Texas TEKS 4.2.E
The Standard
identify the accomplishments and explain the economic motivations and impact of significant empresarios, including Stephen F. Austin and Martín de León, on the settlement of Texas.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare how Stephen F. Austin and Martín de León brought families to Texas and helped establish settlements. They explain how land, income, farming, ranching, and trade shaped their choices and affected Texas growth.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can name an accomplishment for each empresario and connect it to an economic motive. They can use a map or short source to explain how each settlement changed population, trade, or land use.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think empresarios were explorers or government leaders rather than contractors who recruited settlers. They may also credit Austin with all settlement and overlook de León's Mexican colony, ranching, and founding of Victoria.
How to Assess It
- Give students a two-column exit ticket labeled Austin and de León. Under each name, have them write one accomplishment, one economic motive, and one effect on Texas settlement.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place family, cattle, town, and trade cards on a Texas map to model how Austin's colony and de León's colony grew.
Write a claim answering: Which empresario had the greater local impact, and what evidence supports your answer?
Play a card sort matching each empresario with accomplishments, economic motives, settlement locations, and effects.
Compare empresario land contracts with a modern housing development, then list how each can attract people and create business activity.
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Printable 4.2.E Worksheet
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