Taking on the roles of a fiery Boston patriot, a Philadelphia merchant's wife, and a prominent abolitionist, your young historians will consider the reactions of these early Americans to the creation of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Emancipation Proclamation respectively. They will then write letters to convey their particular point of view, and conclude by researching the famous Americans those characters actually represented.

Concepts

the declaration of independence, the united states constitution, the emancipation proclamation

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Additional Tags

declaration of independence, social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have learners design their own possible character descriptions based on an important figure from one of the historical periods highlighted in the resource, and then use those as additional options for the writing activity

Classroom Considerations

• For a more comprehensive look at public reaction to these different founding documents, offer your class members more options of historical character types and perspectives to choose from
• Consider only assigning worksheets as the topics they address arise in your normal curriculum, rather than all at once as the resource suggests

Pros

• Includes vocabulary list on each worksheet to support reading of primary source

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.6-8.1 RH.6-8.2 RH.6-8.6 WHST.6-8.2.a WHST.6-8.4