If you’re a high school government teacher you might be wondering how to kick start your semester.  If this is you, a great place to start is with political philosophers because their ideas have shaped our modern political systems. In this blog post I’ll walk you through a Political Philosophers Writing Activity  that I’ve used in my class. 

For this writing activity, students analyze the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Charles-Louis Montesquieu. I love this activity because it is a quick and easy way to introduce students to political thinkers AND it is a great way to connect political thinkers to current day events. Oftentimes when students learn about political thinkers, it can feel very distant to them.  

If you’re interested in purchasing my resource, you can click here. If not, continue reading to see how you can recreate it in your own classroom. 

Overview of Resource

In this resource, students analyze the following primary source documents: 

• John Locke, Second Treatise Of Civil Government, 1690
• Charles-Louis Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748
• Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan, 1641

I gave students an abridged version of each text and wrote text dependent questions to accompany each text. I had students work in pairs to read and answer the text dependent questions. Below are some of the text dependent questions I had students answer:

 Second Treatise of Civil Government Text Dependent Questions

1. What is the state of nature?
2. What freedoms to people have in the state of nature?
3. According to Locke, what is government based on and how does government form?

 The Spirit of the Laws Text Dependent Questions

1. What do successful governments do?
2. How are abuses prevented in the government?
3. How many groups or branches should the government be separated into?

The Leviathan Text Dependent Questions

1. What is life like in the state of nature?
2. What are people governed by?
3. What happens when man cannot achieve peace?

Students will need 10-20 minutes per primary source document to read and answer the text dependent questions. Before moving on to the next primary source, make sure to go over the answers to the text dependent questions as a whole class. After going over the questions, you can open up the room to class discussion and ask students whether or not they agree with the political thinkers and why.

Current Day Event

Next, choose a current day event for students to read and discuss. When I did this activity I chose the capitol riot that took place on January 6. However, you can choose any current day event that fits your class needs and preferences. 

First, I had students read a brief article about the current day event. The news article I used for the capital riot can be found here. 

After reading the article I had students choose ONE political thinker. Then, I had students respond to the following prompt:

• What would the political thinker you chose (John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Charles-Louis Montesquieu) would say about the capitol riot that took place on January 6, 2021? 

Student must answer the question in 1 paragraph (4-5 sentences). Students will need about 10-20 minutes to complete the writing activity. 

Once students have completed the writing activity, you can have students share out this responses. 

Conclusion

This is a short and easy assignment to recreate in your class! But it does a great job at introducing students to political thought AND connecting to current events. If you’d like to purchase my ready-made Political Philosophers resource, click here! It includes the abridged versions of each text with text dependent questions. 

Happy teaching!