In this lesson plan, students will learn about the wonderful history, architecture, and urbanism of the great classic ruins at Xochiclo, located south of Mexico City. The students will also gain a better understanding of the different regions of Mexico and the different pyramidal basement structures (known as “teocalli,” the Nahuatl word for “God-house” or “sacred temple), as well as different cultures. Students will learn to respect these other cultures through lectures, art projects and technological resources.

*This project can be adapted to any middle school or high school grade level.

Created by Ma. Eugenia Avila, December 2007

Note: meets Mexico education standards

The students are expected to:

• demonstrate an understanding about Mesoamerican’s ruins and how they lived, built their city, etc.

The students will use resources (including technology) to access the necessary information.

The students are expected to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the concept of culture compared with their own history.
• demonstrate an understanding about the dates when this culture flourish.
• demonstrate how the Mexican cultures were different; such as in crafts, ways of ruling, customs, etc.

Students will use information they gather from TIDES, the Xochicalco PowerPoint, the “History of Xochicalco” page, and other resources to compose an essay using the steps of good writing: Prewriting, Drafting, Proofreading and Publishing.

As writing progresses, the students will check their own drafts and prepare a title page for the final publishing stage. They are encouraged to use the style of temple decoration shown on the Temple Designs video on TIDES.

Assessment

Project a map of where this culture flourished (an excellent map of the region may be found on Google Maps), while students read their writing activity aloud. In order to keep all students on task while the essays are being read, students will each prepare an evaluation form, formulating questions about each essay as it is read. For this task, students can be divided into teams.

Extensions

Students may publish and illustrate their stories in book form.

Extra Activity

Students could write a small article about different places in the same city (example: one writes about the Quetzalcoatl pyramidal base, the other of the stelles of the glyphs, another about the cisterns, architecture, etc.).  Each student will have a different topic. For the presentation, they will draw a colorful poster of the topic and talk about it to the class, explaining very clearly and making some written questions on the blackboard. Homework will be to write a composition about which part of their presentation they liked doing the most.

Students touring Xochicalco ruins Xochicalco PowerPoint History of Xochicalco sheet Temple Designs craft video Google Maps Video: teacher Jana McLain discusses objects on display in the Xochicalco exhibit in the Palacio Cortes Museum in Mexico