Lesson Plan for Causes of the Texas Revolution
Mexican/Texan Talk-it-Out
Writing for Understanding
created by Sabrina Braeuer

Materials:  Handouts: Preview, Debate, Processing instructions

TEKS: 7.2E

Objective: The students will demonstrate their understanding of the events that led to the Texas Revolution by participating in a “debate” between Texans and Mexicans and then writing a dialogue.

Overview of Activity:  Students will “debate” various causes of the Texas Revolution from the Mexican and Texan perspectives.  As a processing activity, students will write a dialogue between a “Mexican” and a “Texan”.

Preview:  Analysis of primary source quotes.  See Preview handout.

Activity:
1.  Place students in face-to-face pairs.
2.  In each pair, assign the roles of Mexican and Texan.
3.  For each topic of debate, give students 2-3 minutes to write down pertinent information (notes) about the assigned topic. They may refer to their textbook or previously taken notes on the causes of the Texas Revolution.
4.  See debate handout for the specific format of the Talk-It-Out.  Notice each round focuses on a different cause (issue) of the Texas Revolution. 
5.  After each “round” of debate, have volunteers briefly share their responses.

Processing: In this writing for understanding activity, students write a dialogue between a Mexican and a Texan.  Teacher may determine the length of the dialogue.  See processing handout.

Download this lesson plan. Adobe PDF | MS Word