Research and Reading comprehension questions – “Causes of the American Discontents” by Benjamin Franklin

Part 2: Guided Reading Questions:

Working in pairs, answer the following questions:

These questions are in chronological order.

  1. What is Franklin’s purpose in writing this letter to the editor?
  2. How did Britain go about taking money from the Colonies?
  3. In what method would the colonists have gladly given money to Britain?
  4. What should be taken into consideration when governing people?
  5. How can people’s minds be changed?
  6. What were most Colonists opposed to?
  7. Franklin is advocating that money given to Britain must first be approved by what? What is this similar to?
  8. What method did the British use to take money from the colonists?
  9. What has Parliament done about taxes and what is the colonists’ response?
  10. What is making the colonists mad?
  11. What is the “American principle”?
  12. Why didn’t the colonies initially argue about the Quartering Act?
  13. How did the Quartering Act become a major issue?
  14. Franklin thinks that governors, judges and other officials should earn their money how?
  15. What are the colonists’ thoughts about governors (be specific!)?
  16. What is the only way to get rid of a terrible judge?
  17. What does Franklin think his role is in this particular manner (why is he writing to the editor)?
  18. Analyze Ben Franklin’s argument using the argument chart. Although there are more than three reasons, identify three you feel are most important.

CATALINA FOOTHILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT
STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: GRADES 11/12
Reading Standards for Informational Text
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
College and Career Readiness (CCR): Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Score 4.0 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, the student demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications. The student will be able to:
  • analyze the effect of the author’s different approaches to theme and topic in similar stories from a specific genre

Score 3.5 / In addition to score 3.0 performance, in-depth inferences and applications with partial success
Score 3.0 / The student will:
11-12.RI.9 Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
Learning Goals:
I can:
  • Explain how the historical, cultural, political, or geographical context affects the text.
  • Identify different rhetorical features and their impact on the meaning.

Score 2.5 / No major errors or omissions regarding the score 2.0 content, and partial success at score 3.0 content
Score 2.0 /
  • The student will perform basic processes, such as:
  • identify the historical, cultural, political, or geographical context of the text
  • identify key points that place the text in a particular historical, cultural, political, or geographical context

Score 1.5 / Partial success at score 2.0 content, but major errors or omissions regarding score 3.0 content
Score 1.0 / With help, partial success at score 2.0 content and score 3.0 content