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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

    Standards / Framework:

    Brief Description: Students will explore the impact of one of the four 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.

    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 civilization, e.g., concept of zero. Discuss their impact with the class.

    Activity:

    • Introduce the following vocabulary:
      • indigenous
      • tribe
      • Mesoamerica
      • ancient
      • society
      • civilization
      • agriculture
      • trade

    • Research the contributions of one of these ancient civilizations.

    • Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a three-panel comic illustrating the contributions of one of one of these civilizations, e.g., math, technology, literature, etc. 

      • Panel 1: Introduce your selected civilization. Who were 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:

    • Categorize and display the completed comics by civilization.

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

    • Have students explain which group they believe had the biggest impact and why. Students must present evidence for their rationale.

    Differentiation:

    • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
    • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
    • Allow students to work in pairs or groups as needed.

    • Assign students a specific indigenous civilization. 

    • Provide sentence frames as needed.

    Resources:

    • Comic to print or display: Comic.

    Suggested Content Packs:

    Suggested Story Starters:

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