Design Topic: Spain’s Expansion of Empire Subject(s): Social Studies Grade(s): 4 Designer(s): Melissa Secola & Marysol Martinez

STAGE 1 – DESIRED RESULTS

Unit Title: Spanish Missions

Established Goals:
4.2 Students describe the social, political, cultural, and economic life and interactions among people of California from the
pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho periods.

Understandings: Students will understand that… Essential Questions:

• With great power comes great responsibility • Is it okay to control people through religion?
• In history, there are multiple perspectives • Do people have a right to decide what is best for others?
• Textbooks often show one perspective

Students will know: Students will be able to:

• Spain used the vehicle of Catholicism to help expand its • Analyze a map
empire • Respond thoughtfully to a writing prompt
• Indigenous people were forced to give up their traditional • Analyze primary sources
way of life in order to become loyal subjects of Spain • Compare and contrast different perspectives by analyzing
(converted to Catholicism, forced to work and live at the primary sources, or reading texts containing multiple
missions, spoke Spanish, wore Spanish clothing and ate perspectives
Spanish food)
• Franciscan priests believed that bringing God to the
indigenous people improved their lives

STAGE 2 – ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Performance Tasks:
Goal: Your goal is to teach a class of third graders about
Spain’s colonization of Alta, CA.
Role: You are an author and an illustrator.
Audience: Your audience is the third grade class.
Situation: You have been asked to create an original
children’s book about Spain’s colonization of Alta, CA.
Product Performance and Purpose: You will need to
produce historically accurate content and provide relevant
illustrations for a children’s book. Your children’s book will traditions of the indigenous people of CA?
need to include the perspectives of the Spanish king,
Franciscan priests, and indigenous people of Alta, CA.
Other Evidence:
• Weekly quizzes on content from the textbook
• Unit test
• Journal entry: Life at the mission (indigenous people’s
perspective)
• Analyze primary sources during gallery walk
• Sequence of events map showing indigenous people of
Alta, CA before European intervention, the mission system
in Alta, CA, and Mexican rule in Alta, CA
• Writing reflections after each read-aloud of The Island of
the Blue Dolphins
• Weekly quizzes on The Island of the Blue Dolphins
vocabulary
• Field trip essay: What did you learn about the cultures and

Standards and Criteria for Success: Your children’s book

needs to include:
-Historically accurate information from our class textbook
and/or primary sources presented in class
-Multiple perspectives
-Illustrations that contribute to the content

Key Criteria:

4 3 2 1
Cover Book cover includes Book cover includes Book cover is missing Book cover is missing
title and author. title and author. title or author. Cover title and author.
Cover design is well Cover design is design demonstrates Cover design
executed and acceptable. some effort. demonstrates
creative. minimal effort.
Content Information is Information is mostly Information is Information is not
thorough and thorough and somewhat accurate. accurate. More than 1
accurate. Multiple accurate. Multiple At least 1 perspective perspective is
perspectives are perspectives are is missing. missing.
shown. shown.
Illustrations Each page contains One illustration is Two illustrations are Three or more
an illustration. missing. Illustrations missing. Illustrations illustrations are
Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005) 1
Design Topic: Spain’s Expansion of Empire Subject(s): Social Studies Grade(s): 4 Designer(s): Melissa Secola & Marysol Martinez

Illustrations are well are acceptable. demonstrate some missing. Illustrations

done. Execution is Execution is good. effort. Execution is demonstrate minimal
excellent. Illustrations Most of the lacking. Some of the effort. Execution is
contribute to the illustrations contribute illustrations contribute poor. Most of the
story. to the story. to the story. illustrations do not
contribute to the
story.
Writing Mechanics Writing is coherent Writing is coherent. Writing is incoherent Writing is mostly
and free of spelling, There are 1-3 in some parts. There incoherent. There are
punctuation, or spelling, punctuation, are 4-5 spelling, more than 5 spelling,
grammatical errors. or grammatical punctuation, or punctuation, or
errors. grammatical errors. grammatical errors.

STAGE 3 – LEARNING PLAN

Summary of Learning Activities:

In this unit, students will learn about Spain’s empire expansion through multiple perspectives – the Spanish king, the
Franciscan priests, and the indigenous people of Alta, California. Students’ prior knowledge about California’s indigenous
tribes and their locations will help them make connections and have a better understanding of the new unit. Students will be
guided through a variety of learning activities that will help them comprehend and eventually form their own opinion about
the events that occurred during Spain’s colonization of Alta, California, including the impact of the mission system on the
indigenous people.

• Role play- As part of the motivation set, I will dress up as a Spaniard and reenact some of the events that occurred during
Spain’s colonization. Example: I will act friendly and ask students to trade pencils for erasers. I will talk to them about God,
ask them to show me how to plant lettuce (done in science class), and convince some of them to come to a mission that I
built on their territory (their desk). If they complain, I will let them know that it is for their own benefit – they will learn about
religion, but most importantly, their souls will be saved.

• Timeline- Students will create a timeline of dates and important events during Spain’s colonization. Students may choose
to illustrate the timeline.

• Debate- Students will be given a position to defend (regardless of their personal opinion) - missionary or Native American.
This activity will encourage them to step away from their own beliefs, and will teach them how to view things from a different
lens.

• Who am I?- I will project information that reflects the perspectives we have been learning about. Students will have to
identify whether the information reflects the missionary perspective or the Native American perspective. This can also be
played as a Jeopardy game or a Kahoot game.

• T-chart- Students will work collaboratively to create a T-chart (on chart paper, which they will display), contrasting the
perspectives of the missionaries and the indigenous people. Afterwards, students can take a gallery walk to look at
everyone’s work.

• Missions map- Students will create a map of all twenty-one missions. This activity helps illustrate that the missions were
strategically concentrated in one area, which strengthened their power.

• California tribal territories- Students will be given a California map to locate and label the different Native American
territories. Students will be able to see the relationship between the mission map and the Native American territories.

• Personified vocabulary- This can be done to pre-teach important content vocabulary. Students will create characters using
vocabulary words from various texts used in class. Each vocabulary entry will include the character’s name, illustration, and
short description. Example: Mr. Convert is always trying to change people’s beliefs and religion.

• Newspaper article- Students will write a convincing article from the perspective of either a missionary or a Native
American.

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005) 2

Design Topic: Spain’s Expansion of Empire Subject(s): Social Studies Grade(s): 4 Designer(s): Melissa Secola & Marysol Martinez

• Character Sketch- Students will write a character sketch of Karana from Island of the Blue Dolphins. They will discuss
some of her village’s traditions and cultures. They will also discuss her resourcefulness (how she lives off the land). In order
to help facilitate their writing, students will first engage in a pre-writing activity by filling out a bubble map.

• Quick write- Students will watch a clip from Spider-Man. They will analyze Uncle Ben’s quote: “With great power comes
great responsibility.” Afterward, students will engage in a think-pair-share in order to discuss the meaning of the quote and
how it pertains to what we are studying in the unit.

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005) 3