Lesson Plan - Secrets of an Ancient Empire

Build Background and Vocabulary

Have students choose one of these countries to research with our interactive atlas and almanac: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, or Argentina. At junior.scholastic.com/atlas, they should zoom in on the country and click it to display facts. Ask students to write three sentences with facts about the country they chose. Then use Words to Know to preteach domain-specific terms in the article.

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently or in pairs. As students read, direct them to underline or highlight three important facts about the Inca.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.

• How did Luis help scientists discover an Inca settlement? (Key Details)
On a field trip in Casa de Piedra, Argentina, the teenager encouraged archaeologists to look at another location nearby that he said had what looked like unique archaeological structures. The scientists visited soon after and discovered one of the southernmost Inca settlements ever found. They identified the remains of kitchens, warehouses, and corrals for llamas.

• Who were the Inca? (Central Ideas)
The Inca were an ancient civilization that thrived in large areas of what is now South America from the early 1400s to 1532. Their empire was once the largest and richest in the Americas. At its height, the Inca empire included about 12 million people.

• What caused the downfall of the Inca civilization? (Cause and Effect)
When Spanish conquistadores came to South America in the early 1500s, they set out to seize the Inca’s fortune of gold and silver. In 1532, the invaders conquered the Inca empire, killing thousands. Millions more Inca also died from smallpox and other diseases.

Practice Direction and Distance

Have students answer the questions about the map on page 21 independently or in groups. Use the Direction and Distance lesson from our Map Skills Boot Camp to give students more practice. The full curriculum of 13 lessons is at junior.scholastic.com/mapskills.