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This website is a project at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. This project is a collaboration between the College of Education's Department of Teaching and Learning and the University Library's Special Collections & University Archives.

Each primary source guide provides lesson plans and local primary sources focused on history of the Rio Grande Valley. These are designed to meet the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) aimed at local history at the 4th and 7th grade levels. Each lesson plan outlines the TEKS addressed along with the appropriate lessons on these topics.

Explore the subject guides below:

Charro Days

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/21e4a8eb864f28a994a3a42c37bd6c42.jpg

The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the experiences of Charro Days since its creation in the...

Edcouch-Elsa Walkouts of 1968

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/2a13de9eb79a1d519fd83685a5066a11.tiff

On November 14, 1968 in Edcouch-Elsa, about 150 to 200 Mexican and Mexican-American Edcouch-Elsa high-school students walked out of their...

Pharr Riots of 1971

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/eb046e7dae73f48020a601f1b4e77288.jpg

By teacher implemented strategies such as, direct instruction, inquiry and small groups, students will acquire knowledge on the riots that...

The Onion Strike of 1979

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The Raymondville Onion Strike took place in 1979 on account of their wages being cut because of onion prices. Being...

The Grape Strike

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/b54901e99e59dd676fcecb0795b4f261.pdf

The purpose of this lesson is to help students recognize the working conditions of farm workers in Delano, California in...

Local Juneteenth Celebrations

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A series of events brought the end to slavery in Texas, beginning when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation of...

Fiesta San Antonio

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/6f2c58cf43bd0800c75bd3bf96c182e1.pdf

The objectives of this lesson are to have the student be able to identify customs, celebrations, and traditions of Fiesta...

Melon Strike of 1966

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/2ced6720ef7f5766c76939bdb7f75485.jpg

In 1966 for about 90 days hundreds of men, women and children from Starr County began a strike that change...

Harlon Block

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/73de9ab21ea2518cc0988c4ee8e16ce5.jpg

The purpose of this lesson is to help students make connections between what is being taught in school and their...

Local Celebrations

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For this lesson students will learn about the holidays, seasons, national holidays in the U.S., and the weather. Students will...

Citizenship in the Republic of Texas

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/e2c14739b054e21ae6d24de019726fa4.jpg

These three lesson plans are designed for fourth-grade students and they focus on the Pledge to the Texas Flag, Texas...

Hurricane Beulah / Huracán Beulah

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The Rio Grande Valley is an area of high risk since many hurricanes form in the Gulf of Mexico; most...

Karankawa Indians

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/b777834a3561c9bb4c274f17a84cb2e9.jpg

The goal of this lesson plan is to give background information on the Karankawa tribe. These background information ranges from...

Peonage

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/07f613d4835b07f711d791b9de1161bf.pdf

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students about the evolution of the working system in the United States,...

Citrus Industry

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/1e1deb5f50f40d491fd66ba41623ce4d.tif

In this lesson we will be learning the Citrus Farming in the Rio Grande Valley and how it developed into...

Battle of Palo Alto

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/ddda053e098ad68aa5e2dda17f934329.jpg

The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the Battle of Palo Alto which happened in the Rio...

South Padre Island

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/0598e39f7f7f062a6d84614eeede7fa0.jpg

The purpose of this lesson is to help students identify common recreational activities of their local communities in the past...

Birding

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/62d8a676a64ecfabf342fc657cc473df.tif

The resolution for this lesson is for the students to understand the economic impacts of the Rio Grande Valley. To...

Butterflies

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/04f69a7bcfcbc98ab3e0d94fce3e1adc.jpg

The purpose of the weeks worth of butterflies and migration lessons is to inform students about the world that is...

Agriculture

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/73bf8caf8aa451f242025fdc259c0c5d.pdf

The purpose of this lesson conducted was to teach students the importance of agriculture and teach students the history of...

La Lomita

This lesson will also give them understanding on the difference between the past and present of the La Lomita and...

Mercedes Livestock Show & Rodeo

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/39213/archive/files/916d2071c1fcd765680ac1da958746d9.jpg

During these five lessons, the students learned a small portion of what the Rio Grande Valleys culture consists of through...

About RGV Primary Source Guides

Learn about place-based education

Additional Resources

The original members of this project are Stephanie Anckle, James Jupp, Sean Visintainer, and Kristen Weischedel.

If you would like to learn more about this project, or contribute primary sources or lesson plans, please contact us at archives@utrgv.edu with the subject line of "Rio Grande Valley Primary Source Guides".

DOI: http://doi.org/10.51734/DC0001

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License