The Eight Features of Mayan Civilization

Josh Dozer
5th Grade Social Studies

Common Core Standards:

1. Students should understand that complex civilizations, with commonalities and differences, existed in
the Americas prior to European arrival.
2. Students will study the basic characteristics of governments, cultures, technologies and agricultural
practices and products of the Mayan civilization.
Lesson Summary:
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the early civilizations of the Americas. Students will learn
about the eight features of civilization, which include cities, well-organized central governments, complex
religions, job specialization, social classes, arts and architecture, public works and writing.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson will consist of five 50 minute lessons. The entire lesson will be broken down into four distinct
lessons regarding the eight specific features of Mayan civilization, leaving the 5th day for review and a video to
enhance learning.

Commentary:
The approach to learning on this lesson is to get students as active and involved as possible in the content,
while at the same time, providing them with the necessary information during lecture. To hook students into
this assignment, the teacher will coordinate a class-wide discussion about the American Indian mound builders
they have previously learned about. The connection will be made between the mound builders and the early
civilizations of America prior to beginning the lesson to draw the students interest based off prior knowledge.
The teacher will also ask the students to compare and contrast the mound builders with American civilization
to make the connection to their own civilization. One struggle with this lesson will be to differentiate it
appropriately. This lesson will be taught towards the end of the school year, so the teacher may not know
exactly how to group students for assignments. One way to combat this is to fully and effectively assess
students prior to the lesson. This should include what the student recalls about the mound builders theyve
previously learned about.

Instructional Procedures:
Describe the instructional steps that will be taken to implement the lesson. For each section of the lesson,
document how much time it will take and what students are expected to do. Make sure to cite your uses of
technology as often as possible.
Please take the time to provide a clear narrative as to how the lesson will unfold.
Day 1:
The first ten minutes of the lesson will be an assessment of what the students can recall about the mound
builders and Native Indians they learned about the previous year. The teacher will direct the discussion,
ensuring they call on each student to take notes.
The next 20 minutes will be spent giving an introductory PowerPoint presentation about the Mayan
civilization. It will provide a brief overview of the civilization and then discuss the role of government and the
cities.
The remaining 20 minutes of the day will be saved for students to work together in designated groups. The
students will compare and contrast the cities and governments of the Mayan civilization and our own
civilization.
Day 2:
The first 10 minutes of the day will be spent review the previous days lesson via a group discussion. Each
student will be expected to participate in the discussion to ensure continuous assessment by the teacher.
The next 20 Minutes will be spent providing the students with a PowerPoint lecture discussing the role of
religion and specialized jobs.
The remaining 20 minutes will be spent doing a group activity where each group creates an avatar to describe
what theyve just learned. The students in each group will compile the material based off the notes they took
during lecture.
Day 3:
The first 10 minutes of the day will be spent review the previous days lesson via a group discussion. Each
student will be expected to participate in the discussion to ensure continuous assessment by the teacher.
The next 20 Minutes will be spent providing the students with a PowerPoint lecture discussing the role of
social classes and the arts.
The remaining 20 minutes will be spent with each student writing a paragraph (or longer) description of how
they think the social classes and arts impact American civilization today.
Day 4:
The first 10 minutes of the day will be spent review the previous days lesson via a group discussion. Each
student will be expected to participate in the discussion to ensure continuous assessment by the teacher.
The next 20 Minutes will be spent providing the students with a PowerPoint lecture discussing the role of
public works and writing.

The remaining 20 minutes will be spent with the class completed three distinct worksheets. The groups will be
chosen based off current performance and understanding of the material each worksheet will be
progressively more complex based off student performance.
Day 5:
The first 30 minutes of the day will be spent watching a PBS documentary titled Cracking the Mayan Code.
Students will be expected to complete a worksheet while watching the video to ensure theyre paying attention.
The remaining 20 minutes of the day will be spent with students presenting a visual display they have
uploaded to a group Google Slides document. Each student is expected to upload one image with a brief
description that describes the Mayan civilization. This will be assigned the night before to ensure that all
information has already been learned.

Pre-Assessment:
The teacher will use an informal group discussion to determine that students can make the connection between
their own society and the mound builder societies. Doing so, will allow to see that there are consistent patterns
and features that define societies. The ability to make these connections is imperative to the student learning
about the Mayan civilization. Along with this discussion, the teacher be able to draw prior knowledge by
asking students what they recall about the mound builder societies what did the societies have in common?
What was different?
Scoring Guidelines:
During the pre-assessment, the teacher will use his or her best judgement to determine who is adequately
prepared for this lesson. The teacher will require each student to give input during this discussion and take on
an individual basis to determine how prepared the student is for the lesson. Ongoing assessments will be given
throughout the lesson in the forms of group activities, worksheets, class discussion, and teacher observation.
With exception to the worksheets (which will be reviewed and graded by the teacher), the teacher will take
notes during each of these assessments for each student. The teacher will primarily take these notes during
student activities to consolidate time.
Post-Assessment:
The post-assessment for this lesson will include both an individualized infographic as a paragraph long
justification for the material. For example, each student will explain in detail, why they chose to include
certain characteristics of Mayan civilization and not others.
Scoring Guidelines:
The infographic will be given a letter-grade based off the level of detail and clarity, as well as the depth and
accuracy of content. The written justification will be graded on a pass/fail basis. If the student appropriately
explains and justifies the content, it will be a pass, if they do not, it will be a fail (the student will be afforded
the chance to re-write). The reason that the infographic is graded with a letter and the written justification with
a pass/fail is because of the grade level. The teacher will be able to judge content understanding much better

based off the infographic

Differentiated Instructional Support
In order to meet the needs of gifted students, the teacher will differentiate the level of complexity involved in
group assignments. Students will be grouped based off their content understanding meaning that gifted
students (who are excelling in the lesson) will be grouped with other students who are also excelling. Grouping
students in this way will enable them to work at a higher level than the other groups (providing the challenge
needed). In addition to this, if a particular student or group is struggling, the teacher will periodically assign a
gifted student to help.
Students who are struggling to understand the content will also benefit from the grouping method listed above.
They will be given group assignments that are at their performance level, which also provide the information
they need.

Extension
https://maya.nmai.si.edu/maya
Students can gather information about Mayan civilization from the above website. The website provides a
simple, yet effective overview of the civilization, as well as key maps and images that will help the students
picture the world that theyre learning about. Students could use this site to aid in their infographic research, or
to refresh themselves about the material.

Homework Options and Home Connection

Outside of the classroom, students will have two assignments the first is a take-home quiz, the next is to
gather a source for the virtual museum activity planned for day five. The take-home quiz will be about a tenquestion quiz geared to student understanding of the basic features of Mayan society. Also, the students will be
asked to gather one image that highlights a specific feature of Mayan civilization and write a description that
corresponds to it. The students will add this to a Google Slides document for the class to examine at the end
of the lesson.

Interdisciplinary Connections
This lesson can be integrated with Geography because of the connection between physical environment and
human activity. For example, farmland and fertile soil are necessary to build a society as large and influential
as the Mayans. In addition to this connection, the use of the prefix poly to describe the system of religion
can be connected to mathematics. Asking students where else they see this prefix can help them see the
meaning of the word and the connection to the mathematics.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

The teacher will need at minimum the following resources to complete this lesson:
Access to presentation software, a projector, laptop or desktop in the classroom that can
connect to the internet and be projected, Google Slides, a printer, access to printable
worksheets (or a word processor to generate one).

For students

Students will need at minimum the following resources to complete this lesson: Access
to a desktop or laptop outside of school, access to the internet outside of school, an
online infographic template, a notebook to take notes, and a pen or pencil.

Key Vocabulary
Early Civilization, agriculture, maize product, pyramid, religion, polytheism, glyph, astronomy, codex, pok-atok, mound builder, Native Indian, etc.
Additional Notes
This lesson is part of a greater lesson involving the Inca, Aztec, and Mississippian civilizations. After all of the
civilizations have been learned, the students will have a broad understand of the what constitutes a civilization
they will understand their similarities, their differences, as well as what they have in common with societies
that exist today.