Grade Level: 10-12
Time Required: One class period
Historical Thinking Skill: Analysis
Objective: To analyze the key differences in the preambles of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
Synopsis: Most students are familiar with both the preambles to these founding documents. This lesson gives students the chance to compare, contrast, and synthesize the ideas in both documents.
Required Materials:
Preamble to the Declaration of Independence
Preamble to the United States Constitution
Process:
Warm-up: Ask students about the purpose of writing a strong introduction, and ask them to give examples of powerful introductions from history or literature. Develop a list of 3-5 core elements of a strong introduction, and display these elements in the classroom so that the class may refer back to them throughout the lesson.
Ask students to complete the following discussion questions after reading both texts:
- Identify and explain three central concepts in each preamble.
- Identify and explain three differences between the preambles.
- Describe the tone of each preamble.
- Explain the purpose(s) of each preamble.
- Identify at least two other texts on ContextUS that relate to each preamble.
- Synthesize the two preambles into a single preamble. Were there any thoughts or words from these preambles that do not belong? Can students think of other thoughts or words that they would like to include? Ask students about the difficulty (or ease) of combining these two texts.
July 4, 1776. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the presentKing of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.