In this lesson, students will identify the colonists' grievances and concerns for unfair treatment by the British King and Parliament and examine the purpose of the Declaration of Independence as identified in the document. Students will interpret grievances and concerns stated in the Declaration of Independence and then design a poster that will describe each part of the Declaration of Independence.

In this lesson, students identify important people who were part of the Revoluntionary War and who helped in the writing of the Constitution. Students explain how the discussions and decisions at the Constitutional Convention became part of American politics today.

This inquiry focuses on the argument made in the United States Declaration of Independence. With a firm understanding of the American colonists’ argument for independence, the inquiry shifts to students conducting research on declarations of independence in other parts of the Western Hemisphere.