② Deep · Connect & organize

Phase 2 — Connect & organize

Now students take the facts from Phase 1 and relate them: mapping the costs and benefits of each choice, questioning real 1840s sources for point of view, and building an argument from evidence. Deep learning is where knowledge becomes usable — the bridge to the problem.

🎯 By the end of Phase 2 students can weigh the costs and benefits of joining versus staying independent, read a primary source for its point of view and reliability, and defend a claim with evidence — the exact moves the problem will demand.

Concept mapping · d 0.64§113.19(c)(11), (c)(12)

1 · Costs-and-benefits concept map (join vs. stay independent)

Build a class concept map with the 1845 decision at the center: “Should the Republic of Texas join the United States?” Draw two branches — Join the U.S. and Stay independent — and under each, map the causes and effects: what it would cost and what it would gain. Many benefits carry a matching cost; push students to trace both.

Option	Likely benefits	Likely costs
Join the United States	U.S. Army protection; help with the debt; larger trade & markets	war with Mexico becomes likely; Texas gives up self-rule; deepens the U.S. slavery divide
Stay an independent republic	keeps its sovereignty and its own choices; no new U.S. taxes	debt stays unpaid; hard to defend alone; still threatened by Mexico

Talk move: point to any benefit and ask “what does that cost, and who pays it?” Then draw an arrow to the next effect and ask “and what would that cause?” This rehearses §113.19(c)(11) and (c)(12).

📚 Sources: Handbook of Texas · Annexation ↗ · Handbook of Texas · Republic of Texas ↗

Elaboration & organization · d 0.72§113.19(c)(16), (c)(20)

2 · Primary-source analysis — read for point of view & reliability

Give pairs two short, district-approved sources from 1845 that disagree: for example, a message or letter arguing for annexation (the security and debt case) and one arguing against it — or a Mexican objection that annexation would violate Mexico's claim and lead to war. Use a four-question source routine:

Source: Who made this, when, and why?
Observe: What does it actually say? (facts and claims only)
Point of view: Whose interest does it speak for — and whose is missing?
Reliability: Is this a first-hand record or a later opinion? What might it leave out or exaggerate?

Why point of view matters here: a Texas leader selling annexation, a Mexican official rejecting it, and a Northern congressman worried about slavery would each describe the same offer very differently. Students should name whose voice a source carries before they trust it.

📚 Primary sources & analysis tools: Texas State Library · Hard Road to Texas (the annexation debate) ↗ · Portal to Texas History · Texas annexation ↗ · LoC · Getting Started with Primary Sources ↗ · National Archives · DocsTeach primary sources ↗

Argumentation · d 0.86§113.19(c)(20), (c)(22)

3 · Structured argument — join or stay?

A low-stakes rehearsal of the reasoning the problem needs. Students take a side with evidence, using a claim–evidence–reasoning frame. Then they must steelman the other side — state its strongest point as fairly as they can before answering it (civil discourse).

Warm-up question: Weighing security, debt, independence, and the risk of war and the slavery question — should the Republic of Texas join the United States or stay independent? Give your claim, one piece of evidence from Phase 1 or the sources, and your reasoning.

Sentence stems (ELPS support): “My claim is ______.” · “My evidence is ______.” · “This matters because ______.” · “The strongest point on the other side is ______, but ______.”

Note: keep this a practice argument. The full stakeholder decision — including honestly facing what annexation meant for enslaved and free Black Texans — belongs in Phase 3, where students hold specific roles.

📚 Sources: Handbook of Texas · Annexation ↗ · Texas State Library · Hard Road to Texas ↗

✅ Deep check before the problem: can students name a cost and a benefit of joining the U.S., read one source for its point of view and reliability, and state a claim with evidence? Those three abilities are exactly what Phase 3 will ask them to transfer.

‹ Phase 1 — Surface Phase 3 — Transfer ›

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.19; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This scenario dramatizes the real debate over Texas annexation in 1845.