Unit 1 · Celebrate Freedom Week · Project 1.5.5
By the end you can
Apex scores 15 research points before the 15 speaking points. Empty cells cannot be fixed by a strong paragraph.
Work in this order.
Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights. Four cells each.
A real recent story. Save title, author, source, URL, and one sentence.
Importance, article connection, relevance, then the exact recitation plus what it means to you.
Open 1.5.1 and 1.5.3 for people and dates. Open Apex page 2 for the documents. Do not invent an article.
What has to be finished before the presentation paragraphs?
The three document rows and the recent-article row.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
This is the 30-point project. Research is 15 points: three founding documents times four one-point cells (12), plus a recent article with three one-point cells (3). Presentation is 15 points: 5 for why the documents matter, 5 for the article connection, 4 for whether they remain relevant, and 1 for the recitation and what it means to you.
Canvas accepts a file or a link. Those choices appear as online upload and online URL. You have 2 attempts. Canvas lists no due date. Today's times come from planner notes: the project at 1:30 p.m. CDT and the submit item at 2:00 p.m. CDT on September 2. The snapshot still shows it unsubmitted.
This portal page is practice. Turn the finished work in on Canvas as a file or a link. There is no captured teacher note about format beyond those two submission types.
Canvas wants a file or a link.
Two attempts are allowed.
Upload a file or paste a URL. The Canvas snapshot does not name a required file type.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
Make one row for each document. Every row needs four answers, one point each: who the major contributors were and what they did; when the document went into effect; its primary purpose; and its lasting influence.
Use 1.5.1, 1.5.3, and the full texts on Apex page 2. The Library of Congress exhibit on Apex page 3 is optional extra reading. This organizer is blank on purpose. Do not copy a finished table from this portal.
Answer the four cells for the Declaration of Independence. Apex's own definition: a document written in 1776 to explain why the American colonies decided to break away from England.
Your 1.5.1 study names Thomas Jefferson as the main author and John Adams and Benjamin Franklin as leaders in the independence effort. Lasting influence belongs in your own words. The course later uses the Declaration's equality language in other movements; do not claim the 1776 text itself ended slavery or granted women the vote.
Use the 1.5.1 bios, then write the influence cell yourself.
Jefferson is the main author. Adams helped write it. Franklin represented Pennsylvania at the Second Continental Congress in 1776.
Issued July 4, 1776. Apex: explain why the colonies broke away from England.
Stay with later uses of its ideals. Do not say the 1776 text itself ended slavery or gave women the vote.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
Answer the same four cells for the U.S. Constitution. Apex calls it the written plan of government for the United States. The 1.5.1 study says it was ratified in 1788 and went into effect on March 4, 1789, when the new Congress began.
James Madison is called the Father of the Constitution because of his leadership in writing it. The document creates a federal government with legislative, executive, and judicial branches and can change through amendments.
Plan of government, not the break from Britain.
Madison is called the Father of the Constitution. State representatives drafted it. Franklin was also at the 1787 convention.
Ratified 1788. In effect March 4, 1789.
Written plan for a federal government with three branches and an amendment process.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments. Apex's page 2 transcription says those amendments were ratified December 15, 1791. Madison was the primary author of those first ten amendments.
Its purpose in the course is to protect named freedoms and limit government power. Speech and religion are the examples Apex names. Lasting influence should stay tied to those protections, not to a later amendment you were not asked to research here.
First ten amendments, scored as their own row.
Madison wrote most of them. Ratified December 15, 1791.
Protect freedoms such as speech and religion, and limit government power.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
Choose a recent news article that relates to at least one founding document. Apex says to look in major newspapers or online news outlets. This portal does not pick the article, because the assignment requires a current one.
Save three things, one point each: title and author; source title and URL; the main idea in one sentence. Copy the URL while the page is open. Apex's research rules: check the source, look for a full version, and do not rely on one site.
Apex will not accept a made-up story.
A recent piece from a major newspaper or online outlet that you can tie to at least one document.
Title and author, source title and URL, one-sentence main idea.
Apex: distrust a lone webpage, look for a full version, and use more than one place.
What should you copy before you close the article?
The URL, along with the title, author, and source name.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
Write, then you may turn the writing into an outline. Apex says the information counts, not the exact phrasing, except for the recitation.
Recite this passage exactly (1 point), then say what it means to you. Apex wants your meaning to be your own, even though every student recites the same words.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Exact words, then your meaning.
From “We hold these truths” through “consent of the governed.”
What those lines mean to you. Apex says that part should be unique even though the words are shared.
Got it now? Scroll back up and re-read the section — it should land differently.
These items check the assignment shape, not a hidden Apex quiz bank.
Tick these off as you go. Saved in this browser.
