Foundations of Government: Influential Documents BUNDLE!

This Foundations of American Government: Influential Documents bundle consists of all of my resources related to John Locke and the Social Contract, the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the Mayflower Compact, and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense! Everything you need to comprehensively teach the influential documents that inspired the American government! 

Aligned to Florida State Standards SS.7.CG.1.4 The Enlightenment and its Influences andSS.7.CG.1.3 Influential Documents, this bundle has tons of resources for your middle school or high school Civics or American Government class!

In this Foundations of Government bundle, you get:

✯ The Colonists’ Library, an activity set that consists of:

• a 5-page Interactive Article covering the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, Mayflower Compact, Social Contract, and Common Sense. The article links to YouTube videos that enrich understanding and complement the material. Students also interpret quotes from Common Sense and connect quotes from the English Bill of Rights with the United States Bill of Rights. 
• A 2-Page Review has students take notes on the article, identifying who wrote each foundational document, when and why it was written, and what the Big Idea might be. There’s also a vocabulary match.
• A Matching Activity worksheet where students match primary source quotes from the influential documents with the document’s name and description. (2 versions, one slightly more challenging than the other!)
• A Colonists’ Library Book Cover Creative Project in which students pick one of the influential documents and create an illustrated front cover and back cover blurb!

✯ Influential Documents | Foundations of American Government Close Reads, a worksheet set that consists of:

• Three excerpted reading passages from the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, and Mayflower Compact.
• Questions in the margins of the passages encourage students to close-read the excerpt, defining key vocabulary, interpreting the text, and figuring out the Big Idea behind each document.

✯ John Locke & Thomas Jefferson | Social Contract Close-Read & Comparison, a worksheet set that consists of:

• Three worksheets that build in complexity, focused on John Locke’s Social Contract and its connection to Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. 
• The first worksheet, John Locke & the Social Contract Short Article, introduces Locke and Jefferson and has students describe the social contract in their own words, plus highlight lines from the Declaration of Independence’s Preamble that remind them of the social contract. 
• The second worksheet, the Social Contract Close Read, is a close-read of Locke’s writings on the Social Contract. In the margins, questions are given to help students annotate the passage and discern its main ideas.
• The third and final worksheet, Comparing the Social Contract and & the Declaration of Independence, has students read and compare excerpts from John Locke’s writing on the Social Contract with Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. They then highlight similarities, define key vocabulary terms, and explain how Jefferson applied concepts from the Social Contract to his Declaration.

The resources in this bundle come as non-editable, printable PDFs and include Answer Keys. There are also digital versions available through TPT Easel, which can be assigned directly to Google Classroom or shared with your students via a link!

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