“Accessing Civil Disobedience 1”
50 minute class period
Name: Ryan Dainty
Grade: 11
Objective: Define and demonstrate
understanding of what Thoreau means by the
“rule of expediency” and how it frames an
understanding of the text.
Assessing Student Understanding:
Note: Pre-Assessment given at end of previous
class
Formative Assessment: Pass out of class: “First
two steps”—1 definition for the rule of
expediency, 2 “ends” for Thoreau with regard
to government
School: Marian High School
State Standards: 11-12.RI.3 Analyze a complex
set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how
specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and
develop over the course of the text.
11-12.RI.4 Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative, connotative, and technical meanings;
analyze how an author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a
text.
Modified Assessment/s:
Spoken, not written
1-1-1
Give a list of examples and student identifies
definition, mean, or end
Materials Needed: Civil Disobedience text, notebooks, pens, SMARTBoard
Sequence of Lesson:
Modifications:
Bell work: Explain and respond to the following in a journal entry—“The end
justifies the means.” (7 min)
Prepare Guided
reading/Cornell notes with key
passages on one side and
room for student comment on
the other.
Anticipatory Set: Envision modern contexts in which the above quotation is
applicable. Segue to issues of conscience and what it means to live and act
with integritylead to Civil Disobedience (10 min)
Classroom Read-aloud: Teacher reads the first 3 pages of CD to students,
stopping frequently to prompt processing, note-taking, and discussion. This
models critical reading and critical thinking.
1. Distinction of expediency and inexpedient
2. Attitude toward Mexican War
3. Distinction between Government and American people
4. A purpose for Thoreau’s writing
5. Metaphor of a corporation with a conscience
6. Attitude toward soldiers
Teacher will check for understanding by listening to student interaction,
fielding questions, etc.
Assessment: “First two steps” pass out of class
Closure: Highlight a couple of potential “ends”, Thoreau’s purpose(s) in
writing his essay. Introduce the search for “means” to those ends, which will
be the topic of discussion tomorrow. Sets purpose for reading assignment
that evening.
Independent Practice: re-read 1-3, and read pp. 4-6. Answer study
questions that will be posted online.
Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreau
Study Questions
Part 1 (pp. 1-6): The nature of government and of the individual
1. What distinction does Thoreau make between the US Government and the American people?
(pp. 1-2)
2. With what does Thoreau say the individual should serve the state? (pp. 2-3)
3. What does Thoreau mean by the rule of expediency? What does this indicate about his views
on the majority rules government versus the individual’s conscience? (pp. 1, 4-5)
4. What is Thoreau’s attitude toward voting? What does he advocate instead? (p. 5)
5. What is a “man” (a person) according to Thoreau? What, according to him, is the nature of civil
government? (pp. 3, 6)
Key passages
Government is at best but an expedient; but
most governments are usually, and all
governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
Governments show thus how successfully
men can be imposed on, even impose on
themselves, for their own advantage. It is
excellent, we must all allow. Yet this
government never of itself furthered any
enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it
got out of its way. It does not keep the
country free. It does not settle the West. It
does not educate. The character inherent in
the American people has done all that has
been accomplished; and it would have done
somewhat more, if the government had not
sometimes got in its way.
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as
men mainly, but as machines, with their
bodies.
But a government in which the majority rule
in all cases cannot be based on justice, even
as far as men understand it. Can there not be
a government in which majorities do not
virtually decide right and wrong, but
conscience? — in which majorities decide
only those questions to which the rule of
expediency is applicable? Must the citizen
ever for a moment, or in the least degree,
resign his conscience to the legislator? Why
has every man a conscience, then? I think
that we should be men first, and subjects
afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a
respect for the law, so much as for the right.
The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at any time what I think right.
Summarize:
Identify page number(s) where you find each passage, write notes
about meaning, keys terms, etc. as well as any questions you may
have