Understanding the Declaration of Independence | Civics & American History

This Understanding the Declaration of Independence Article & Review breaks down each section of the United States Declaration of Independence in a clear, easy to understand way. Questions throughout the article reinforce the key ideas, and a 2-page review has students summarize each section, define key vocabulary, and connect passages of the Declaration to the United States Constitution. Fitting for Civics, Government, and American History classrooms, this is a great review of the Declaration of Independence for middle or high schoolers.

✯ Aligned to the Florida State Standard for Middle School Civics, SS.7.CG.1.6. The Declaration of Independence, the reading passage introduces students to the Declaration and breaks it down into the following sections:

• The Preamble, or introduction
• The Declaration of Human Rights
• The List of Grievances
• The Redress
• The Declaration of Independence

✯ The article includes questions for each section that summarize the key ideas. Questions include:

• Who is the group of people who want to “dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another”?
• Why do you think Jefferson wanted the world at large to understand America’s plight for independence?
• What is the Enlightenment theory Jefferson is referencing, that government is created by an agreement between the ruler and the people who are being ruled

✯ The review has students:

• Summarize each section of the Declaration in their own words
• Define the key vocabulary terms: grievance, independence, unalienable rights, redress, and consent of the governed
• Match excerpts from the United States Constitution with quotes from the Declaration of Independence found in the article. For example, students would match "No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law" from the Third Amendment with the Grievance listed in the article: "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." The idea is to get the students thinking about how complaints the colonists had against King George directly influenced the decisions they made when writing the Constitution.

This resource comes as a non-editable, printable PDF and includes an Answer Key. There is also a digital version available through TPT Easel, which can be assigned directly to Google Classroom or shared with your students via a link! Or, you can access a Google Slides digital version through a link in the PDF!

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Other Happy Teacher Resources you might like:

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✩ Declaration of Independence Matching Activity

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✩ The Colonists' Library | Foundations of Government: Influential Documents

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✩ Escape From King George! American Revolution Escape Room

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