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

The Mission Decision, 1718 — Where Should It Stand?

A Problem-Based Learning unit. Students step into Spanish Texas in the early 1700s, 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: It is the early 1700s in Spanish Texas. Spain wants to build a new mission and presidio (fort) to strengthen its claim to the land and spread its faith. Where should it be built? The choice depends on water, farmland, defense, trade routes, and — most of all — the wishes and needs of the American Indian peoples already living there. As advisors, where and whether should the mission stand?

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 Spanish Texas in the early 1700s, and Texas regions & rivers map work. ~1–2 periods.

② Deep

Connect & organize

Site-factors 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: European settlement of Texas was shaped by geography, resources, faith, and — crucially — relationships with the American Indian peoples who already lived on the land. Every location was a trade-off: good water or good defense, near a trading partner or far from a rival, welcomed by the people already there or not.

Know: the ways of life of American Indian peoples in Texas before European exploration, why Spain built missions and presidios, and what a mission needed to survive.
Understand: the same decision looks different from each stakeholder's point of view — and the peoples already on the land were decision-makers with their own interests, not background.
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)(1)(B–D)	Ways of life & cultural regions of American Indian groups before European exploration — Surface jigsaw, Deep sources
(c)(2)(A–C)	Motivations for European exploration & settlement; explorers; when/where/why Spain built missions — Surface, Deep, Transfer
(c)(6)(A–B) · (c)(7)(A–B)	Physical regions of Texas & geographic factors in settlement — Surface map work, Deep concept map
(c)(8)(A–C)	Adapting to & modifying the environment — Deep concept map, Transfer inquiry
(c)(9)(A)	Economic activities of early American Indian groups — Surface jigsaw, Deep sources
(c)(12)(A)	How American Indian groups organized — Surface jigsaw, Transfer roles
(c)(19)(A–B)	Analyze sources & 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 portraying American Indian peoples: the Caddo, Coahuiltecan, and other nations already living in Texas were peoples with their own governments, economies, and homelands. Portray them respectfully and as decision-makers with their own interests — a mission could only stand where the people of the land allowed it to. 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.