American Democracy in Word and Deed
MDUSD/UCB H-SSP
5th Grade Lesson: “Cultures Meet”
Developed by: Gordon Miller, Denise Nunally and Bobby Lee
Teaching American History Grant Focus Question:
How have the words and deeds of people and institutions shaped democracy in the U.S.?
Grant Yearly Theme: Cultural/Intellectual
History-Social Science Standard/s: 5.3 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the
American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers.
Common Core Standards: Reading Standards for Informational Text K–5
Key Ideas and Details #3 explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas,
or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
Craft and Structure #6 Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and
differences in the point of view they represent.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #9 integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write
or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Unit Topic: Cultures Meet
Lesson Focus Question:
How did the Spanish and indigenous people in the Americas view each other upon their first meeting?
Lesson Teaching Thesis:
The Spanish saw indigenous people in the Americas as materially primitive, non-Christians, who occupied
but did not own land. It is hard to say exactly what the indigenous people thought about the Spanish but they
appeared to be received with curiosity, suspicion and in some cases aggression, as potential sources of both danger
and valuable trade relationships.
Reading and Writing Strategy/ies:
 READING Strategies:
o Primary Source Analysis, Point of View and Sentence Deconstruction
 WRITING Strategy:
o Multi-paragraph essay
Lesson Assessment:
Students will write a multi-paragraph essay from the perspective of either an explorer or a native person.
Suggested Amount of Time:
3 days
Textbook:
The United States: Making a New Nation. Orlando, Florida: Reflection Series, Harcourt
School Publishers, 2007, Chapter 3 Focus Skill Activity pgs. 102-103
Primary Source Citation:
*Columbus Reaches the New World ( photo of woodcut engraving) http://socyberty.com/history/christophercolumbus-and-the-genocide-of-the-taino-nation/
*A Chronological History of the discoveries of the South Sea, Pg 201-203 by James Burney ,
http://books.google.com/books?id=HP4nAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=james+burney&hl=en&ei=25tOTt25EMjkiAL9
2009UC Regents
p_R0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Context of the lesson in the unit:
This lesson will take place in Unit 2 after studying the First Americans (Unit 1) where they should have
learned some background on the early cultures of North America and the major European explorers. This
lesson will relate to the yearly theme as related to the first cultural interactions between the Spanish
explorers and indigenous people.
Lesson Procedure:
1. Reading Strategy #1: Analyzing Primary Sources
 Pass out “Columbus Meets the Tiano” engraving and the Analyzing Art worksheet.
 Teacher models observation of engraving (What I see) using the words “Explorers” and “native people”
and then how to record the observation. Students are writing everything they see.
 Once students have finished creating their lists have them turn to a partner and compare lists.
 Next, students are to circle the word “Explorers” from their list and put a box around the words “native
people”. Students are to then circle all the words that go with “Explorers” and box the words that go with
“native people”.
 In the column titled “It tells me…” teacher will do one example and then have students come up with there
own.
 Repeat the process from the column titled “I wonder..”
 Students will then have a grand conversation with a partner using the sentence starters in the middle of the
page while teacher walks around listening to the conversations and adding input.
 The final part of the activity will be the students completing the sentence starters at the bottom of the page.
 Once class has finished choose students to share their sentences aloud.
2. Reading Strategy #2: Interpreting text, main idea and supporting details
 Pass out copy of “Point of View” Worksheet.
 Explain that they are going to be interpreting the primary source journal entries of the European explorers
(Columbus and Ulloa) and then respond in the voice of the Indigenous people, writing the response in the
appropriate column.
 Teacher will model, using the think aloud strategy, and then ask students to give possible responses after a
think, pair, share.
 Students are to complete the column for the indigenous people. (Tiano & Chichimecas)
3. Reading Strategy #3: Sentence Deconstruction
 Pass out the Sentence Deconstruction worksheet.
 Chorally read the sentence from the top of the page.
 Review the chart reading the headings of each column. Explain that there are parts of the sentence in
several different columns.
 Students are to find the parts of the sentence that are missing and put them in the column where they
belong.
4. Writing Strategy/Assessment
 Students will write a multi-paragraph essay from the perspective of either an explorer or a native person.
2009UC Regents
Columbus Meets the Tiano
“Columbus Reaches the New World”
woodcut engraving
2009UC Regents
Teacher Key
Captain Ulloa landed, and took possession with such ceremonies as are customary, and a
cross was by his command erected upon a hill, which was set up by Francisco Preciado
-Time marker
Who (subject)
-Connector words
Participants
-Prepositional phrase
-Circumstances
Action words (verbs/
verb phrases)
Who, What, Where
Message
with such
ceremonies as are
customary
landed, and took
possession(of what?)
and a cross
was by his command
erected
by Francisco Preciado
upon a hill, which
Captain Ulloa
Questions or conclusionsWhat connections can you
make from this information?
was set up
Lesson Question:
How did the Spanish and indigenous people in the Americas view each other upon their first meeting?
NAME_______________________________
Reading Strategy #3
Captain Ulloa landed, and took possession with such ceremonies as are customary, and a
cross was by his command erected upon a hill, which was set up by Francisco Preciado
-Time marker
Who (subject)
-Connector words
Participants
-Prepositional phrase
-Circumstances
Action words (verbs/
verb phrases)
with such
ceremonies as are
customary
Who, What, Where
Message
Questions or conclusionsWhat connections can you
make from this information?
and a cross
was by his command
erected
was set up
Lesson Question:
How did the Spanish and indigenous people in the Americas view each other upon their first meeting?
2009UC Regents
ANALYZING ART
Teacher Key
Title of Image: Columbus Reaches the New World
Artist: unknown
Media: woodcut engraving
Visual Analysis Worksheet
I see ….
It tells me …..
I wonder …..
Students list nouns they observe..
Teacher: says “Think of a noun
Teacher:
Teacher:
as something you can point at…” Showing proof of Colombus
I wonder if this cross ceremony
Students list nouns.
taking possession of land
takes place at all landings?
 Cross
 Explorers
 Ships
 Chest
 Offerings
 Native people
 Water
 Land
 Armor
Circle or box according to
European or native people.
Use the sentence starters below to discuss the image.
I noticed …
It looks like …
It shows …
The woodcut engraving
describes..
I think that …
WHY: Analysis
This woodcut engraving tells me that …
The Spanish viewed the Tiano_________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Tiano (indigenous people) viewed the Spanish_______________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Readi ng Strategy #1
ANALYZING ART
Name: ________________________ Date___________
Title of Image: Columbus Reaches the New World
Artist: unknown
Media: woodcut engraving
Visual Analysis Worksheet
I see ….
It tells me …..
I wonder …..
Use the sentence starters below to discuss the image.
I noticed …
It looks like …
It shows …
The woodcut engraving
describes …
I think that …
WHY: Analysis
This woodcut engraving tells me that …
The Spanish viewed the Tiano___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
The Tiano (indigenous people) viewed the Spanish__________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2009UC Regents
Name:________________________
Reading Strategy #2
Point of View Worksheet
Students review example of journal entry (Primary source) describing the actions of European
explorers and then after think, pair share will infer and then write the likely response of the
indigenous people.
Colombus
“I went ashore in the ships boat. I
unfurled the royal banner (flag)… To bear
faith and witness that I was taking
possession of this island for the king and
queen. No sooner had we completed the
formalities of taking possession of the
island then people began to come to the
beach.”
Ulloa
Captain Ulloa landed, and took
possession with such ceremonies as are
customary, and a cross was by his
command erected upon a hill, which was
set up by Francisco Preciado.
2009UC Regents
Tiano
Instructions: After talking with a friend, write about
how you think the Tiano would respond to the explorers.
Chichimecas
Instructions: After talking with a friend, write about
how you think the Chichimecas would respond to the
explorers.
NAME____________________________________
Writing strategy/ Assessment
Instructions:
Infer from previous lessons and worksheets to write a multi-paragraph
essay from the perspective/view point of either a European explorer or an
indigenous/native person.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Score
2009UC Regents
___/ 4