Instructional Considerations / In-class activities

1. On a recent 60 Minutes  show, author David McCullough expressed alarm about the  lack of history education that today’s students are receiving.  How can instructors make history and specifically mission history even more relevant to today’s learners?

2. What are some innovative techniques to help students participate in a “close reading”  of a primary source text related to the California missions?

3. How can we employ the use  of  visual  thinking skills/strategies  to  learn  more  about the perspectives and lives of native populations who may have left few written records of the mission period?

4. I remember making a model of a Mission when I was a fourth grader, and I see that it is still done today.  Are there any other more contemporary, hands-on activities that would provide the same feelings of accomplishment as constructing a Mission?

5. How could one design an experiential exercise that would accurately reflect the dynamics of the California missions?

6. As educators, how do we put into context the role of the California Missions to that of the Native American experience in an American Literature course?

7. How might I incorporate the study of  the California missions into my Spanish  classes?

8. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I could create a project, lesson plan or assignment that would incorporate both the Spanish language and the study of the California missions?

9. I teach Spanish 1 in Middle School so my students wouldn’t yet have the language background to translate more complex  primary  documents, so what might I use as an alternative exercise in this instance?

10. I  thoroughly  enjoyed  Dr.  Beebe’s  presentation  on  primary sources,  and  I  think my students would really  like her  idea of  translating ship inventories and interpreting  pictures.  In  addition to  pictures and ship  inventories, does anyone have  any extra ideas that would incorporate language learning and historical research?

11. My students are very service oriented, and typically really enjoy volunteering and getting involved in our local community as well as in global projects. Is there any way that students at my school could promote the missions to help preserve them for future generations?

12. How might my students get actively involved in preserving the missions?

13. Is there any way that my students might connect to  students in California or people who are mission scholars by Skyping, video conferencing, blogging, emailing, etc.?

14. What  are  some  innovative  techniques  to  help  students  participate  in  a  “close reading”  of  a primary source text related to the California missions?

15. As educators, how do we put into context the role of the California Missions to that of the Native American experience in an American Literature course?