8.2B – Read the Text #2: Building Comprehension
Read the module text again as a class.
Students take turns reading a paragraph (or a few sentences).
After each paragraph, STOP to go over vocabulary and questions about the reading as a class.
READING TEXT
Module 8: Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
PARAGRAPH 1
All around the world, large groups of people come together to form civilizations. This means that these groups share economic, political, and cultural systems. Similar to people, civilizations develop (or grow) and change. In the history of the Americas, there have been many civilizations. There are three major regions of the Americas: South, Central, and North America.
- What is a “civilization”? Give an example of a civilization that you know.
- How are civilizations similar to people?
- What does “develop” mean in the third sentence? What are some different examples of development?
- Let’s review: what is a region? What are the three regions of the Americas? Do you know some countries that belong in each region?
PARAGRAPH 2
South America: One early civilization, the Inca, lived in the highlands of Peru in the Andes Mountains. In the Inca civilization, groups of families farmed together and shared resources. They built many cities and about 25,000 miles of roads that connected to the capital city of Cusco. The Inca sent messages across hard-to-travel lands by using a chain of runners and walkers. These people carried messages orally (by speaking) or by using knotted ropes. One of these roads led to the city of Machu Picchu, built high in the Andes mountains. Today, you can walk on the Inca Trail to visit this grand, ancient city.
- What is the name of one early civilization in South America?
- Let’s review: what are resources?
- How did the Inca communicate (or send/receive) messages?
- Machu Picchu is an ancient city. What do you think “ancient” means?
- Learn the word CONNECT: (verb) join or link things together so that they work together
- What is the word in your home language?
- Examples:
- How did the cities connect in the Inca civilization?
- Learn the word CAPITAL: (noun) city where the government is located
- What is the word in your home language?
- Examples:
- Washington DC is the capital of the United States.
- Think about a country that you know. What is its capital?
- What was the capital of the Inca Civilization?
- Learn the word LAND: (noun) a piece of the earth (dry, not water) that we live on
- What is the word in your home language?
- Examples:
- What do we do with land?
- What do you think “highland” means? How did you know?
The Inca people carried messages using knotted ropes called Quipu. [Credit]
PARAGRAPH 3
Central America: The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec Civilizations lived for thousands of years in the land that people today call Central America. The Olmec are the earliest civilization that we know about in Central America. They lived in the lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico in modern day Tabasco and Veracruz. The Maya lived and continue to live today in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Aztecs, also called the Mexica, settled in the central valley of Mexico. Their largest ancient city was Tenochtitlan, which today is Mexico City. The descendants of the Aztec call themselves the Nahua.
- Which civilization is the earliest known in Central America?
- What do you think “lowland” means? How did you know?
- What are other names for the Aztecs?
- Which capital city of today used to be a major Aztec city? What was it called then?
- Today, the descendants of the Aztec call themselves the Nahua. What do you think “descendants” means?
PARAGRAPHS 4-5
These three civilizations built some of the earliest pyramids in this area. Pyramids were places where people came together to honor gods and kings. Some Mayan pyramids also housed kings’ tombs. The Olmec and Maya also created other stone monuments, called stele, with historical writing and pictures about their kings.
The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec economy was based on agriculture, or farming. They grew crops such as corn, beans, squash, and the cocoa plant (beans used to make chocolate). The Aztecs also made pulque, a milky-white, alcoholic drink made from the maguey (or agave) plant. They had great scientific understanding of the sun, the seasons, and land management, which helped them be sustainable farmers. For example, the Maya used controlled land burning to help their farms and forests continue to grow over time.
- What were ancient pyramids used for? What do you think “honor” means?
- What do you think “monument” means? What is a famous monument in the U.S.? In the world?
- Learn the word SCIENTIFIC: (adjective) comes from the noun science, meaning: using the ideas, methods of science. Science is a way to learn about the world around us. It requires asking questions, doing careful observations and experiments. Science asks for such findings (called proof) before accepting an idea.
- What are “science” and “scientific” in your home language?
- Examples:
- What is scientific about the Mayans’ farming methods?
- Let’s review: what does sustainable mean? How can farming be sustainable, or NOT sustainable? Do you have any sustainable habits in your home?
- What were these economies in Central America based on? What does “agriculture” mean?
- What were some crops they grew?
- What useful knowledge about farming did these different civilizations have?
This is a pyramid found in the ancient city of Ichkabal. [Credit]
Stele were stone monuments in Central America. [Credit]
Pulque is a milky-white, alcoholic drink made from the maguey (or agave) plant. [Credit]
Controlled land burning helps farms and forests continue to grow over time. [Credit]
PARAGRAPHS 6-7
North America did not have large empires like the Aztec or Inca, but it was home to many different Indigenous cultures. For example, the Ancestral Puebloan people (also called the Anasazi) built their homes into mountain sides or large rocks in the Southwest. Cultures living near the Mississippi River built mound (or hill) cities, such as Cahokia which stretched over six square miles. On the East Coast, cultures such as the Iroquois (The Haudenosaunee) built towns and settlements north of the Appalachian mountains.
The early Indigenous civilizations in North and South America had little contact with people from other parts of the world, but they traded with each other. In this trade system, they exchanged plants, animals, medicine, wampum (small shells), and crops like cocoa between groups of people. This changed in the 1400s, when Europeans began to search for new places to trade. They would later make their first contact with the Native peoples of North America.
- Let’s review: what does Indigenous mean? Name one indigenous culture from North America. Name some of the indigenous peoples mentioned in earlier paragraphs.
- Learn the word EMPIRE: (noun) a big government that rules across a large land and usually has a monarch
- What is the word in your home language?
- Examples:
- The British Empire ruled parts of Asia and Africa.
- ____________Empire ruled parts of the Americas.
- Learn the word TRADE: (verb and noun) people or countries buying and selling materials and services
- What is the word in your home language?
- Examples:
- Indigenous people traded ______ and ________.
- Learn the word CONTACT: (verb and noun) people or countries meet and connect with each other
- What is the word in your home language?
- Complete the frame:
- ___________ was my first contact in the United States.
- What do you think “mound” means?
- What do you think “goods” means?
- What changed for early Indigenous civilizations in the 1400s?
- Who was in the Americas when the Europeans first arrived?
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