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Indigenous Groups of America and Their Importance

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Subject: Social Studies

Lesson Length: 60 - 65 mins

Topic: Indigenous Civilizations of the Americas

Grade Level: 6

Objective: Informing

Standards:

Indigenous cultures of the Americas and their contributions.

Brief Description: Students will explore the impact of one of the 4 major indigenous civilizations from the Americas: Olmecs, Incas, Aztecs, or Mayas.

Know Before You Start:

  • Students should have an understanding that many civilizations were present in the Americas prior to European colonization.

  • Students should be able to define words such as: indigenous, tribe, Mesoamerica, ancient, society, civilization, agriculture, and trade.

Indigenous Groups of America and Their Importance - Exemplar comic, panel 1 Indigenous Groups of America and Their Importance - Exemplar comic, panel 2 Indigenous Groups of America and Their Importance - Exemplar comic, panel 3 Indigenous Groups of America and Their Importance - Exemplar comic, panel 4

Hook:

  • Present the four major ancient tribes that populated the Americas (Olmecs, Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs). Ask students what they know about any of these civilizations. 

  • Read and discuss the sample comic about the Olmec. Center the discussion around  present-day ideas or technology that stem from ideas and inventions from any of these civilizations (Ex: concept of zero). Discuss their impact with the class.

Activity:

  • Research the contributions of one of these ancient civilizations.

  • Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a 3 panel comic illustrating the contributions of one of one of these civilizations (ex. Math, technology, literature etc.). 

  • Panel 1: Introduce your selected civilization. Who are they? Where were they located? 

  • Panel 2: What lasting idea or technology did they invent that made an impact on future civilizations? Describe it.

  • Panel 3: Show how we still use this idea or technology today.

Closure:

  • Digitally post, or print out the student comics. 

  • Categorize them by group - Olmecs, Aztecs, Incas, Mayas - and have students view in a gallery walk. 

  • As a class, compare/contrast the four groups. 

  • As an exit ticket or reflective class discussion, ask students which group they believe to have the biggest impact and why. Students must present evidence for their rationale.

Differentiation:

  • Assign students a specific indigenous civilization. 

  • Allow students to use speech-to-text as needed.

  • Allow students to work with a peer model. 

  • Provide sentence frames for the student comic.

Resources: Comic to print or display: Comic 1.

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