Assignment/Activity Title Declaration of Independence

Year
Sophomore
Skill
Research
Portfolio Category Critical
Thinking
This past quarter in NSL, one of the first projects that we were assigned to do was to recreate the
Declaration on Independence. We were supposed to rewrite it, declaring independence from something in our
own lives, and use the philosophers that the founding fathers used in our own versions. At the start of the
project, I knew that I wanted to declare independence from my younger sister. I wrote the assignment in a
joking manner, of course. But as I started to write the assignment, I became really stuck on where I was
supposed to go with it. I thought that I was just supposed to rewrite the Declaration of Independence in my own
words, but soon realized that I would need to incorporate factors of my own life, which I had never done before.
I always knew that the Declaration of Independence was what granted America freedom from Britain.
Yet, I had never really tried to incorporate what this meant in my own life before this project. It helped me to
realize more of a personal significance to our freedom and how much hard work went into trying to make it
happen. I started this project as a joke. I wanted to declare freedom from sharing a bedroom with my sister
and then move on with my life. However, I found myself researching more about our countrys history than I
thought that I would. I found it interesting how our country is built on many different philosophies that are still
used today. For example, Thomas Jefferson was greatly inspired by philosopher John Locke. Lockes ideas on
freedom for America and wanting more power for the people helped me to see similarities in current events,
such as more power for young people to vote and more power to minority groups.
This project helped me to open my eyes to how history can still be a part of every day lives. I learned
about how much thought leaders like Thomas Jefferson put into breaking free from Britain. By researching the
philosophers that inspired him, I could get a sense of what was going on in his head. I could incorporate those
ideas in my own writing for the project, and I actually enjoyed doing it. I am thankful for this project because it
helped me to look more into history and see how it is still important today in my own life. Connecting history to
current events and to my everyday life will be useful in future to better understand curriculum and what is going
on in the world. It helps make history easier to learn and more interesting to see that even three hundred years
later, there are still aspects about our country that havent changed.

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