In this final lesson of Unit 2: Colonial America, students examine the growth of representative government in the American colonies and explore how ideas about self-government, representation, English rights, and religious movements helped shape early American political identity.

The lesson begins by defining representative government as a system in which citizens elect representatives to make laws and decisions on their behalf. Students also compare representative government to direct democracy and analyze why large societies historically developed representative systems as a more practical way to govern growing populations.

Students then examine how ideas about government evolved over thousands of years through political trial and error in civilizations such as ancient Greece, Rome, England, and Colonial America. The lesson emphasiz ...