred over crayons)

Pencils

Texas Highway Maps (I hang a couple on the wall)

The mission project checklist

Students then follow the checklist to design, draw, label, and name their mission.  I also ask them to decide where in Texas they want to locate the mission.  I remind them to take into account the natural resources of the area and the Native Texans in that location.

These always continue to surprise me, and they make a nice hallway display for this time of year.

If you have a little bit of time to spare, I also love to have the students do a quick write on the following:

How do you think the Spanish missions changed Texas?

Then, I have them turn to their partner and share their answer.  I call on a few students to share out to the class.  This is a quick way to wrap up this unit and clarify any misconceptions. We also use this time to discuss possible Native American viewpoints on the missions.