- Getting students to read an arcane document with close attention can be a challenge. Make it a more interesting task by having your students identify the most important or most egregious claim that the signers make against the King of England. Have students read these sections carefully, discussing what they mean. Offer hints on some of the more difficult ones, such as, "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly." Each student should choose which offense is the most meaningful or most important to fight against, and write a short paragraph explaining why.
- Students should know that the signers of the Declaration met in Philadelphia in 1776 to draft and sign the document. Have students imagine that they were present at the scene and write a story from the perspective of an observer. Begin the activity by giving them some detail about who was there that day and what went on. Allow students to write a page or two using their imaginations to turn historical figures into full-bodied characters. Have students conclude their story with a reflection on the meaningfulness of the signing.
- This activity works well for the more creative classroom. Pretend that your class is its own colony. Have the class draft its own declaration of independence from the rest of the school. Students should, in good fun, think about why the class could do better on its own, and what "tyrannies" it has had to put up with. Let students have fun with it by imitating the classical language of the Declaration.
- For younger students, sometimes simply teaching vocabulary associated with an event is enough. Create a word search puzzle for your students. Put in words such as, "Independence," "Declaration," "Philadelphia," "Franklin," "Hancock" and "Truths." Fill in the grid with other random letters. As an alternative activity, have students create their own Declaration of Independence word search puzzles. Let them mine the document to come up with the words they want to include.
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