Introduction
During this lesson students will read and discuss the content of a text about the Inca. The lesson has been designed to be as communicative as possible, so that students work collaboratively to extract meaning from the text and apply their own opinions to the content of the text. There are some suggested follow up tasks at the end.
Topic
Inca society
Age/ Level
aged 13-17 and Adult (CEFR B1+)
Time
65 minutes + extension ideas
Learning outcomes
- To develop students' ability to take information from a text and form their own opinions about it
- To develop students' ability to deduce the meaning of words in a text
Materials
- Lesson plan
- Worksheet
- Reading activities
Optional
- Some images of the Inca world.
- Links or print outs of newspaper articles for homework
- Warmer (5 mins)
Put up the word 'Inca' on the board (or if you can find some, put up related pictures) and ask the students what they already know about the subject.
- Jigsaw reading (15 minutes)
- Put learners into groups on 5. Give each group a set of cut up reading texts.
- Each group member reads one text. If you have one or two smaller groups, ask a stronger learner to read two texts.
- They summarize their paragraph to their partners. Monitor to ensure they use English.
- The students to work together as a group and put the parts of the text into the correct order. Tell them to ignore the numbers at the start of their paragraphs.
- Do some quick feedback to make sure they have the correct order (using the paragraph numbers) and ask them how they knew the order.
Answers
2 –Asks a question to build interest
5 – Answers the question from paragraph 2
1 – Gives more information about the Incas. Mentions the Spanish conquistadors.
4 – Gives more information about the war with the Spanish. Mentions architecture.
5 - Gives information about a great piece of architecture and mentions that the Inca were long gone.- Definitions (10 minutes)
- Give each group a cut up set of definitions face down.
- Ask learners to look at the paragraph they read again and find the words in bold.
- Select one word. i.e. existence. Tell groups to turn the cut ups over and find the definition of existence.
- Tell them to work together to match all the words in bold with their definitions.
- Nominate groups to give you definitions.
Answers
Existence - the state of being
Empire - a group of countries controlled by a single power
Spanned – to cover an area
Ethnic - of a racial group
Brutal – Cruel and violent
Arms – weapons
Craftsman - people who make things with their hands
Textiles - clothes or other articles made of cloth
Assimilated - to allow one group of people to become part of another
Tip: You can choose not to do feedback after this activity, as the students may change their minds about the definitions as the lesson progresses and they start to understand more about the text. This gives the chance to self-correct.- Comprehension (15 minutes)
- Tell learners to put the reading (in order) in the middle of their group.
- Give out the worksheet. Tell learners to do Task 1 either individually or with their group
Note: Giving learners the choice of working individually or part of a group allows for different ways of working.
Draw the table of the board and elicit answers. Write the letters rather than the full text to avoid too much time facing the board.- Draw the table on the board and elicit answers. Write the letters rather than the full text to avoid too much time facing the board.
Answers
- Discussion (20 minutes)
- Ask learners to complete the sentences in task 2 individually before discussing with their group.
Tip: Here you might need to stress that there is no correct / incorrect answer. They should complete the sentences according to their own opinion.- Monitor and support with language
- Elicit some of the group discussions
- Extension (15 minutes) - Optional
• Read out the vocabulary words in Task 3 and ask students to decide how many syllables each word has and which syllable is stressed.
• Do the first three words as a whole class before learners work in pairs.
• Elicit answers (See Appendix 1)- Homework
- Give each group a news article to read about Inca civilisation for homework
- In the following lesson groups discuss what they’ve learnt and present their ideas to the whole class.
- Or ask groups to write 5 comprehension questions for their article.
- Groups swop articles and questions.
Articles
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1880611.stm
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1403740.stm
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/586810.stm
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1937001.stm
5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2029466.stm- Useful links and resources
- BBC documentary about the Inca: https://youtu.be/uevwqo7axYM?si=LN8_6WMh5rnAldK5
- Article about the Incas: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/inca-civilization
- The history of the Inca: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Inca
- History channel article and video: https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/inca