SS.912.CG.1.2

Students will look at excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, Common Sense, the Social Contract, and the Second Treatise of Government to analyze the Enlightenment's influence on the American Revolution. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will participate in a reading and writing activity.  They will mark up the text of the Declaration of Independence, making sure to indicate any passages which demonstrate the ideas indicative of the influence of the Enlightenment thinkers.

The teacher will pass out the grievances portion of the Declaration of Independence and have the students highlight, in different colors, the passages they think are from the Enlightenment thinkers. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze excerpts from the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and Common Sense. 

The main purpose of this lesson is to have students gain an understanding of the important documents that led to the American Revolution.

Type: Lesson Plan

This will include specific Enlightenment thinkers with an emphasis on the ideals that influenced the Declaration of Independence and both the American Revolution.

Type: Lesson Plan

After studying the influence of Enlightenment ideas on the Declaration of Independence, students will create a 3D painting using modeling compound that features allegorical objects to convey Enlightenment ideals in this integrated civics and arts lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will review the key ideas of several Enlightenment thinkers and explore their influence on Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. 

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will be used to introduce or review the Declaration of Independence, a founding document of America. This lesson will familiarize students with one of the Founders, Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on the American government by incorporating ideas from the European Enlightenment era. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will become familiar with important Enlightenment philosphers, their ideas, and how they influenced the creation of the Declaration of Independence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will compare and contrast Enlightenment philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will interact with principles and ideals taken from the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution and will make connections between them.  Students will then try to group the ideas with the correct documents.  In the end, they will reflect in writing about the ideological shifts they see from one Founding document to another. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze documents from major Enlightenment thinkers. Students will compare and contrast the Declaration of Independence to the Declaration of Rights of Man to evaluate the impact of the Enlightenment influenced both the American and French Revolutions. Students will use documents to make an argument about whether the Enlightenment was the strongest influence of the Revolutions.

Type: Lesson Plan

After discussing the universal theme of “the struggle for equality,” in an epic, students will compare the theme to American government and The Declaration of Independence. This lesson is to be used before, during, or after reading and studying at least one Epic such as “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” “The Odyssey,” “Antigone,” “Beowulf,” “The Iliad,” and/or “The Aeneid,” and is one part of a complete text unit. In this lesson, students will complete a chart with examples and textual support from an epic to outline examples of the theme of “the struggle for equality” as well as examples and textual support from The Declaration of Independence.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students review the major ideas of Enlightenment philosophers to evaluate their impact on the Declaration of Independence.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will learn to evaluate how ideas from the past influenced the political thinking of the Framers when writing both the Declaration of Independence and in reforming the country under the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence and identify an Enlightenment ideal that justified the grievance.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will use historical context and close reading to investigate the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence. Students will compare both documents to uncover intellectual continuities and appreciate the foundational position both documents occupy in American political and governmental history.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Grades 9-12 Civics Family Guide provides some ideas and activities to support civics education when at home, out and about, and in the community. The activities provided align to the civics learning benchmarks within Standard 1 at these grade levels.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, designed for students in the debate classroom, students will use prior knowledge on ethos, logos, and pathos to analyze the grievances in the Declaration of Independence and classify the rhetorical appeals in each.

Type: Teaching Idea