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Kate Todd

Ancient American Traders

Grades: 4th Grade, 3rd Grade
Subjects: English Language Arts
Standards: Uses an increasing range of skills, strategies and knowledge to fluently read, view and comprehend a range of texts on increasingly challenging topics in different media and technologies. (EN2-4A.)

Student Instructions

1. Read the passage carefully. 2. Answer the questions about what you read. 3. Complete the creative tasks to show what you learned.

Teacher Notes (not visible to students)

This activity uses a short informational passage about trade among the Maya, Aztec and Inca to practise reading fluency and comprehension. The passage highlights different travel methods (water, land, mountain roads), items traded (salt, obsidian, gold, cacao, etc.), and special roles like pochteca, tlamemes and relay runners. Use the Reading Fluency recording to check students' expression and accuracy as they read aloud. Pair students for a quick discussion after the reading to support any struggling readers. For the open-ended tasks: a high-quality paragraph answer should use details from the passage, explain at least two differences or examples, and show clear sentences and correct key words (e.g., pochteca, tlamemes, Qhapaq Ñan). For the multimedia task, expect students to include clear visuals or audio that link to the passage (for example: draw a llama train and label what it carried, or record a short voice clip explaining how the Incas sent messages). Grade open responses manually as correct if they use passage details and show understanding, or incorrect if they are off-topic or show misunderstanding of main ideas.

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