Alabama Social Studies SS24.6.12b
The Standard
- SS24.6.12
- Explain how forms of governments established prior to the founding of the United States influenced the formation of the new nation’s system of government.
Compare and contrast how Enlightenment thinkers interpreted the purpose of government and the relationship between government and citizens.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu thought governments exist. They compare who should hold power and how citizens should relate to their government.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can match each thinker to a view: strong authority for safety, protection of natural rights, citizen-made laws, or divided powers. They can explain a difference between two views using a specific detail.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think all four thinkers wanted the same kind of government. They may say Locke believed government gives people rights, rather than protects rights people already have. They may confuse Rousseau's citizen participation with Montesquieu's divided powers.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A ruler keeps order but takes people's property without reason. Explain how Hobbes and Locke might judge the ruler, and give one reason their views differ.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cards labeled safety, natural rights, citizen-made laws, and divided powers; have them match each card to a thinker and explain why.
Ask partners, 'Should people obey a ruler who keeps order but ignores their rights?' Have them answer from Hobbes's and Locke's views.
Play a four-corner game: read short descriptions of government and have students move to the matching thinker, then name a clue.
Show a public comment sign-up sheet and a presidential veto headline; ask which shows citizen voice and which limits government power.
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Related Standards
- SS24.USG.1
Explain how Enlightenment principles informed the structure and principles of the United States government, its founding documents, its institutions, and the di...
- SS24.8.18
Summarize the main ideas of the Enlightenment and describe their emergence in European society.
- SS24.8.15a
Compare and contrast the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
- SS24.WH.1
Explain how the Enlightenment influenced societies and inspired revolutions in Europe and the Americas.
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