Disclaimer: This writing prompt is a benchmark and tool for use within the district. It is not a dictated format or process. Each district will elect how they incorporate, expand or utilize these materials.
Grade: 8/District Discretion
 Narrative
Subject: United States History I
X Informational  Argument/Opinion
Title: Breaking News: Independence Declared
Standards addressed by this writing prompt:
Content Standards for History and Social Science: United States History I
The Political and Intellectual Origins of the American Nation: The Revolution and the Constitution, 1763-1789
USI.3 Explain the influence and ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the political philosophy of Thomas
Jefferson. (H, C)
Literacy Standards for History/Social Science:
1. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. a.
Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. b.
Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources. c.
Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. d.
Establish and maintain a formal style. e.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. a.
Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories as appropriate to achieving purpose; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. b.
Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. c.
Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. d.
Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. e.
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone. f.
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.
7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
9. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Using the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Writing Prompt:
“As a reporter for the local newspaper in 1776, you just heard the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Using your knowledge of the relationship between England and the colonists, write a
American people describing what was said about their rights and the role of government.”
Be sure to include examples from the text.
Suggested Administration:
Post assessment for the Declaration of Independence.
Post activity for a unit on the causes of the American Revolution.
Opportunity to introduce the role of the newspaper.
Create a template for the newspaper article.
Create a graphic organizer: or an inverted triangle.
25 to 30 minutes (organizing thoughts and writing article)
TEAM MEMBERS: Rashaun J. Martin, Haverhill and Katie LaPolice, Woburn