The Colonists’ Library | Foundations of Government: Influential Documents

The Colonists’ Library interactive article and activity set dives into the Foundations of the United States Government, covering the Influential Documents of Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the Mayflower Compact, the Social Contract, and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Compatible with the Florida State Standards SS.7.CG.1.4 The Enlightenment and its Influences and SS.7.CG.1.3 Influential Documents, this resource is perfect for a middle or high school Civics or American Government class covering the foundations of American Government.

This resource includes:

✯ A 5-page Colonists’ Library interactive article that explores the context and historical importance of 5 influential documents in American history.

Influential Documents Covered:

• Magna Carta
• The English Bill of Rights
• The Mayflower Compact
• The Social Contract
• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

The article includes 2 YouTube links in sidebars for enrichment, with questions that include time-stamps so that students can easily find the answers.

The videos linked in the article are:

• The British Library’s “What is Magna Carta?” 3 minutes and 32 seconds.
• Drive Thru History’s “The Mayflower Compact”. 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

Note: Internet Access and District Access to YouTube is required to complete the sidebar activities. However, these are supplemental activities that hold no bearing on the rest of the article, review, or projects, so they are optional. You could always place a scrap of white paper over the sidebars when you make copies of the pages, effectively “erasing” them. 

✯ A two-page Review & Vocabulary Matching Worksheet that serves as a place for the students to write notes on the article. 

For each Influential Document, the review asks:

• Who wrote it?
• When was it written?
• Why was it written?
• What were the Big Ideas?

There is, at the end of the worksheet, a vocabulary match for those Big Ideas. The Big Ideas (such as limited government, natural rights, consent of the governed, and so on) are bolded in the article so students can easily identify them.

✯ The Influential Documents Matching Activity, a cut-and-paste activity where students match the foundational documents with a quote and their definition. A great way to quickly review!

✯ Finally, a creative project: The Colonists’ Library Book Cover & Blurb. Students choose one of the documents they have learned about (Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, etc.) and illustrate a book cover representing its key ideas. They also complete a back cover blurb meant to sell the book in stores. The book template is included. The included rubric details the information that should be conveyed in their blurb:

• “Write a blurb for the back cover which summarizes the document. Include in your blurb when the document was written, who wrote it, and why it was so important. Make it sound exciting—back cover blurbs are meant to sell the book to new readers!”

This Unit set is a great, engaging way to teach the foundational documents of American history. Depending on your students’ level, a middle school Civics class may need the article to be read aloud to them and talked through, while a high school American Government class should be fine reading it on their own. You could let your students print out pictures from the internet to create their book covers; the completed books look amazing displayed across a bulletin board of student work. Students get a big kick out of getting to pause their article-reading to watch the YouTube videos. All in all, this is a comprehensive dive into some big concepts, and I think it really helps kids get a full understanding of some pretty tricky ideas. 

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

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