Hook/Introductory Activity
Take your class on a field trip to a nearby site that provides audio tours. Bi- or multi-lingual audio tours are excellent resources. Consider nearby tourist destinations or themed museum exhibitions. As the students explore the site with an audio guide, ask them to consider: Is the audio guide helping me understand what I’m seeing? Is it adding to or detracting from my overall experience? Are there sound effects?
As homework, assign a written paragraph with the following prompt:
How did the audio tour enhance your experience of the site, and why?
Lesson 1
In the classroom, introduce the class to the history of El Camino Real de California. Between the years 1683 and 1834, Spanish missionaries on the west coast of Mexico and California established numerous religious outposts, each within a day’s ride from the next along what we call El Camino Real, translating to “The Royal Highway” or “The King’s Highway” in Spanish. These outposts today serve as concrete physical reminders of Spanish occupation and presence in California, and are visually representative of California’s Spanish colonial history. Running parallel to the San Andreas Fault, these outposts along El Camino Real de California include 21 missions, 4 presidios, and 3 pueblos, all of which are under threat of destruction. Several original structures have already been lost to earthquakes, and many remaining structures are seismically unstable. These sites mark 600 miles of the California coast, and all are vital in the telling of California’s history as we know it today.
Introduce students to CyArk’s website and El Camino Real de California theme. Walk students through the website and the project websites within the El Camino Real theme. Just like the site the class visited in the Introductory Activity, the El Camino Real missions, presidios, and pueblos see many visitors each year. They are popular destinations for historians, artists, religious pilgrims, locals, and of course California 4th graders. On CyArk’s website, you can experience a virtual tour of these sites. These virtual tours allow you to see the inside and outside of missions both near and far. Give students time to individually explore as many virtual tours as they can from CyArk’s El Camino Real sites, and follow up with the question: After seeing several mission virtual tours, which one do you like most? Why?
Lesson 2
Focusing on the mission that each student liked best in the virtual tour, introduce the research topic.
- You are in charge of scripting and directing the audio guide that will accompany your favorite virtual tour! As you think about what you want your audio tour to include, consider the following options: (1) a “day in the life of” guide, (2) a walk-through narrated guide, (3) a documentary-style guide. Follow one of these 3 styles, or come up with your own idea. YOU invent the path, and YOU record the narration!
This activity works best in groups. After you give each group the research topic, list the following requirements:
- You must include a variety of characters, or the stories of many characters. You want as many perspectives as possible to create the best representative story of the site. In your group, assign each individual a perspective or character to research. Examples of different character perspectives include, but are not limited to: priests, soldiers, Native Americans, farmers, men, women, children.
- After you are assigned a character/perspective, conduct thorough research, relying on primary resources as much as possible, to compose a 1-page description about the daily existence, role, and duties of your character. Include proper citations in your description.
- Compare your character description with the rest of your group, and begin to put together an engaging script using all character perspectives that will introduce your mission site to any audience. Keep in mind that audio tours are family friendly, and must involve as much historical context and anecdotal experience as possible to provide the listener with an enjoyable tour.
Using technology of your choice, record a group narrative that will accompany a set virtual tour path. For younger students, the groups will recite their narration as a member of the group directs the virtual tour online for the class. For older students, the groups will present their audio tour as a video or as a recording. Since there is currently no way to record a virtual tour path on CyArk’s website, consider taking a video or a series of screenshots in the order in which you wish to navigate visitors through the site. With the video or screenshots, the groups can superimpose their audio track in iMovie or a similar editing program. The nature of the final product is flexible, and should change depending upon resources or new ideas.
Groups will present their audio tours to the class. Consider distributing a feedback form after each audio tour to assess how engaging, educational, and realistic each group’s tour was.
