Rick Harper

Ashley Dockins

Where is Mesa Verde and who was there?

1.  Cognitive Goal:  The student will be able to tell where the national park, Mesa Verde, is and which Native Americans lived at Mesa Verde.

Affective Goal:  The student will know why the United States made Mesa Verde a national park.

2.  Illinois Standard:  17.A.2b:  Use maps and other geographic representations and instruments to gather information about people, places and environments.

16.E.2b:  Identify individual and events in the development of the conservation movement including John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt and the creation of the national park system.

National Standard:  3.h:  Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments so that the learner can examine the interaction of human beings and their physical environment, the use of land, building of cities, and ecosystem changes in selected locales and regions.

3.  Lesson Objective:  The student will fill in blanks on a worksheet with no wrong answers and be able to respond with the correct answer when asked by the teacher.

4.  Materials: 

                White board and magnets

                Worksheet

                Map

                Retrieved September 20, 2009, from www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com/anasazi.htm

                Arnold, C. (1992). The ancient cliff dwellers of Mesa Verde. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin

5.  Focusing Activity:  Good morning, and welcome to the Mesa Verde experience.  Is everyone excited?  Good, but if you’re not get ready to be excited.  What do you remember about the presentation last week?  We remember getting on the bus, seeing the rock buildings, learning about the Colorado River, and the Grand Canyon is really tall.  Those are all very good points, we’re glad that all of you were able to remember so much.  Today, we are going to discover a little more about Mesa Verde and the people that used to live there.

6.  Purpose:  The purpose of the lesson is to realize how Mesa Verde became a national park and that there used to be people that lived there.

                “Why did Mesa Verde become a national park?  Students will respond people thought that the building should be saved.  Or students will respond that Mesa Verde is the only park meant to preserve ancient people’s works and buildings.”

                “Why would we want to save the building the Anasazi left behind?  Students will respond so we can see what life was like before immigrants moved to America.  Or because they lived in houses like we do.”

7.  Content Knowledge:  The teacher will start off the lesson by asking students what they can remember about the presentation from last week.  After the students give their responses the teacher will pass out a map to each student and a worksheet to fill in.  The map will help students to answer the first two questions.  The teacher will introduce the map by giving the students their map without the park, river, or dividing lines added on.  This will ensure that students use their map to help build their knowledge of the area in question.  After the map has been completed the teacher will read from the book that talks about how the park was founded.  Students will fill in answers from the reading to be answered at the end of the lesson.  After all answers have been filled in the teacher will ask the concluding questions about why the park is important and why the park is preserved.

8.  Response Activities:  The students will draw and label the Colorado River and Mesa Verde National Park.  The students will also draw dotted lines to see the separation of state lines and visually see why the region is called the four corners.  There will also be a worksheet for students to fill in based on the map and the reading.  If students do not hear the answer they will have an opportunity to look at the book to find the answers.

9.  Conclusion:  Highlight the main points of the park, such as, why we have the park and who was there.  Next week we will talk about the Anasazi and how they lived.  We are going to discover that the Anasazi were farmers with a very unique style.