Lesson Plan
Unit: The Encounter and its Aftermath - Lesson 3 Part 1 of 2
Time: 90 minute class block
Purpose: This lesson is to help the students understand how the Spanish would have felt
entering the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan by having them describe a time they went
somewhere new and were surprised by what they found. The students will also learn
details about the civilization that the Aztec’s developed prior to Spanish arrival.
Objectives: The student will be able to:
1. Describe the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
2. Explain what Cortes and the Spanish thought of the Aztec’s city and culture.
Essential Question: How did the Spanish encounter with the Aztecs take place?
Essential Vocabulary and People/Place/Terms:
indigenous
Aztec
Tenochtitlan
Hernando Cortes
Spain
Materials: Reading - The Second Letter of Hernan Cortes
Strategies:
1.
Introduction Activity
Students will write about a new place that had a big impact on their lives that they
were able to visit. They will choose one place and include very detailed
descriptions of what they saw when they arrived and how it affected them. Some
ideas that could be used are new cities, countries, schools, and
neighborhoods/homes where the students travelled or moved.
2.
Connecting to Prior Learning
Short class discussion about the previous lessons concerning indigenous
American population and European population. This will be done to prep for the
reading by attempting to foreshadow how the Europeans and natives might react
to each other’s presence. The goal is for them to gain a better understanding of
what happens when someone travels to a place that is foreign to their way of life.
4.
Activity
Class will read about Hernando Cortes’s personal experience and description of
the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. Discussion will center on the following. Are
there similarities between Cortes’s writing to their own from the introduction
activity? Are there any words or descriptions that shows Cortes is European and
not native to the Americas? How complex was the civilization that the Aztec’s
had developed? 
5.
Assessment:
Drawing of Tenochtitlan based on the writings of Cortes.
6.
Homework Assignment:
Using the writing by Cortes the students will each draw a scene of everyday life
taking place in Tenochtitlan. The goal is to look through his writing and pull out
the details and present them in visual form.
Preview
In the next lesson the actual mixing of the European and indigenous population will be
discussed. The fall of the Aztecs and Incas will be covered, along with the role of the
Catholic Church during the colonization of the New World, and the start of racial mixing.
During this part of the lesson the class will answer the remaining three essential questions
from the third lesson in the unit outline.