Lesson/Unit Plan
NEH Focus on Mesoamerica/Oaxaca
Michael M. Guenza
July/August 2010
Topic Statement: My present unit plan aims to:

present, classify, and integrate pictographic details and
narratives from different Mixtec and Nahuatl codices;

historical text-based details and narratives ranging from the
pre-invasion/conquest, invasion/conquest, pre-colonial, and
colonial periods of Oaxaca and central Mexico
(Tenochtitlan/Mexica empire lands);and

rich, diverse, sometimes “radical” graphic examples of
modern Mexican and United States street
art/graffiti/advertising (found) iconography,
in order to help students better understand how diverse, conflicting,
and complementary social, political, and human perspectives come to
be communicated, organized, and prioritized throughout history and
well into the modern time.
Students in my seventh- and eighth-grade history/social studies
classes will construct their own storyboard-like
historical/informational/narrative codices, both with and without
accompanying text, perhaps utilizing new systems of iconography and
symbolism that they generate in groups and/or alone, in order to
depict and demonstrate their understanding(s) of and perspective(s)
on modern and ancient world and US historical contexts,
transformations, and events.
Pedagogical concerns: I do not foresee many serious pedagogical
concerns with this lesson/curricular plan, because I believe the urban,
racially/ethnically diverse, primarily working-class middle-school
students that I work with react most positively to visual/graphic
information in the history/social studies classroom, as compared to the
more traditional, heavily text-based style of managing and arranging
history/social studies curriculum.
Many of these students face serious literacy challenges and difficulties
in English, however --- I would estimate that at least 75% of my
students are officially classified by the State of California/San
Francisco Unified School District as English Language Learners of
varying skill/fluency levels --- so I do anticipate having to
parse/scaffold some of the more difficult, elaborately written textual
accounts I plan to use in this curriculum (i.e. historical accounts
written by Diaz del Castillo, de las Casas, and Sahagun).
I also need to be attentive to scaffolding how much and what type(s)
of visual/graphic narrative details I will present, so as to avoid
overload and/or confusion. This topic is one that motivates and
fascinates me to no end (I wrote my master’s degree thesis on the use
of photographic documentation/“photovoice,” i.e. long-term studentgenerated photographic narratives, as a promising avenue for
developing second-language fluency), but I need to be careful not to
“lose” my seventh- and eighth-grade students in the process of
elaborating and extending my personal interest in the subject.
Another potential concern for me will be the setting up/clear
establishment of a prior, foundational historical context of the pre- and
post-invasion/conquest worlds of Oaxaca and central Mexico
(Tenochtitlan/Mexica empire lands) for students to understand the
pictographic/iconographic information in later stages of the curriculum.
Nevertheless, I feel students will be mostly engaged in this “tale of
wonder” because it is so naturally intriguing and dramatic (at least for
me!), and furthermore because I estimate at least 30-45% of them
have some direct or indirect racial/ethnic connection to Mexico and/or
Central America, including ethnic Chinese students who have
immigrated to the San Francisco area from Costa Rica, Panama, and
Mexico.
Learning Objectives: As mentioned, the main learning objective
in this lesson/curriculum is for students to comprehend, explore, and
demonstrate in depth how visual/graphic information not only forms,
informs, and surrounds them today, almost certainly more than any
other medium of communication --- especially in light of the literacy
levels of my students in both English and different non-English
languages --- but also how crucial this type of medium was (and is?)
in the Oaxaca and central Mexico regions prior to, throughout, and
following the arrival/invasion of the Spanish military and religious
forces.
In a larger, more widely applicable and long-range sense, I hope to
extend this objective into all facets of the world and US history
curriculum throughout the academic year, by demonstrating and
exploring how many (and indeed most, if not all?) cultures in the world
have utilized and continue to utilize skillful graphic/visual/pictographic
forms of communication and narrative --- for example, the narrativereligious quilting tradition practiced by slave communities in the Deep
South, Zen Buddhist and Daoist painting traditions from Japan and
China, and the painting/sculpture/fresco transformations generated
during the Italian/European Renaissance.
Techniques for Use: I plan to use the massive and truly fascinating
amount of visual/graphic information presented/pointed to during the
NEH Mesoamerica seminar as pictographic model(s), source(s) of
knowledge, and fields for producing/encouraging criticism and
evaluation. I want this material to inform as well as guide the
students in their exploration, understanding, and creation of
visual/graphic/pictographic forms of narrative. I plan to use mostly
still photographs and slides of the material, from outside sources as
well as my personal documentation, though I may include some short
video clips as well as some three-dimensional reproductions/artifacts
such as posters, bookmarks, graphic novels/comic books, photocopies,
and student-generated storvboards.
Potential Examples of Images to be Included:
[Please see nine images included in this folder as sample.]
These images represent parts or examples of visual narratives
generated by indigenous, colonial/religious, and modern
political “street art” and advertising/media sources --- the aim
here is to show students how visual narrative tools have been
employed by different cultures, for different reasons, across
the past and into the present.
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