Center for Texas Studies

Teacher Resource

Social Studies Skills Activity

Subject-specific TEKS lesson

(7.21) Social Studies Skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of sources including electronic technology.

The student is expected to:

A. Differentiate between, locate and use primary and secondary sources such as computer software, databases, media and news services, biographies, interviews and artifacts to acquire information about Texas.

B. Analyze information about sequencing, categorizing, identify cause and effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions.

C. Organize and interpret information from outlines, reports databases and visuals including graphs, charts, timelines and graphs.

ACTIVITY:

(This is primarily a critical thinking exercise)

Each student will compare and contrast the following key points between the Texas and the American Revolutions:

1. Which countries were directly at war with each other during the American Revolution and the Texas Revolution?
2. Were there other countries involved in either war?
3. What were the reasons for American and Texan opposition?
4. Where did each revolution take place (geographically)?
5. Did each of the rebelling parties accomplish their goal?
6. In what ways did each revolution affect how you live today?

RESOURCES NEEDED:

1. Pens
2. Paper
3. Texas History Timeline
4. Liberty: The American Revolution
5. Library or Internet Access

Additional Resource
6. Texas Tides
7. Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Educational Resources

for 7th Grade Texas History