 Activity: (Response Group) Students discuss 3 provocative questions about ideas and individuals, which helped shape America’s five founding ideals.  Processing: Draw an illustrated cover to the book Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Be creative as creativity counts.

 Answer this question in your notebook:  Why should citizens treat their nation’s flag with respect? Do you believe there should be laws to protect flags? Why or why not?

Independence Declared

 I’ve never even read the Declaration! What is the point, anyway?  There is no doubt that our nation has lost it’s focus. The greatest nation the world has ever known finds itself in economic, social, and political turmoil today. How did we get to this point? How do we get back on track? The answers are simple: We need to get back to our dependence on ourselves, not on our government, and begin again to implement the common sense of the Founding Fathers. And there’s no better way to do that than to study the most foundational of all American documents: The Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 Equality: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”  Rights: “That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”  Liberty: “That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Opportunity: “That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Democracy: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

 1. How and why did Common Sense influence the colonists?  2. Were the signers of the Declaration of Independence Founders or Traitors?  3. What did the signing of the Declaration mean for the colonists?

 Written by Thomas Paine  Colonists had nothing to gain from being under British rule  Spoke out against rule by king and queens  6 months - 500,000 copies  Video: Common SenseCommon Sense  Click start topic, then play

 Writing the Declaration (11:36-15:21)11:36-15:21  The months of late 1776 were “the times that try men’s souls.”  Discover the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the risks they took.  John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, etc.

 Basic rights  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness  British wrongs  Disbanding colonial legislatures  Sending troops in times of peace  An independent nation  Cutting all ties to Britain  Could make alliances and trade with other countries

 Would you fight and die for your basic rights? For any of the 5 ideals?  If so, which ones? Which ones would you be willing to die for?

 Patriots  People who supported independence  Loyalists  People who remained loyal to Britain  Neutralists  People who were in between  33%, 33%, 33%

 Draw an illustrated cover to the book Common Sense by Thomas Paine.  Due tomorrow.  Be creative as creativity counts.  As you can see, the cover is missing and I need you to design a new one!