Like the Unions in Paterson, New Jersey assessment, this assessment gauges whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an excerpt of the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century encyclopedia of Aztec history and culture, then determine which facts might help them evaluate the account's reliability. In strong answers, students will explain how the fact that the project was directed by a Spanish priest motivated to convert the Indigenous peoples of Mexico (Fact 2) casts doubt on the reliability of the document. Strong answers will also explain that Fact 4 casts doubt on the reliability of the document, as it reveals that the Aztecs had dominated the Otomí, raising the possibility that the Aztec students who drafted the account might have held inaccurate and unfair views of the Otomí.
