1. American Documents Civics Grades 11 – 12 Unit 2: Analyzing Early America

2. By: Amy Warner

3. Objectives Government Students will be familiar with the language of and political foundations found in important U.S. Documents.

4. Documents Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation

5. Documents U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights

6. Objectives Continued Social Studies Skills and Methods Students will be required to find an additional reliable internet source.

7. Materials Needed Computers for each group with internet access. Printer access. Previous notes on English documents and ideas (Unit 1: Foundations of American Government). Paper and pencil/pen. Poster. Art supplies: markers, colored pencils, etc.

8. Websites National Archives www.ourdocuments.gov Magna Carta – British Library www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html

9. Websites Continued Petition of Right – University of Chicago http://pres.pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/docu ments/amendI_assem bly3.html Ideas of John Locke – Stanford University http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/

10. Activities 1. Students will be given the main points of the four major U.S. Documents previously listed. –Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness –Freedom of speech, religion, press, etc. –Strong central govt. vs. weak central govt. –Elected officials –Trial by jury –Etc. This will give students a basic framework of each of the documents.

11. Activities 2. The teacher will discuss what is considered a reliable internet source. –Is the source credible? –What are the author’s credentials? –Who is the source intended for? –Quality control? Is it peer reviewed? EX: Online scholarly journals, organizational websites, government websites, etc. “Joe’s Government Page” is not a reliable source.

12. Activities Model reliable sources with the four listed under Websites.

13. Activities 3. Students will be divided into groups and be assigned one of the four U.S. documents. 4. Individually, each student will find one reliable source about their document.

14. Activities 5. With notes from the previous unit and the notes about American documents, groups of students will research the English and American Documents using the websites noted above and the websites that they chose.

15. Activities 6. On a poster, each group will make some kind of diagram of English ideas and documents as they relate to the U.S. Documents.

16. Venn Diagram

17. Pyramid Chart

18. Organizational Chart

19. Activities 7. Groups then present their poster to the class. –Explain what you found in your research. –Explain how the English documents influenced the American documents using your chart.

20. Activities Posters will be displayed in the classroom.

21. Assessment Individual Internet Source-----------------5 pts Is it reliable--------------------------------- ---10 pts English documents/ideas-----------------10 pts How do English docs/ideas relate to the U.S. documents------------------------------10 pts Presentation-------------------------------- ---10 pts Clarity and creativity of poster-----------5 pts TOTAL------------------------------------- ------50 pts