Group items tagged

Great lesson on the Declaration of Independence.  It includes 8 activities that allow students to look at historical connections and primary sources.

This blog post discusses women's suffrage in the 17th century and how it is compatible with the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence. It dismisses the idea that the 19th amendment was some revolutionary idea and provides evidence that women were voting throughout the Colonial Period.

Allows students to examine the famous painting of the Declaration of Independence.

This website breaks down Thomas Jefferson's role in writing the Declaration of Independence using child friendly language for elementary students. Other areas of the website include more background information on Jefferson and Monticello.

These lessons (geared toward middle school or lower level high school) ask students to closely read the Declaration of Independence, summarize key parts of it, and then use persuasive writing and evidence from the document to answer open response type questions. These lessons address several Common Core Standards.

This is the National Archives' "Charters of Freedom" website. In addition to having full transcriptions of the DOI, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, there are links to many ancillary materials as well. Included in the site are lesson suggestions, other primary source materials, and scholarly essays about the legacy of our Founding Documents.

Game that helps students in grades 5-8 understand what led to the Declaration of Independence.  This is the first of a number of lessons that the kids can take part in.

Primary Source Document of the Magna Carta is a good document to compare with the Declaration of Independence.  

I suspect elementary kids would have trouble with this. You might show them the actual wording but give them a masterfully watered down version.

A PBS video about what happened to the founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence.  I think students would find this interesting so they can see how signing this document really did impact the lives of these men.  Would be a nice conclusion to teaching it as it is only 8:00 minutes long.

This is an Interesting, but busy graphic about the 4th of July past and present. It provides interesting statistics and information about the day in 1776 and also modern traditions and interpretations. I think this graphic could be great for a small discussion about the most American of holidays.

The following is a translation of the document by Laurent Dubois and John Garrigus as published in "Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789 - 1804: A Brief History with Documents ." This might be an interesting document to use with the Declaration of Independence.

An expressive reading of the Declaration of Independence by celebrities which could be used as a read-along support or as an access point for auditory/visual learners.

Discussion of the Declaration of Independence as a 'living' document, with contemporary connections to the Reparations Movement.

A discussion of impacts that the Declaration of Independence has had on African-American experiences and perspectives.

This gives a sample of the most celebrated documents and milestones in history. I thought it was interesting to be able to click on a plethora of links not on just the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constittution, Bill of Rights but also links to the Emancipation Proclamation, Social Security Act, FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech and much more.

The National Archives is truly a remarkable site. Remember when we had to teach history without the richness of all the documents we can now get online?

I found this link based off of my previous link of Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport. This is a collection of 50 critical primary sources that trace America's growth from the Declaration through the 1980s. It's interesting to see their choices of documents to include, and the story it tells of American history.

This is a great site on the French Revolution that would be useful for anyone who wants to have students look at documents comparing the American Revolution to the French Revolution. There are things there like Olympia De Gouges' Declaration of the Rights of Women that are great for that kind of activity