Victory at the Battle of San Jacinto


Students brainstorm examples of turning points in their personal lives. Then they watch a video and read about the Battle of San Jacinto. Next they view a map of the Republic of Texas borders and explain why the Battle of San Jacinto was important. Finally they learn about the two commanders—Sam Houston and Santa Anna—and summarize their contributions to the Texas Revolution.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

1:1 Devices
Teacher Pack

The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.

Here are the teacher pack items for Victory at the Battle of San Jacinto:

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Overview

In this experience, students brainstorm examples of turning points in their personal lives. Then they watch a video and read about the Battle of San Jacinto. Next they view a map of the Republic of Texas borders and explain why the Battle of San Jacinto was important. Finally they learn about the two commanders—Sam Houston and Santa Anna—and summarize their contributions to the Texas Revolution.

If you are teaching Social Studies in the context of ELAR, have students read the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Then ask them to use it as an analogy for explaining Sam Houston’s victory in the Battle of San Jacinto.

If you have access to leveled readers about the Battle of San Jacinto, assign them to the students in parallel to this experience.

Estimated duration: 35-45 minutes

Vocabulary words:

  • surrender
  • overconfidence
  • abandon
  • disguise
  • underestimate
  • equipped
  • ex-convict
  • decisive

Objectives

  • Explain the significance of the Texas victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.
  • Identify the contributions of Sam Houston and Santa Anna to the Texas Revolution.


Engage


Once Santa Anna took command of the Mexican Army to stop the Texas revolt, Texas forces suffered several serious losses. The Alamo fell, and nearly all of the defenders were killed. At Goliad, Texas soldiers surrendered, but many of them were later executed by the Mexican Army. The new Texas government and many Texas families were also fleeing east during the Runaway Scrape. At that point, things did not look good for the Texans in their fight for independence. In this lesson, you will learn about the turning point of the Texas Revolution, the Battle of San Jacinto.

Objectives

  • Explain the significance of the Texas victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.
  • Identify the contributions of Sam Houston and Santa Anna to the Texas Revolution.


boy in wheelchair holding a tablet

Mobile devices are a turning point in how people communicate.


When people use the phrase turning point, what do they mean? A turning point is an event that causes an important change. It creates a clear before and after, and things do not stay the same. Turning points can be big or small. They can affect one person, a family, a group of people, or even a whole country.


You may choose to model the example of the birth of a younger sibling by filling in the first row of the table with the class.
Turning point: Birth of a sibling
Before: I was an only child; I had my parents’ full attention.
After: My parents have less time for me; I have more responsibilities.


Think of a turning point in your life. What happened? How did your life change after this event? In the table, post a personal turning point in your life. Write a brief description of your life before and after that event.



Ask a few students to present their posts to the class. Ask students if they can predict how the Battle of San Jacinto was a turning point.


When everyone is ready to continue, unlock the next scene.

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The Complete List of Learning Experiences in Revolution and Republic of Texas Unit.
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