② Deep · Connect & organize

Phase 2 — Connect & organize

Now students take the facts from Phase 1 and relate them: mapping British actions to colonial responses, questioning real sources, and building an argument from evidence. Deep learning is where knowledge becomes usable — the bridge to the problem.

🎯 By the end of Phase 2 students can organize the causes and effects on the road to independence, read a primary source (including the Declaration's opening) for its point of view, and defend a claim with evidence — the exact moves the problem will demand.

Concept mapping · d 0.64§113.16(c)(2)(A), (c)(2)(C), (c)(23)(C)

1 · Cause→effect concept map

Build a class concept map that traces British action → colonial response → toward independence. In the first column, list British actions; in the second, how colonists responded; in the third, the effects that pushed things toward independence and its results.

British action	Colonial response	Toward independence & results
taxes without a colonial vote	protest, boycotts of British goods	colonists demand rights → unity
the Tea Act	the Boston Tea Party (1773)	Britain punishes Boston → anger grows
soldiers sent to Massachusetts	Lexington & Concord (1775) — war begins	Common Sense spreads → Declaration (1776) → a new nation

Talk move: draw an arrow from a British action to a colonial response to an effect, and say the cause-and-effect sentence aloud. This rehearses §113.16(c)(2)(A) and (c)(2)(C).

Elaboration & organization · d 0.72§113.16(c)(14)(A), (c)(23)(A,B,E)

2 · Primary-source analysis — read for point of view

Give pairs two real (district-approved) primary sources that show the two sides of 1776:

Patriot voice — the Declaration of Independence. Read the famous opening: “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.” What claim is Jefferson making about rights and government? (§113.16(c)(14)(A))
Loyalist voice. Read a short Loyalist viewpoint — a colonist who argued for staying loyal to the king (see the vetted Loyalist source in the facilitator guide). Identify the author, when it was written, and its point of view.

Use a four-question source routine for each:

Source: Who made this, when, and why?
Observe: What do you actually read? (facts only)
Point of view: Whose side does it tell — Patriot or Loyalist — and whose is missing?
Question: What does it make you want to find out?

Credibility check (c)(23)(B): is this a first-hand record from 1776 or someone's later opinion? How do we know?

📚 Primary sources & analysis tools: National Archives · Declaration of Independence transcript ↗ · DocsTeach · Declaration of Independence (document) ↗ · Mount Vernon · Loyalists (viewpoint) ↗ · National Archives · Declaration of Independence ↗

Argumentation · d 0.86§113.16(c)(23)(G,H), (c)(25)(E)

3 · Structured argument — declare or stay?

A low-stakes rehearsal of the reasoning the problem needs. Pose a focused question and have students take a side with evidence, using a claim–evidence–reasoning frame. Then have them state the other side's strongest point (civil discourse).

Warm-up question: Should the colonies declare independence from Britain — or stay loyal? Give your claim, one piece of evidence from Phase 1 or the sources, and your reasoning.

Sentence stems (ELPS support): “My claim is ______.” · “My evidence is ______.” · “This matters because ______.” · “Someone who disagrees might say ______, but ______.”

Note: keep this a practice argument about the general idea. The specific choice for a divided town belongs in Phase 3, where students hold stakeholder roles.

✅ Deep check before the problem: can students name a cause and an effect on the road to 1776, read one source for its point of view, and state a claim with evidence? Those three abilities are exactly what Phase 3 will ask them to transfer.

‹ Phase 1 — Surface Phase 3 — Transfer ›

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.16; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX.