Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-80 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Show a school permission slip or any short form with a title, a statement of facts, a request and a signature line.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Cover the signature line. Is the form still official? Now cover the statement of facts at the top. Does the request still make sense? Which part of the form could you remove with the least damage, and which part does the whole form depend on?"

   Collect answers. Students usually decide that the request is the heart of the form but that it depends on the facts above it and the signature below it. Name the skill: RH.11-12.5 asks students to analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how its key sentences, paragraphs and larger portions contribute to the whole. Formal documents make the contribution of each part easy to test, because each part has a job.

2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes

   Part 1: Three levels. Put the table on the board and keep it up all period. Students copy the three questions for the whole.

   Three levels of structure in a formal primary source, with questions to ask at each

   Level	What to look for	Question for the whole
   Larger portions	Groups of paragraphs that do one job: a recital of facts, a claim of authority, the order itself, provisions, a justification, the attestation (date, seal, signatures)	Why do the portions come in this order, and which portion would the document fail without?
   Paragraphs	The first words of each paragraph (Whereas, Now, therefore, And, In witness whereof) and what each paragraph adds to the one before	What does this paragraph set up, carry out or limit?
   Key sentences	The sentence that does the document's main work; its subject, its main verb, its tense and the clauses that qualify it	How does the grammar of this sentence give it its force or its limits?

   Part 2: Model with the Emancipation Proclamation. Read T1 aloud, then T2. Together they are the whole document. Students number the paragraphs of each passage and write the first two words of every paragraph in the margin. Show Diagram 1 and work the three examples: one for each level.

   1THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

   2A Proclamation.

   3Whereas on the 22d day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

   4"That on the 1st day of January, A.D., 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

   5"That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States."

   6Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A. D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:

   1Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

   2And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

   3And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

   4And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

   5And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

   6In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

   7Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, A.D. 1863, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

   8A. LINCOLN.

   9By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

   • Larger portions: the eight parts of the Proclamation (T1 and T2)

     T1 paragraphs 1-2 are a heading; paragraphs 3-5 are a recital that begins "Whereas" and quotes the September proclamation; paragraph 6 begins "Now, therefore" and claims authority; T2 paragraph 1 lists the places; T2 paragraph 2 gives the order; paragraphs 3-4 add two provisions; paragraph 5 justifies the act; paragraphs 6-9 attest it.

     Result: The order of the portions is the order of a legal argument: what was promised, by what power the President acts, where, what is ordered, what follows from the order, why it is right, and proof that it is official. "Whereas" and "Now, therefore" are a matched pair: the recital supplies the facts, and the second paragraph of authority draws the conclusion. Diagram 1 shows the portions to scale: the recital, 229 words, is the longest, and the order itself is only 61.

   • A paragraph's contribution: why quote the September proclamation? (T1 paragraphs 3-5)

     "Whereas on the 22d day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:" The second quoted paragraph promises that "the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion."

     Result: Quoting the earlier text makes the January document the keeping of a public promise, not a sudden act. The second quoted paragraph also explains the shape of what follows: it promised a proclamation that would "designate the States," so T1 paragraph 6 announces a designation and T2 paragraph 1 is a list. The recital contributes both legitimacy (the President is doing what he said he would do) and the plan of the rest of the document.

   • A key sentence: authority before the act (T1 paragraph 6)

     "Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion ... and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A. D. 1863 ... order and designate ..."

     Result: Paragraph 6 has no full stop: its 119 words open one long sentence that ends only after the list of places in T2 paragraph 1. Its subject, "I, Abraham Lincoln," comes near the start, but the helping verb "do" is word 57 and the main verbs "order and designate" begin at word 92. Everything between is a claim of authority: the office (Commander-in-Chief), the condition ("actual armed rebellion") and the purpose ("a fit and necessary war measure"). The grammar makes the reader pass through the legal basis before reaching the act, which fits a document whose power rested on the President's war powers.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs compare the key sentence of September, quoted in T1 paragraph 4, with the key sentence of January in T2 paragraph 2. They mark the tense of each verb, the words that say where the sentence applies, and who acts. Then the class works the example and looks at Diagram 2.

   • Two versions of the key sentence (T1 paragraph 4 and T2 paragraph 2)

     September: all persons held as slaves in any state then in rebellion "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." January: "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free."

     Result: The September sentence is in the future tense and applies to places not yet named ("any State ... the people whereof shall then be in rebellion"). The January sentence is in the present tense, "are ... free," and applies to "said designated States," the places named in T2 paragraph 1. It also has a speaker who acts: "I do order and declare." The two sentences show the whole document's movement from announcement to execution, and "said" ties the key sentence back to the list just before it. Diagram 2 sets them side by side.

   Teacher model for the pair work: The September text also promised that the government "will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." The January order keeps the promise to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons" but drops that clause, and the next paragraph instead urges the people declared free "to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense." Ask pairs what this change in the provisions contributes to the whole: the final document presents emancipation as an orderly war measure carried out by the government and the army, a point T2 paragraph 4 then makes concrete by opening the armed service to the people it frees.

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read T3 and T4, the whole of Virginia's Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, which Thomas Jefferson drafted in 1777 and the Virginia General Assembly passed in January 1786, after James Madison led it through the legislature. Give two terms: a preamble is the opening statement of a law's reasons, and an enacting clause is the part that makes the law ("Be it enacted"). Students apply the three levels to the Act and then take the quiz, which uses T3 and T4, with one question comparing the Act with T1 and T2.

   1An Act for establishing Religious Freedom, passed in the Assembly of Virginia in the beginning of the year 1786.

   2Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that, therefore, the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles, on the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

   1Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

   2And though we well know this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with the powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable, would be of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: On an index card, name the part of the Emancipation Proclamation you think the whole depends on most, and explain in two sentences what the document would lose without it. Give the passage and paragraph number.

   Teacher note on the sources and their language: The passages are quoted exactly as printed in their editions. The Proclamation's phrase "persons held as slaves" is its legal wording; in discussion, "enslaved people" is the usual term today. Students should know the Proclamation's limits, which its structure makes visible: it applied only to the places listed in T2 paragraph 1, so it did not cover the slaveholding border states that stayed in the Union or the areas excepted in the parentheses, and slavery ended everywhere in the United States only with the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865. In T5, "strangers" is Bradford's word for passengers who were not members of his Separatist congregation, and "dread sovereign" means a king held in awe. T5 is Harold Paget's 1909 modern-English version of Bradford's manuscript, so its spelling and some of its wording are Paget's. The excerpts contain no slurs.

   Homework passage. Bradford's account of why the Mayflower passengers drew up a compact in November 1620, followed by the text of the compact, used for the homework problems.

   1First, I will turn back a little, and begin with a compact or deed drawn up by them before they went ashore to settle, constituting the first foundation of their government. This was occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall: that when they got ashore they would use their liberty that none had power to command them, the patent procured being for Virginia, and not for New England, which belonged to another company, with which the Virginia company had nothing to do. And, further, it was believed by the leading men among the settlers that such a deed, drawn up by themselves, considering their present condition, would be as effective as any patent, and in some respects more so.

   2The form of the deed was as follows:

   3In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and the furtherance of the ends aforesaid and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general use of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have here underscribed our names at Cape Cod, 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth.

   4A. D. 1620.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   After its title, the Act (T3 and T4) has three larger portions. Which list names them in order?

   AAn enacting clause, a preamble of reasons, and a list of penalties BA preamble of reasons, an enacting clause, and a declaration about later assemblies CA preamble of reasons, then a list of penalties, and finally the signatures of the Assembly DA declaration about later assemblies, a preamble, and then an enacting clause

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What is unusual about the grammar of the preamble, T3 paragraph 2?

   AIt is a list of twelve separate sentences, one for each of the reasons BIt is written as a series of questions for the reader to answer CIt gives each reason as a numbered article, like a constitution DIt is one sentence of reasons whose subject, the Assembly, acts only in T4

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does the word "therefore" in "Be it therefore enacted" (T4 paragraph 1) contribute to the Act?

   AIt makes the whole preamble the ground for the law that follows BIt signals that the law is a temporary measure for the time of war CIt marks the enacting clause as a summary of the preamble's first reason DIt shows that the enacting clause was added to the Act at a later date

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The first reason of the preamble is "that Almighty God hath created the mind free." Why does it matter that this reason comes first?

   AIt is the shortest of the reasons, and so it is the one readers will most easily remember BIt names the particular rulers whom the Act blames for false religions CIt sets the ground the later reasons build on: a mind made free should not be forced DIt shows that the Act is mainly about the taxes paid to support churches

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The preamble's last reason begins "and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself." How does this closing reason connect to the enacting clause that follows it?

   AIt warns the reader that later assemblies are likely to repeal the Act BIt names the penalties for anyone who breaks the new law of Virginia CIt returns to the earlier question of paying the teachers of each religion DIts "free argument and debate" leads into the freedom to argue for opinions

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The enacting clause (T4 paragraph 1) has two halves joined by "but." What does each half do?

   AThe first half grants religious rights, and the second half takes them away again BThe first forbids force and penalties; the second grants freedom to profess and argue CThe first half addresses the churches of Virginia; the second half addresses the Assembly DThe first half gives the reasons, and the second half gives the date the law begins

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The enacting clause ends by saying that religious opinions "shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." Which reason of the preamble does this part carry into law?

   A"that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions" B"that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself" C"that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money ... is sinful" D"that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers" set up false religions

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   T4 paragraph 2 begins by admitting that the Assembly has "no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies." Why does the Act end with this admission?

   ATo invite later assemblies to repeal the Act if they disagree with it BTo explain why the Act includes no penalties for anyone who breaks it CTo concede a legal limit and then turn, with "yet," to a claim of natural right DTo show that the Assembly had come to doubt some of the reasons in its own preamble

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In T4 paragraph 2 the Assembly writes "we are free to declare, and do declare." What does the repetition emphasize?

   AThat the Assembly is unsure whether it may declare anything at all BThat the declaration is meant to take effect only in a later year CThat the Assembly is quoting an earlier law of Virginia word for word DThat the Assembly performs the declaration in the very act of writing it

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The seventh reason of the preamble begins "that, therefore, the proscribing any citizen." What does this "therefore" inside the preamble show about how the preamble is built?

    AThat the preamble ends at this point and a new section of the Act begins BThat some reasons are drawn as conclusions from earlier ones, not simply listed CThat the Assembly is quoting this reason from an earlier decision of a Virginia court DThat the reasons are arranged in the order in which the Assembly debated them

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The sixth reason compares religious opinions to "our opinions in physics or geometry." What does the comparison contribute to the argument?

    AIt makes a religious test for office sound as absurd as a test on geometry BIt shows that the Assembly wanted science to be taught in the churches of Virginia CIt suggests that religion and the sciences must always disagree with each other DIt lists the subjects of study that the civil government should control

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The reason "that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order" comes right after the reason calling the magistrate's control of opinion "a dangerous fallacy." What job does it do there?

    AIt repeats the dangerous-fallacy reason in different words for emphasis BIt gives the magistrate full power over what the people may believe CIt answers an objection by drawing the line at actions, not opinions DIt begins the series of reasons about money and the support of teachers

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What does the title line, T3 paragraph 1, contribute to a reader's understanding of the structure that follows?

    AIt sums up each of the twelve reasons of the preamble in a single sentence BIt names Thomas Jefferson as the author of the bill and of each of its reasons CIt lists the penalties that the Act sets out for anyone who breaks the new law DIt names the genre, an act, so readers expect reasons and then a law

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which structural feature do the Virginia Act (T3-T4) and the Emancipation Proclamation (T1-T2) share?

    AEach sets out its grounds first and then acts, and "therefore" joins the two BEach ends with a list of the places and the persons to which the document applies CEach is signed at the end by the President of the United States DEach begins by quoting an earlier document on the same subject

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Every reason in the preamble begins with "that." Explain what this repeated pattern contributes to the preamble's effect, and what the punctuation between the reasons adds to the way a reader takes them in.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Identify the key sentence of the whole Act, and explain how the preamble and the closing paragraph each depend on it.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    The fourth and fifth reasons both concern money: "that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical" and "that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty" of choosing whom to support. What does "even" show about the order of these two reasons, and what does the pair contribute to the preamble?

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    The third reason is a charge about history: "that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers ... hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time." Why might the Assembly place this broad charge early, before the reasons about money and public office?

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    The preamble (T3 paragraph 2) runs 547 words and the enacting clause (T4 paragraph 1) 84. Explain why a law might give so much more space to its reasons than to its rule, and what this proportion contributes to the Act as a whole.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Name one structural difference between the Virginia Act (T3-T4) and the Emancipation Proclamation (T1-T2), and explain what the difference shows about each document's purpose.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.11-12.5: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.