RUE Episode 89: Ancestors Pt.2

The ancient, abandoned cities of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde have intrigued people for centuries. This episode of Ramping Up your English explores those sites in the video Ancestors: Part 2. We’re using the thematic unit of Native Americans as our academic content to help English learners elevate their English proficiency from intermediate to higher proficiency levels. Welcome to Episode 89.

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. This city sheltered a people called the Anasazi for hundreds of years before severe drought forced them to abandon the city and resettle along the Rio Grand River. They are believed to be ancestors of the Pueblo.

Watching Episode 89

You can watch Episode 89 of Ramping Up your English as video on demand from archive.org. Click here to see the episode ad-free as seen on RVTV Voices.

Watching Episode 89 in Segments

Here is Episode 89 in three segments.

Click here to watch Segment 1

Click here for the second segment.

Watch Segment 3

Episode Summary

We begin Episode 89 with the second part of the Video entitled Ancestors. The video focuses on the development of the Southwest, including Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. From this video, we use prepositions and prepositional phrases to support the Social Studies concept of location.

Episode 89 also features a video entitled Ice Age Flood – including an interview with Pat McMillan, curator of the Favell Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon. McMillan traces the environmental changes that have occurred in Oregon over thousands of years of time since the Ice Age in North America.

I also did a book review on three books that are related to the content of this episode. I always suggest reading to reinforce the content that we use for better language development. The more steeped one becomes in the content, the more likely that they’ll comprehend the auditory and literal input connected with that content. Reading is also the most effective way of building vocabulary.

Language Objectives

Use prepositions and prepositional phrases to establish the location of past events, actions, and situations.

Academic Content Objectives

Locate the American Southwest on a map. Describe the climate of the American Southwest. Name early American cities that were established in the American Southwest. Describe the trade network that existed in the American Southwest during the time of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Identify the role of food production in the trade that occurred during Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde times.

Explain the role that climate had on the development, maintenance and decline of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Trace the migration of Early Americans to the Southwest region. Trace the out-migration that occurred after the abandonment of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.

Describe the housing that was constructed at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Explain the role of the kiva in Native American life. Identify the descendants of the Chacoans and Mesa Verde people.

Videos used in Episode 89

We started with the second part of the Video Ancestors. Click here to see the video on You Tube. For viewing without ads, watch the video of archive.or – the Site of Rogue Valley Voices. Click here to see it. Episode 89 also contains the video Ice Age Flood, featuring an interview with Pat McMillan, curator of the Favell Museum in Ashland. Click here to see Ice Age Flood. The same video is available on Rogue Valley Voice’s archive.org site. Click here to see it without ads

Books used in Episode 89

Host John Letz reviewed three books viewers may want to read. North American Indian by Eyewitness Books covers all things Native American with plenty of illustrations. Eyewitness books are popular among school kids, with each page packed with text and visuals. Eyewitness’s North American Indian is written by David Murdoch.It spanned the arrival of people on the continent to modern times, and focuses on Indian life and the main Native Americans living in various regions. Chief Consultant is Stanley A. Freed, PhD of the American Museum of Natural History. Photography is by Lynton Gardiner. The ISBN is 0-7894-9808-1.

Another book reviewed was The Anasazi from Children’s Press. It’s one of their series A New True Book. The language is simple and the book is well-illustrated. The ISBN in 0-516-41121-7. This book – as well as the others – may well be in your school library if you attend school.

The book Mesa Verde National Park from Children’s Press features great illustrations and language complexity that should serve intermediate English learners well. The author is Ruth Radlauer, and the photographer in Rolf Zillmer. It’s a beautiful book. The ISBN is 0-516-47490-1. My brief reviews of these books surely fell short of conveying their quality. I suggest looking them up and seeing for yourself. My main objective is to encourage viewers to read about the content we present on Ramping Up your English.

Learning Materials used in Episode 89

Here are the materials we used for teaching about Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases that modify verbs with location.

Next Episode

In Episode 90, we feature another video about Native Americans. It’s entitled The Calm. We also present yet another verb tense for relating events, actions, and situations in the past. Click here to visit the Episode 90 page.