Texas TEKS 8.20.B
The Standard
analyze reasons for and the impact of selected examples of civil disobedience in U.S. history such as the Boston Tea Party and Henry David Thoreau's refusal to pay a tax.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the law or government policy being challenged and explain why participants believed resistance was justified. They trace immediate reactions and longer-term effects, then compare how each act influenced public opinion, government action, or later protests.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain that Tea Party participants challenged British taxation and control, while Thoreau withheld a poll tax over slavery and the Mexican War. The student distinguishes intended goals from actual results and supports claims with source evidence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call any protest civil disobedience, even when no law is deliberately broken, or assume civil disobedience must involve violence. They may also confuse an intended result with an actual impact or claim one action directly caused every later event.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Choose the Boston Tea Party or Thoreau's tax refusal. In four sentences, name the policy challenged, the reason, an immediate consequence, and one later impact.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cause, action, reaction, and legacy cards for both cases, then have them build and explain two evidence chains.
Ask students to write: When is breaking a law justified, and what evidence from one historical case supports your rule?
Play Civil Disobedience Sort: teams classify scenario cards as lawful protest, civil disobedience, or rebellion and earn points by defending each choice.
Read a current news report about nonviolent lawbreaking, then identify the policy challenged, intended audience, legal consequence, and possible public impact.
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