What Is the Declaration of Independence by Michael C Harris…

About this resource

What's inside this resource

What Is the Declaration of Independence? by Michael C Harris Questions

These questions were designed to encourage engagement and attention to details while reading. Produce higher quality talks as the students answer the questions regarding the book and the struggles of the people therein.

Each chapter will have 5 questions to be answered.

Students are encouraged to answer the questions in complete sentences and write the number of the page in which they found their answer. Each question is written in a way in which students will draw the answers from the text to make sure they are reading the book and understanding what they are reading.

This resource is great for students reading alone or with a parent. It will produce fruitful conversations as you end each chapter.

All chapter questions can be started from any chapter since the questions do not include questions about previous chapters read.

This resource thrives due to close reading and thoughtful, critical analysis of chapters, and their information.

Includes 5 questions for all chapters (chapter 1 to chapter 9) regarding the book: What Is the Declaration of Independence? by Michael C Harris

Answer key is included.

Check out the thumbnails to see how this resource can make a great reading companion.

Have fun reading & chatting!

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Retrieve specific facts from a nonfiction chapter — dates, names, quantities and outcomes such as 1492, John Adams as defence lawyer, and two soldiers found guilty
Record where in the book each answer was found, rather than answering from memory or prior knowledge
Define terms the book introduces, including congress, militia, intolerable and "consent of the governed"
Explain a cause or a consequence in their own words, such as why America objected to paying for the war or what John Adams lost after the trial
Track a chapter-by-chapter narrative from colonial taxation through to the Declaration's signing and its later custody

Teaching tips

One worksheet per chapter means the set paces a class read straight through the book, with the last sheet covering two short closing chapters together
The page-reference line is the part that changes the task: insisting it is completed turns recall into a locate-and-cite exercise
Answer pages carry the book page number alongside each response, which settles a disputed answer without re-reading the chapter
Some items are definitional — what a congress is, what a militia is, what intolerable means — so they double as a vocabulary check for that chapter
A few questions reach beyond the chapter's main narrative, such as the year women gained the vote, so it is worth scanning each sheet before setting it

Skills covered

Locating evidence in a nonfiction text — every question is followed by "I found my answer on page:", so students must find the passage as well as give the answer.
Factual recall from a historical narrative — items ask for dates, names and figures including 1492, James Otis, Patrick Henry, fifty-six delegates and the tonnage of tea dumped into the bay.
Domain vocabulary — questions ask what a congress is, what a militia is, what intolerable means, what parchment was made from and what "consent of the governed" means.
Cause and consequence — students explain why the colonies objected to paying for the war, why town meetings were banned, and what happened to John Adams after the Boston Massacre trial.
Written answers in their own words — the sheets give open lines rather than options, so each response has to be composed rather than selected.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What is the "I found my answer on page" line for?

It makes students cite where the answer came from. Every one of the fifty questions has that line underneath it, and the answer pages fill it in too — Columbus on page 6, the Currency Act on page 20, the National Archives on page 102 — putting the reference alongside the response.

How do the worksheets map onto the book's chapters?

One sheet per chapter for the first nine, each headed with the chapter number and title, and a tenth sheet that covers chapters ten and eleven together — What Happened to the Signers and The Declaration Today.

Are the questions all factual recall?

Most are, but each chapter also carries at least one item that asks for meaning or explanation — what a militia is, what "consent of the governed" means, why the language ending slavery was cut, or what consequences John Adams faced after the trial.