Teaching the Articles of Confederation can be tricky. First, the Articles are very difficult to read and understand - even for us, teachers! Additionally, we want our middle schoolers to be somewhat engaged and challenged. I’ve got a primary source activity that I think your middle school students will like, and I’m giving it to you for FREE. Plus, I’ll walk you through it - just keep reading!
For these activities to be most effective, it’s important to provide students with some background knowledge. They’ll need to know that The Constitution wasn’t the “first” and “only” Constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation were written before the Constitution and had a lot of flaws. The writers of the Articles of Confederation were adamant that their new government would not become too powerful. Their recent experience with Britain heavily influenced the writers of the Articles. A common theme of “fear of a strong central government” and “abuse of power” is seen throughout the Articles. Connecting this to their recent experience with Britain is important in understanding the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
Teaching the Articles of Confederation is a great opportunity to use a primary source strategy. However, having students read the Articles in its entirety is not recommended. I think they’ll be more confused if they read the whole thing because of how it’s written. I recommend the primary source strategy called, “black out”.
In this strategy, teachers cover or “black out” portions of the text or image and ask students to draw conclusions based on the uncovered or visible pieces. The teacher can uncover and ask students to respond. Sometimes, teachers won’t uncover the piece - they’ll just have students work with the visible portion.
