Teaching about the Mexican Revolution

This week’s En la Clase highlights another activity from our most recent curriculum project: Viva la Revolución: An Educator’s Guide to the Mexican Revolution. This activity is inspired by Ben Thompson’s BadA** descriptions of important historical figures. We’re particularly fond of his entry on Pancho Villa. Please be aware: There is liberal use of profanity in Thompson’s writing; it is not appropriate for all audiences and should be pre-screened before any part of it is used in a classroom setting or with students.

We so enjoyed Thompson’s site that we decided to have a little fun and try to write our own (cleaner and less explicit) BadA** version of the Mexican Revolution. The teachers at our workshop seemed to think students would really like it. The purpose of the activity is to provide students a more detailed overview of the events and people of the Mexican Revolution through reading the provided hand-out “BadA** Retelling of the Mexican Revolution.” This is a simplified version of the Mexican Revolution that has been written in a more ‘teen-age friendly, tongue in cheek’ style. It can be used in conjunction with textbook readings or other materials written about the Mexican Revolution. I’ve included a portion of our retelling below with the lesson plan at the end. Click here to access the pdf of the entire retelling and the lesson plans.

A BadA** Retelling of the Mexican Revolution:
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A few weeks ago we had a wonderful professional development workshop on the Mexican Revolution for which we created “Viva la Revolución: An Educator’s Guide to the Mexican Revolution.” This was such a fun and creative project, and I’m really excited about the materials that we put together. We’re still adding some things and making changes, but I wanted to share some of the activities here on the blog so you all can get an taste of what the completed guide will be like. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we have! You can also access our entire guide here, but it will be changing some over the next month or so, be sure to check back later for the final version.

Today, I wanted to share one of my favorite activities–The Scavenger Hunt. It got rave reviews from our teachers at the workshop and we absolutely loved creating it. It’s also a great activity to do at the beginning of a unit on the Mexican Revolution because it doesn’t require much background knowledge on the Revolution, and it introduces students to the important players in an interactive way. This activity is inspired by and adapted from Rethinking School’s “The U.S.-Mexico War Tea Party” found in The Line Between Us (Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools, 2006).

Spanning more than ten years, the Mexican Revolution is a complex historical event that involved numerous individuals. The scavenger hunt activity will introduce students to many of these individuals, and the various motivations of those individuals participating in or resisting the Revolution. Each student will take on the role of one individual involved in the Mexican Revolution. Then, using the provided questionnaire hand-out, students will move around the room interviewing classmates in order to appropriately answer all of the questions on the hand-out. Click here for a pdf the complete activity. I’ve shared images of some of the pages from the activity, which are included in the pdf.