Subject: History, Social Studies

Lesson Length: 50 - 55 mins

Topic: Spanish Conquistadors

Grade Level: 7

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will develop an understanding of how the Incas interacted with the Spanish Conquistadors.

Know Before You Start: Students should have an understanding of what conspired between the Incas and the Spanish Conquistadors, specifically; Francisco Pizarro.

Hook:

  • Ask students these leading questions: 
    • Why didn’t the Incas fight back?

    • How could such a small group of Spanish explorers defeat a large tribe like the Incas?

  • Discuss the possible reasons for the Incan defeat as a class.  

Activity:

  • Have students research some of the reasons the Incas were defeated so easily by the Spanish Conquistadors.
  • Have students select one of those reasons and create a comic explaining its effect on the Incas defeat.

Closure:

  • Students can submit completed comics to a shared platform for display and discussion. 

Differentiation:

  • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
  • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
  • Preteach vocabulary.

  • Allow students to work with a peer model.

  • Provide sentence starters for discussion, research, and comic building.

  • Limit research tools, e.g., utilize one specific website.

  • Provide specific websites, text and resources for students to use to research their groups.

Resources:

  • Comic to display or print: Comic

Suggested Story Starters: