Mexican American War: Role Play, Reading, Textbook Critique
From: Zinn Education Project
Grade Level: MS, HS
Remote Ready: With minimal modifications
Time: 2-3 class periods for all activities
Length of Reading: Pages
Link: US Mexico War: "We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God"
Available in Spanish. 3 separate yet overlapping activities are detailed here. In the first, students read a bio and introduce themselves as someone involved in the Mexican American War. In the second activity, students read a 9 page article on the War from Howard Zinn and journal about it. Finally, students read a half-page textbook description of the Mexican American War, answer questions, and discuss.
Each student is assigned one of 21 actual historical people from the Mexican American War. Students read their paragraph bio, slap on a name tag and engage in a meet and greet as their assigned person, asking provided questions and writing down answers.
Students read 9 pages (provided) from Howard Zinn's "We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God" (and/or other suggested media). Students then write a "talk-back" journal. They pick out several sections from the reading that they found interesting, important, confusing, or peculiar. Then they detail their reactions. The class discusses what they've written as well as student questions and provided questions.
Textbook critique: Students read a half page section on the Mexican American War from a textbook, answer questions, and discuss.
More Information:
Grade Level:
MS, HS: This lesson is meant for middle school and high school students
This Activity Involves:
Primary Source: This activity utilizes primary sources.
Group Work: This activity calls for working in pairs or groups or having a group discussion.
Writing Exercise: This activity requires a writing assignment such as a discussion post, journal entry, or lengthy response to a prompt. Almost all of our activities require students to answer questions with short responses, but this icon refers to a slightly longer writing assignments.
A depiction of two panels from The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a mural by Judy Baca. Source: JudyBaca.com
