It continues to be a popular form of oral and written expression among Mexicans and Mexican Americans, and one can find corridos about almost any subject matter. After reviewing examples of corridos with a class, students are asked to write their own corrido beginning first with their individual ideas as to facts, events, details should be included in their corrido . Working in groups, students sift through ideas and narrow them down to favorites. Coming together as a class, corridos can be shared from groups and an overall class corrido can be created. Students can experience the park as an example of living history if someone can play the role of Anza and meet them on the grounds to present important historical information about Anza's experiences as well as those of local indigenous people such as the Apaches.
Teachers can meet local district curriculum requirements that reflect national standards.
These lessons take more time than one usually anticipates. Lesson 1 alone was a week of class time. It would be helpful to have more background on diary writing such as Anza and other historical figures engaged in related to traveling in unknown territory and conventions of writing about such travels. Web de Anza resources contain an extensive collection of primary and secondary historical sources on the Spanish Colonial era of Juan Bautistia de Anza in North America, 1750-1800.