US History · Week 2 · Founding Ideals, Faith, and Reconstruction
Unalienable Rights, Unfinished Promises
Students read the Declaration of Independence alongside the experiences of enslaved people, women, and Native nations and consider how promises look different from different places.
- Students will
- Students analyze the natural rights ideas of the Declaration of Independence and compare how its promise of equality looked to enslaved people, women, and Native nations, using multiple perspectives.
- SEL skill
- Describe how one sentence of the declaration of independence sounded to a group that was left out
- What it looks like
- Students practice empathy by taking in perspectives different from their own and naming what they feel.
- Content focus
- Unalienable rights, unfinished promises
- Format
- Collaborative analysis
Social awareness
Social awareness means understanding other people's perspectives and feeling with them, including people whose backgrounds differ from yours. More social awareness activities
What you get
A teacher guide with what to say, step by step, plus student pages and a supports page for students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs. Print or Project it, or assign it in Google Forms and Google Docs for Google Classroom. Your first 10 activities are free.
Standards
- 11.1.2: CA History Social Science Content Standard, Grade 11: United States History and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century (standard 11.1, item 2)
- CA HSS Analysis Skill: HREP3 Evaluate major debates among historians about alternative interpretations of the past. (Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View)
- C3 Framework (national): D2.Civ.4.9-12 Explain how the Constitution sets up a government whose powers and limits have changed over time and are still debated.
- Literacy in history: RH.11-12.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Fits these textbook chapters
- American History: Reconstruction to the Present, Module 2: Westward Expansion
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 2: Defining and Debating America's Founding Ideals
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 4: The Colonial Roots of America's Founding Ideals
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 5: Americans Revolt
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 6: Creating the Constitution
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 7: An Enduring Plan of Government
- History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals, Chapter 59: 9/11 and Its Aftermath: Debating America's Founding Ideals
Textbook names are used only to help you find activities that fit what you teach. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with these publishers.
More social awareness activities for US History
- The Jungle and the Factory Floor Social awarenessStudents read excerpts from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle about working conditions and food safety and practice imagining daily life from a worker's point of view.
- Cities Built by Newcomers Social awarenessStudents map how immigrants and migrants built growing industrial cities divided by race, ethnicity, and class and practice noticing who might feel left out in a group.
- Dust Bowl Migrants Come to California Social awarenessStudents study Dorothea Lange's photographs of Dust Bowl families arriving in California and consider how communities can welcome people in crisis.
- Braceros and the Valley Harvest Social awarenessStudents learn how the Bracero Program brought Mexican workers to California farms, including in the Coachella Valley, and express gratitude for the hands that feed the nation.
Previous: Becoming a Citizen Historian · Next: Debating the Constitution
RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.