We are studying historical events leading up to the Declaration of Independence including the Proclamation of 1763 and the various taxes the king imposed on the colonies. We reviewed Samantha's homework responses which overall showed an understanding of the the prior reading and then discussed the distinction between primary and secondary sources. While we are using secondary sources to study the Enlightenment thinkers, today I distributed portions of Paine's "Common Sense". In class, we discussed some of the arguments against monarchy and for homework Sam is to write a short essay commenting how the ideas in "Common Sense" are based on the Enlightenment philosophers. As we have quite a few hours of additional classes scheduled for this week, I also assigned additional reading in the text that should take us to the Constitutional Convention. Samantha is always cooperative and diligent in class.