THE STUDENT DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE American History/Social Studies UNIT: American Revolution LEARNING TARGETS Students will know that the Declaration of Independence has three main parts: A preamble identifying rights of the people and responsibilities of the government, a list of grievances, and a formal declaration of independence from the authoritative body. Students will understand that the ideals set forth by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are still alive within contemporary American government. Students will demonstrate interpersonal and small-group skills by working cooperatively on the creation of their own Declaration of Independence. Initiation/Opening Hook governments are looked at as huge, unchangeable, and permanent structures in societies. As we read through & listen to the Declaration of Independence, we will see that this is not always the case. When the will of the people is continually ignored, the people have the duty to overthrow that oppressive government. As students in public school, do you ever feel oppressed and ignored? (Ask for volunteers to share) Context Now remember back to the previous lesson about all of the abuses that the British government committed against the colonists. (Ask for volunteers to recap Boston Tea Party and Intolerable Acts). Today we are going to participate in a “time warp lesson” – We will be writing our own Declarations of Independence and drawing upon the original document for inspiration and guidance. You may want independence from work, your parents, school, your brothers or sisters, pop music, fashion clothes, bad summer movies, your friends, or a bad habit; the list is endless. Find your despotic dictator and write your declaration against him, her, or it. First, you will be split up into four groups. Each group will be given a section of the declaration of independence to become “experts” on. These groups will fill out worksheets that: 1) state Time 3 min 10 min Trial,
what their section is 2) Summarize its purpose 3) provide a quote from the declaration itself as an example of this purpose. 4) connect it to the present with a contemporary example that applies to your own life! Second, each group member will split off into new groups of four members each – one “expert” from each section. They will share their expertise with each other on the document itself and their contemporary examples. Next, these new groups of four will work together to create a “student declaration of independence” modeled after the original document. These declarations MUST include all of the parts of the original and use some of the same language. They will use the worksheet provided to draft out their idea and present it to the teacher for approval Next, once declarations are approved, groups will work together to create a draft poster of their declarations that will hang in the hallway. Students will have the opportunity to read their Declarations and present their work to the class. Purpose governments are looked at as huge, unchangeable, and permanent structures in societies. As we read through & listen to the Declaration of Independence, we will see that this is not always the case. When the will of the people is continually ignored, the people have the duty to overthrow that oppressive government. As students in public school, do you ever feel oppressed and ignored? Now is your chance to be heard! 3 min 2 min =15min Teacher’s Activities Teacher will divide the whiteboard into two halves, writing “1776” on one half and “2011” on the other. Teacher will draw 4 bullets on the board with “preamble, rights, grievances, declaration.” Teacher will assign 4 groups and a subject to each group,, handing out worksheets. Teacher will split the groups into many groups of 4 in a ”jigsaw” activity where the group “experts” will share their knowledge with each other Teacher will reconvene class to a whole class setting and have representatives from each group share information that they learned about each section of the declaration of Time 95min