Suggested Time:
5-6 hours over 4-5 days

Building Background:
Review with students a brief history of Spanish missions in California: when they were founded, for what purpose, and when and why the Spanish finally left them. Locate on a map and discuss the El Camino Real, the Spanish royal highway, pointing out that missions were established, one after another, along its length. Tell students they will learn more about a specific mission and make a timeline to show its entire history, from founding until today.

What To Do:

1. Organize students into small study groups and assign each group one of the 21 missions built on El Camino Real during the years that Spain controlled California. Have each study group research the history of their assigned mission.

• Check out the Unit 2 Bibliography for books, videos, and software students might consult for information.
• If you have Internet access, students can use these sites for information:

  California Mission Studies Association
  (http://www.ca-missions.org)
  This very extensive site includes a mission directory with information about California missions in alphabetical order, archaeological and preservation projects, an illustrated glossary of mission-related terms, links to pictorial sources, and annotated links to other related sites.

  California Missions
  (http://missions.bgmm.com/index.htm)
  A clickable map provides students with accessible quick facts about each mission built on the El Camino Real.

2. Tell students they can begin their research by reading selected encyclopedia articles or non-fiction books about their missions. Encourage them to take notes using the Life of a Mission worksheet to keep track of their research.

3. Once research is completed, have groups work together to create a timeline showing the information they have gathered. Remind students that their timelines should include the information from their worksheets, but they are not limited to that. Encourage students to be creative in making their timelines: using words, drawings, and annotations. (They also might want to put several pieces of paper together to have more space in which to write and draw.)

4. Encourage volunteers from each study group to present the history of its mission, using the timeline as a visual aid. Challenge students to ask questions of each other.

Wrap-Up
Ask students to tell you one piece of information about their assigned mission that surprised them the most, and one piece of information that they believe they will always remember.

Extensions:

• Have the groups write about significant people involved with the history of the mission they researched.