SS.8.A.3.5

In this lesson, students will read excerpts from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and identify the underlying foundational ideals of the U.S. government. Students will then make their own modern pamphlets to sway colonists in support of the American Revolution.  

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson the teacher will start off unwrapping two benchmarks with the class and showing the connection between both. The lesson will follow with image analyses using images based in the Revolutionary era. Students will use the image analyses to discuss Revolutionary era civic virtues and the influence of citizens and leaders of the time. This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini unit integrating civics and American History.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will work in groups to read about major leaders in the Colonial Era as they fill out a graphic organizer on their influence and civic virtue. This is lesson 2 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and American History.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the teacher will facilitate a philosophical chairs discussion with the whole class on leaders demonstrating civic virtue from the Colonial Era. This is lesson 3 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and American History.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to identify George Mason and his contributions to the Bill of Rights. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will review influential individuals and groups, and their influence on social and political developments during the colonial period and the American Revolution.  

Type: Lesson Plan

This web resource from Discovery Education provides teaching ideas on using James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier's My Brother Sam is Dead to help students understand how they can learn about the past through historical novels. Students will investigate how some people take one side or another in a war or other conflict; some people find themselves caught in the middle.

Type: Teaching Idea

Through this three-lesson unit examining George Washington's role in the French and Indian War, at the Federal Convention, and as chief executive, students will analyze a variety of primary source documents to help evaluate whether Washington's actions were characteristic of good leadership. The unit includes focus questions that may be used in Socratic seminars, cooperative learning, individual, and group work.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence