Indiana Social Studies IS.1.3
The Standard
Read key documents from the Founding Era and analyze major ideas about government, individual rights, and the general welfare embedded in those documents as they pertain to Indiana.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Territorial and Early Statehood: 1800 to 1850
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read short passages from the Northwest Ordinance, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights. They explain ideas about government, rights, and the public good, then look for those ideas in Indiana's 1816 constitution.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how the Northwest Ordinance set a path to statehood for Indiana. They can compare its support for schools with Indiana's 1816 education clause and cite words from both.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think the Northwest Ordinance was an Indiana law rather than a federal rule for the territory. They may assume its support for schools meant every child in early Indiana could attend one.
How to Assess It
- Give students Northwest Ordinance Article 3 and Indiana's 1816 constitution Article IX, Section 2. Ask: What idea about schools do both express, and which words in each passage support your answer?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs excerpt cards from the Northwest Ordinance and Indiana's 1816 constitution; have them sort the cards by rights, statehood, and schools.
Ask: Why did leaders connect schools with good government? Have students answer using Northwest Ordinance Article 3 and Indiana's 1816 education clause.
Play a claim-and-evidence relay: teams match claims about statehood, religion, and schools to numbered passages from the Northwest Ordinance.
Give students an Indiana school board's three-minute public-comment rule; ask how the First Amendment protects speech while meetings stay orderly.
Free download
Printable IS.1.3 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to IS.1.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetKeep exploring
Related Standards
- 5.C.2
Identify and explain ideas about limited government, the rule of law, and individual rights in key colonial era documents.
- 4.H.4
Summarize and explain the significance of key documents in Indiana's development from a United States territory to statehood.
- USH.1.1
Analyze key documents from the Founding Era and major ideas about government, individual rights, and the general welfare embedded in these documents.
- USG.2.3
Analyze and interpret central ideas on government, individual rights, and the common good in founding documents of the United States.
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.
Also for this standard:Make a WorksheetMake a QuizMake a Sub Lesson