Aztecs Reading Comprehension Passage

Lesson Snapshot
• Title: Aztecs
• Genre: Nonfiction (informational passage)
• Subject: Social Studies (Ancient Civilizations) / Reading (Informational Text)
• Primary Topic: Building lake-city life and what happened later
• Estimated Guided Reading Level (A–Z): S

What This Lesson Teaches Best
• How a wandering Nahua group (the Mexica) chose a home based on a sign and began building a city on a lake.
• How people adapted to living on water using chinampas, canals, and causeways to grow food and move around.
• How Triple Alliance (between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan) helped the capital grow powerful through victories and tribute.
• Using headings to track a sequence: founding and growth, alliance and power, then conflict and destruction, and what remains today.
• Connecting past to present by noting how the eagle-and-cactus story lives on and how archaeologists still uncover remains beneath modern streets.

Learning Goals
• Identify the sign the Mexica saw that helped them choose their home.
• Describe how builders expanded the island and how chinampas helped crops grow near home.
• Explain how canals and causeways helped the city get fresh water and connect to the shore.
• Describe how tribute (examples named in the text) helped the capital grow powerful.
• Describe what the passage says happened after Spanish explorers arrived, including the year the city fell.
• Explain what the passage says exists today where the city once stood.