Standards

CCE (9-12): IIA1, VD4
NCHS (5-12): Era III, Standards 3A, 3B
NCSS: Strands 2, 5, 6, and 10

Recommended Time
One 45-minute class period. Additional time as needed for homework.

Objectives
Students will:

• explain the meaning of heroism
• evaluate the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a heroic moment
• analyze what individual signers stood to lose by supporting American independence
• identify other heroic moments in American history

Materials

• Lesson Plan [pdf]
• Student Handouts
  • A copy of the Declaration of Independence
    http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/declare.htm
  • Matthew Spalding, “A Note on the Signers of the Declaration of Independence”
    http://www.heritage.org/research/americanfoundingandhistory/BG1451.cfm
    (Note: Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to find this article.)
• Teacher
  • Table/desk (optional)
  • Quill pen
  • Handouts A, B, C, and D [pdf]

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1. Background/Homework
   1. Have the students read the following article by Matthew Spalding about the signers of the Declaration of Independence:

      “A Note on the Signers of the Declaration of Independence”
      http://www.heritage.org/research/americanfoundingandhistory/BG1451.cfm
      (Note: Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to find this article.)

   2. Have the students write a paragraph in response to this question:

      In what way was the signing of the Declaration of Independence a heroic action?

2. Warm-Up [15 minutes]
   1. Write on the board the final words of the Declaration of Independence.

      “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

   2. Ask for volunteers to share their answers to the homework question.
      Answers will vary. Students should recognize that the signers truly risked their lives and fortunes.

   3. Ask the students to consider the meaning of heroism. Hold up or write on the board the quotations on Handouts A, B, C, and D. Conduct a whole-class discussion about the questions listed below the quotations.
      Answers will vary.

3. Activity [25 minutes]
   1. Divide the students into eleven groups. Have each group read a biography of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence listed below. Then have each group write a sentence or two describing what its assigned Founder risked in choosing to sign the Declaration of Independence.

   2. Next, tell the students that they are about to re-create the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Place a copy of the Declaration on a table. (A printout of the document from the link above is fine; a replica copy is better.) Each group will choose a member to assume the role of the group’s assigned Founder. Then the eleven “signers” will, one-by-one, with (quill?) pen in hand, approach the table and announce what they risk in putting their names to this document. Example: “Though I own a large plantation and a shipping business, I am going to sign this document because I believe that liberty is more important than profit.”

   3. For more advanced students, have the eleven “signers” sit in a circle and discuss what they are risking in signing the Declaration. The remaining students sit in a wider circle around the eleven signers. After all the signers finish speaking, the other students write a one or two-paragraph summary of what was said. Have volunteers share these summaries with the whole class.

      Signers:

      • John Adams
      • Samuel Adams
      • Charles Carroll
      • Benjamin Franklin
      • Elbridge Gerry
      • Thomas Jefferson
      • Richard Henry Lee
      • Benjamin Rush
      • Roger Sherman
      • James Wilson
      • John Witherspoon
4. Wrap-Up Discussion [5 minutes]
   Conduct a whole-class discussion about the following questions:

   Did the signers of the Declaration have something to gain by their action? If so, does this lessen the heroic nature of their act?
   Answers will vary. Certainly, the signers stand to gain political liberty if they declared independence. Some of the signers—particularly those engaged in international trade, such as Elbridge Gerry— would gain financially. Whether these facts alter the heroic nature of their action is a subjective judgment.

5. Follow-Up Homework Options
   1. Students could make a list of five people—living or dead—whom they consider to be heroes. They should write a sentence or two for each person, explaining why they think each is a hero. (The list may include a group of people, such as the New York City Firefighters who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.)

   2. Students could write a three-to-five paragraph biography of one person whom they consider to be a hero. Possibilities include:
      1. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643): a religious dissenter in Puritan Massachusetts who challenged the established religion and government of her day
      2. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865): sixteenth President of the United States who issued the Emancipation Proclamation
      3. John Minor Wisdom: (1905-1999): a federal justice who challenged the prevailing racist attitudes of his time and place
      4. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968): civil rights leader who inspired millions and won equality before the law for African-Americans
      5. Ronald Reagan (1911-): fortieth President of the United States who guided America to victory in the Cold War

Extension
Students could list moments in American history after 1776 in which a person or people acted heroically. (Examples might include George Washington’s quashing of the Newburgh conspiracy in 1783, a civil rights march of the 1960s, Lenny Skutnik’s jumping into an icy Potomac River to rescue a woman involved in the crash of an Air Florida jetliner.)