Evidence-backed reading routes

Before teaching

• Choose actual school-approved products; read current labels/SDS and school requirements.

• Pilot the chosen hands-on method and document real failures, quantities, timings, drying/release and accessibility.

• Verify equipment, supervision, handling, waste and incident procedures.

• Apply lab-specific fallback whenever procurement, source visibility or safe-transfer conditions cannot be met.

Lab-specific review

• Record exact Tonindeye opening designation and verify every feature is legible.

• No compulsory family history, ritual enactment, or Indigenous-student translator role.

Teacher preparation

Prepare ten group sets. Each contains one device or three lawful image/source packets; three A4/letter sheets; three pencils; one ruler; three colored pencils with non-color alternatives; and an optional classroom model. Total consumable sheets are 30, apart from source printouts. Three six-event sequences can be printed once and reused or drawn from Chapter 5.

Allow 25–35 minutes to prepare the stations, and more if image permissions or route verification are unfinished. The three-source design is part of the investigation; where a source image is unavailable, use the labeled neutral alternative without claiming it demonstrates the historical route.

1. Maya station: Getty gallery-guide PDF page 7, the explanatory reading diagram for Códice Maya de México. Keep the institutional caption and attribution, including the illustrator's credit when reproducing the diagram. Check permission for the intended handout or publication.
2. Ñuu Savi station: an original-object or clearly identified facsimile view of Tonindeye, with its actual manuscript-page/plate designation. Pair it with the Pohl explanation of guide lines. Verify that the relevant lines are legible and that the explanation actually applies to the selected view. A catalogue thumbnail alone is insufficient.
3. Nahua station: a Boturini view with an exact image identifier and INAH object context, paired with Getty's footprint discussion. Identify the image as an original manuscript photograph or a particular facsimile. Students study the identified connecting feature; they do not infer unknown place-name readings.

The station directions are complete, but this package does not supply new licensed historical handouts or claim that three exact image crops have already been cleared. An institutional view can be consulted directly where permitted. A teacher-made neutral schematic is an accessible fallback for route logic. Label it so that its arrows cannot be mistaken for a transcription.

Suggested response to “I decoded it”: ask the student to identify which observations they made and which meanings came from a source. Keep useful observations and replace uncited translations with a research question. This is an evidence exercise, not a race.

Schedule and equipment queues

One 50-minute session: 5 statement distinction +5 initial observation +5 source revision +16 station rotations +6 modern arrangement +7 comparison +6 final check/cleanup. Optional extension 15 minutes.

Alternative material plans

Use the accessible alternatives and fallback instructions in the student procedure.

Editorial corrections

The current student procedure is the teaching baseline.

Safety and stop conditions

Read these controls with the teacher before handling materials. Chemical etching is historical context only; the practical intaglio activity uses drypoint without mordants.

Controls

• Use pre-cut board and paper; any craft knife or guillotine is teacher-only, according to school policy.

• Use rounded scissors if students need a trimming step, and a capped pen or smooth plastic spoon rather than a sharp scoring tool.

• Do not boil bark, harvest tree bark, process animal skin, grind minerals, heat indigo–clay mixtures, use solvents, or handle dry pigment powders.

• Do not use historic pigments, cinnabar, orpiment, lead colours, unknown earths, or genuine antiquities. No open flame, UV lamp, lasers, acids, or chemical “authenticity tests.”

• No eating or drinking at the paint station. Wash hands; wipe spills promptly. Keep wet work away from screens and power supplies.

• Use a stable cool LED desk lamp for raking light; do not shine it into eyes. Never fold, wet, rub, scrape, or take a sample from an original manuscript or valued modern artwork.

• Record and follow individual allergy, sensory, motor, and vision accommodations. Do not ask pupils to disclose private health information to classmates.

Stop when

• Unknown or unsuitable art materials, discomfort, unsafe cutting, damaged tools, or unsafe wet/electrical setup: pause and follow school procedures.

• A source feature or matched historical scene is illegible or unverified: stop interpretive claims and use a labeled schematic or metadata exercise.

Trained adult only

• Craft knives, guillotines, stock cutting, product selection, source/right checks, and permission-controlled photography.

Excluded activities

• Bark boiling or harvesting, skin processing, mineral grinding, heated indigo–clay mixtures, solvents, dry pigment powders, historic toxic pigments, genuine antiquities, flame, UV, lasers, acids, chemical authenticity tests.

• Sacred reenactment, unverified translation, automated completion of damaged signs, compulsory personal genealogy/migration/religion disclosure.

Cultural and source review

Specific specialist/practitioner review or permission is needed before claiming cultural endorsement or expanding into community-specific or restricted practice. No paid review, purchase, or spending is imposed as a blanket release gate for these explicitly labeled ordinary classroom adaptations. Do not claim any such consultation has occurred.