Description

A complete document-based question (DBQ) packet on the road to American independence, built around one arguable question: Were the colonists defending old rights, or claiming new ones?

Students work from six real primary sources across eleven years, not from a textbook summary. Print it, hand it out, teach it.

WHAT'S INCLUDED
- One compelling question with a background essay that sets the context without answering it
- Six curated public-domain primary sources, each with its author and date: the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765), the Declaratory Act (1766), Paul Revere's "Bloody Massacre" engraving (1770), the Olive Branch Petition (1775), Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776), and the Declaration of Independence (1776)
- 18 scaffolded document-analysis questions, labeled by skill: sourcing, context, and close reading
- 5 cross-document corroboration questions that make students read the sources against each other
- An evidence-based writing prompt with a 4-point analytic rubric (16 points total)
- A complete answer key with a target response for every question, plus two model thesis statements - one for each side of the question
- Teacher notes on the Revere engraving, the trial that followed, and where to cut if you are short on time
- A standards page listing the CCSS Reading in History standards the packet exercises

WHY THIS ONE
- The sources are reproduced with real citations, so students can be held to naming their evidence rather than gesturing at it
- The Revere engraving is the sourcing centerpiece: he was not present, worked from another man's uncredited drawing, and the trial record contradicts the image - which is exactly what makes it teachable
- The question is genuinely open. The key includes strong model claims on both sides, so the rubric rewards the argument rather than the answer

FORMAT
- 13-page PDF, US Letter, print-first, low-ink, no filled backgrounds
- 10 student pages + a 3-page answer key. All six documents sit together on pages 3-5, so you can print the document set once as a class set and reuse it
- Answer key at the back, on its own pages
- Grades 6-12; works for on-level, honors, and AP US History document practice
- No prep, no logins, no devices - just print

GOOD FOR
- A no-prep sub plan or emergency sub day in a US History classroom
- Document-analysis practice ahead of a DBQ essay or an AP exam
- The document half of a unit that uses a documentary for the narrative
- Homeschool, hybrid, and remote settings

PAIRS WITH
- The American Revolution (Ken Burns) video worksheets - the documentary covers the same eleven years, so the film carries the story while this packet carries the evidence

America's 250th anniversary keeps founding-era documents in front of students all school year. This packet is built for that moment and is not tied to it.

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