CAPSTONE — Renaissance-to-1750 in Many Voices — Storybook Presentation + Civic-Action Letter Mailing + Foxfire 3-Copy Distribution + 5-Star Self-Reflection

Open with MG-9 + MG-11 + MG-13a recitation — name FIVE PROMISES one more time. Display MG-24. Each student arrives with chapter draft from L21 hw.

• Recite FIVE PROMISES one more time
• Display MG-24 rubric
• Set Capstone tone — culminating work + Banks Level 4 social action

CAPSTONE LESSON 90 MIN. Two strands. STRAND A — STUDENT PRESENTS storybook chapter (5-min oral + 6-8 pages). Each chapter integrates at least 3 civilizations + at least 1 Indigenous-voiced source + at least 1 African-voiced source + applies MG-7 + MG-13 + MG-14 + NMAI present-tense + MG-13a. STRAND B — CIVIC-ACTION LETTER drafted + mailed today to one of 10 named institutions. Per Foxfire tradition + Banks Levels 3-4: THREE BOUND COPIES of class storybook delivered: (1) school library; (2) local public library; (3) descendant-community institution per student preference. STRUCTURE: (0-5 min) opening recitation; (5-65 min) 12-15 student 5-min presentations with peer feedback using MG-24; (65-75 min) civic-action letter final-draft + envelope addressing + class mailing; (75-85 min) 5-star self-reflection sheet (I-LEARNED + I-CAN + I-STILL-WONDER + WHAT-I-WILL-DO + WHO-I-AM-AS-HISTORIAN); (85-90 min) Compassion Circle close + bridge to G8. Foxfire bound copies distributed within week; teacher photographs all presentations for portfolio.

• Multi-perspective + multi-civilization + present-tense + named-source standard. Peer evaluator using MG-24 assigns 3 stars on each criterion based on evidence.

  model Example chapter opening: 'When the Spanish arrived at Tenochtitlán on November 8, 1519, the city of 200,000 Mexica people stood larger than London and rivaled Constantinople. Moctezuma II's diplomatic reception — refusing the myth of speechless awe — is recorded in the Florentine Codex Book 12 by Sahagún and Nahua scholars Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, and others. From the Mexica perspective documented in the Codex, the encounter was a state visit. From the Tlaxcalan perspective in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala 1552, it was an alliance. From the Spanish perspective in Cortés's Cartas, it was conquest. The Florentine Codex is now at Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Florence and was added to UNESCO Memory of the World 2015. Contemporary Nahuatl-speaking communities — 1.7 million speakers in Mexico City and surrounding regions — continue Mexica cultural and linguistic life today...'

  prompt Student presents chapter aloud — peer evaluators use MG-24 to assign 0-3 stars per criterion.
• 5-star assessment-as-learning. Student writes 1-2 sentences per star + signs.

  model Example: 'I LEARNED that the European Renaissance was one of six early-modern formations and that Mughal Akbar's sulh-i-kul was just as transformative as Italian humanism. I LEARNED that 12.5 million Africans were embarked across the Atlantic and 1.8 million died in the Middle Passage. I LEARNED that the Pueblo Revolt 1680 was the only successful Indigenous expulsion of European colonizers in North America. I CAN apply MG-7 Source Card including Q8 Encounter Multi-Perspective. I CAN refuse Restall's SEVEN MYTHS with named evidence. I STILL WONDER about Mughal women's voices we don't know. I STILL WONDER about Maya communities who keep their language alive today. I WILL email the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu about manuscript-preservation work. AS A HISTORIAN I am someone who refuses single-narrative framing and centers Indigenous + African voices.'

  prompt 5-star self-reflection.

• Submit chapter + present.
• Mail civic-action letter.
• Complete 5-star self-reflection.

• Each student presents 5-minute chapter; 3 peer evaluators per presentation use MG-24 to assign 0-3 stars per criterion.

  scaffold MG-24 rubric for each evaluator; sentence-frame feedback prompts.
• Civic-action letter final-draft + envelope addressing + class mailing — letters sealed + class walks to mailbox or addresses-to-mail tray.

  scaffold Letter template + addresses + envelopes + stamps.

• Storybook chapter submitted.
• Civic-action letter mailed.
• 5-star self-reflection completed.
• Stickies added to MG-23 for G8 bridge.

• Recite FIVE PROMISES one final time
• Compassion Circle close
• Bridge to G8-Fall: 'Next year we study American Revolution + Civil War + industrialization with the same disciplines.'

M-7-S-CAP-22-B Chart

Update MG-23 with end-of-unit wonderings; final reading and photographing for bridge to G8-Fall.

MG-23 Diagram

I-STILL-WONDER chart G7-Spring — 18x24 inch wall chart for unit-wide student wonderings sticky-note collection — carries forward from G7-Fall MG-22 + collects new wonderings during G7-Spring; serves as bridge into G8-Fall (Civil War + industrialization). Includes sections labeled: 'Renaissance women I want to know more about' + 'Conquest perspectives I want to read' + 'African voices I want to read' + 'Global empires I want to compare' + 'Resistance leaders I want to research.'

• Bring chapter + civic-action letter draft (from L21 hw); ready to present 5 min.