SS.7.CG.2.8

Students will be doing a close read of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech, "The Destructive Male." Students will be annotating the text along with answering questions that will lead them to a deeper understanding of women’s suffrage and the importance of the 19^th Amendment.

There are three lessons that can be used to complement a study of Women's Suffrage texts and help students take a new perspective by merging ELA skills with civics knowledge.

This resource uses a text that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will debate the environmental and human impacts associated with building a cruise ship port in their county, exploring the roles and responsibilities that the scientific community, individuals, and interest groups play in influencing government policy with this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will identify rhetorical questioning and imagery in “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death,” then analyze the effect of those devices on the meaning of the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the impact of media, individuals, and interest groups on government while completing guided notes that accompany a teacher-presented slideshow. Students will then apply what they know by researching interest groups.

Type: Lesson Plan

As part of a unit for Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, students will analyze the photographic text features in the text and write about how they represent the Jim Crow laws passed by some state and local governments in this integrated lesson plan.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will learn about different international organizations in which the United States plays a role. Students will use different methods of media and communication to investigate benefits and drawbacks of international participation and persuade their classmates about impacts on the United States gained from participation in these international organizations.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be tasked with analyzing various methods of protecting coasts from erosion. Students will review a dataset with logistics about each type of coastal structure. Students will rank which structures they feel should be utilized to best protect a local beachfront town. The students will write a letter to the local government to persuade them on which structure should be used. Students will be challenged to think critically, analyze information, and work collaboratively in this model eliciting activity.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech “The Destructive Male,” delivered at the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1868. Students will analyze the two distinct central ideas that emerge in the speech. They will also examine the textual evidence within the speech that supports each central idea. This ELA lesson will also make connections to civics by exploring an example of citizen activism: When Stanton delivered this speech, she was an individual who was speaking/petitioning in an effort to influence her government’s policy, specifically regarding suffrage and a new amendment.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read a speech by civil rights advocate Florence Kelley (1905) addressing child labor laws. They will analyze how Kelley achieves her purpose through the use of two specific rhetorical devices—rhetorical questioning and imagery. Students will learn about each of these devices, in addition to background information on Florence Kelley, women's suffrage, and the child labor laws of the early 1900s. Students will read the text and identify Kelley's use of both imagery and rhetorical questions. Lastly, students will answer text-depenent questions to demonstrate their comprehension and analysis. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze Susan B. Anthony’s speech “On Women’s Right to Vote.” Students will analyze Anthony’s use of deductive reasoning to develop her argument that she committed no crime in casting a vote for president in the election of 1872. Students will also complete text-dependent questions to further analyze the speech. As part of their analysis, students will examine Anthony’s use of the Preamble of the Constitution to support her argument and consider how Anthony’s actions are a means of influencing the government and holding it accountable.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify the impacts of individuals, interest groups, and the media on monitoring and influencing the government of the United States.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This Grade 7 Civics Family Guide provides some ideas and activities to support civics education when at home, out and about, and in the community. The activities provided align to the civics learning benchmarks within Standard 2 at this grade level.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity intended for the debate classroom, students will break up into groups of four and select a stance for debate from the list provided. They will be arguing that the group/individual they selected has the most influence over the government.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching resource provides teachers with the tools to help students analyze the connotation of specific words and phrases within Susan B. Anthony’s speech, “On Women’s Right to Vote.” The speech includes examples of language with positive, negative, and neutral connotations to help the author establish and achieve purpose. This resource will help teachers explain the concept of connotative meaning and make connections to individuals and interest groups that influence our government through the use of this historic speech.

Type: Text Resource