Grade 4 · Texas History · §113.15 · Problem-Based Learning

1835 — What Should Our Family Do?

A Problem-Based Learning unit. Students step into a Texas colony in 1835, take on a stakeholder's point of view, and work a real, ill-structured question — building from surface to deep to transfer learning. The teacher is a guide, not the answer key.

Driving question: The year is 1835. Your family lives in a Texas colony. Far away in Mexico City, the government has changed the rules, and your neighbors are arguing — some want to stay loyal, some want reforms, some want to fight for independence. As your family, what should you do, and why?

The three-phase path (do them in order)

Problem-solving is a transfer move — it only works once students have knowledge to reason with. So the problem in Phase 3 is deliberately gated behind Phases 1 and 2.

① Surface

Build the knowledge

Vocabulary, a jigsaw read on the road to 1835, and Texas regions map work. ~1–2 periods.

② Deep

Connect & organize

Cause–effect concept map, primary sources, points of view, and a structured claim. ~1–2 periods.

③ Transfer

Solve the problem

Meet the problem, take a role, investigate, propose & defend a solution, debrief. ~2–4 periods.

⛔ Gate: don't open the Phase 3 problem until students have finished the surface and deep activities. Meeting the problem too early turns inquiry into guessing.

Big idea & objectives

Big idea: Real people weighed loyalty, rights, risk, and community when Texas moved toward revolution. Understanding their choices means seeing the problem from many sides — Anglo colonists, Tejanos, and Mexican officials all had something at stake.

Know: how Spain, Mexico, and colonists shaped Texas; why tensions rose after 1830; and the causes and key events of the Texas Revolution.
Understand: the same event looks different from each stakeholder's point of view.
Do: run the problem-solving process end to end — define a problem, gather information, weigh options, choose and defend a solution, and evaluate it (§113.15(c)(22)(B)).

Standards this unit is aligned to (§113.15)

TEKS SE	Where it lives in the unit
(c)(2)(A–C)	Spanish missions, colonization & motivations — Surface jigsaw
(c)(3)(A)	Causes, events & effects of the Texas Revolution — Surface, Deep, Transfer
(c)(3)(B–C)	Contributions of individuals & founders — Deep sources, Transfer roles
(c)(6) · (c)(7)	Physical regions & settlement patterns — Surface map work
(c)(12)(B)	Spanish colonial vs. early Mexican government — Deep concept map
(c)(13)(A)	Purpose of the Texas Declaration of Independence — Deep sources, Transfer debrief
(c)(15)	Civic participation — Transfer solution & debrief
(c)(19)(A–B)	Source analysis, points of view, claim + evidence — Deep & Transfer
(c)(22)(B)	The problem-solving process — the entire Transfer phase

Teacher prep & materials

Print the facilitator guide (teacher moves, map of possibilities, role cards, debrief prompts) and the assessment pack (rubric + individual-in-group).
Chart paper or a projected space for three shared columns: Hunches · Know · Need-to-Know (the KWHL chart).
Vetted sources for investigation (district-approved). Suggested public-domain Texas-history sources are listed in the facilitator guide.
No logins, no accounts — every page runs in the browser. Student writing and products live on paper or in tools your district already vets.

📝 A note on hard history: slavery and racial history are part of this era. Handle them briefly, factually, and age-appropriately, and keep the family's decision centered on rights, loyalty, land, and community. Guidance is in the facilitator guide.

▶ Start Phase 1 — Surface 🧑‍🏫 Facilitator guide ✅ Assessment 📊 Correlation

Teacher supports: UDL · ELPS · PBL facilitation guide (7 languages)

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.15; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This narrative is a teaching fiction based on the era.