About This Lesson
In The Enlightenment, students explore the ideas of influential writers, scientists, and philosophers in Western Europe from the late 1600s through the 1700s. These Enlightenment thinkers, with their emphasis on intellectual freedom and natural rights, ushered in the modern age. Students also explore how the ideas of Europe’s Enlightenment thinkers are echoed within the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and others embraced these revolutionary ideas.
This unit includes a Student Reader, Timeline Image Cards, and Teacher Guide, providing Guided Reading Supports and the following Additional Activities: domain vocabulary exercises, a Venn diagram comparison of Locke and Hobbes, an excerpt of Voltaire’s Candide, and a Unit Assessment.
