Readers Theater Worksheets
Second Great Awakening Readers Theater Script | Grades 6‑8
Second Great Awakening Readers Theater Script | Grades 6‑8
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Second Great Awakening Readers Theater Script
Transport students to the camp‑meeting tents of the 1820s and 1830s, where Charles Grandison Finney’s revival sermons thundered across the frontier and ordinary Americans answered the call to remake society. This 500‑word Readers Theater script lets learners voice Finney, Lyman Beecher, Sojourner Truth and skeptical bystanders while debating abolition, temperance and women’s rights—all through authentic quotations from Finney’s Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1835).
Perfect For
- Grades 6‑8 U.S. History units on Westward Expansion
- ELA‑integrated fluency & dramatic performance
- Primary‑source analysis & evidence‑based discussion
- Quick, print‑and‑go sub plans
What’s Included
- Readers Theater script (~9 pages, 10 scenes, 15 characters, editable Google Doc & PDF)
- Teacher Guide (~10 pages) with scene summaries, standards alignment, discussion questions
- Student Worksheet deck (~25 Google Slides) covering vocabulary, short‑answer, analysis & extension tasks
- 20‑question self‑grading Google Forms quiz
Want to save 40%?
Get this resource in the complete Westward Expansion (1801-1861) 10 Script Bundle
Skills Addressed
- Contextualizing primary‑source sermons & reform tracts
- Fluency practice through tiered roles that support mixed‑ability readers
- Analyzing cause‑and‑effect between religious fervor and social change
- Building academic vocabulary—fervor, repent, moral suasion
Script Snapshot
- Finney’s fiery appeal ignites conversions at an upstate New York camp meeting (1825).
- Boston critics spar with Beecher over emotional ‘anxious benches’.
- Sojourner Truth links revival spirit to abolition at a women’s prayer circle.
- Finney brandishes a fireplace poker—students decide if it’s showmanship or sincerity.
- Final scene weighs the movement’s legacy on antebellum reform.
Standards Alignment
CCSS CCRA.R.1 | CCSS CCRA.R.2 | CCSS CCRA.W.2
CCSS CCRA.SL.1 | CCSS CCRA.L.4
CCSS RH.6‑8.1; RH.6‑8.2; RH.6‑8.4; RH.6‑8.6; RH.6‑8.7
Try a Free Script First
Not sure if Readers Theater will work in your class? Download our FREE Missouri Compromise script and test‑drive it tomorrow.
Want More Social Studies Activities?
Perfect for sub plans, sick days, supplemental activities, review stations, Friday fun days or even build an entire emergency curriculum with these 4 bundles below:
BUNDLE #1 Colonial America and the Early Republic (1587 – 1811)
- The Lost Colony of Roanoke (1587)
- King Philip’s War (1675–1676) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
- The First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s)
- Proclamation of 1763 (1763)
- The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
- The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
- The Barbary Wars (1801–1805)
- Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)
- Tecumseh’s Resistance (1809–1811)
- The Embargo Act of 1807 (1807)
Bundle #2 Westward Expansion (1801 – 1865)
- The Missouri Compromise (1820) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
- The Monroe Doctrine (1823)
- The Second Great Awakening (1820s–1830s)
- Oregon Trail Migration (1840s)
- The Fugitive Slave Act (1850)
- Bleeding Kansas (1854–1856)
- John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
- The Pony Express (1860–1861)
- The Battle of Antietam (1862)
- The 13th Amendment (1865)
Bundle #3 Revolutionary War (1773 – 1804)
- The Boston Tea Party (1773–1774) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
- United We Stand: The First Continental Congress (1774)
- Liberty or Death: Patrick Henry's Speech (1775)
- Midnight Ride and Paul Revere (1775)
- Green Mountain Boys and Bunker Hill (1775)
- The Second Continental Congress (1775)
- Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence (1776)
- Crossing the Delaware and Trenton Victory (1776)
- Valley Forge and The American Crisis (1777–1778)
- Foreign Allies: Lafayette and France (1777–1778)
- Sybil Ludington and Molly Pitcher (1777)
- Hamilton and His Duel (1780s–1804)
- Yorktown and the Treaty of Paris (1781–1783)
- Washington Steps Down: The Man Who Would Be King (1783)
- Slavery and the Revolution (1770s–1780s)
- NOTE 1: These 15 scripts do not include Google Docs or Slides but the docx file can easily be uploaded to Google Docs and distributed digitally if desired.
- NOTE 2: These 15 scripts also include a G3-5 reading level of each script for diverse language ability classrooms.
Bundle #4 Reconstruction (1865 – 1877)
- The Assassination of Lincoln (1865) [FREE DOWNLOAD!]
- Presidential vs. Radical Reconstruction (1865–1867)
- The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–1872)
- The 14th and 15th Amendments (1868–1870)
- Black Political Participation (1867–1877)
- The Ku Klux Klan and Resistance (1866–1871)
- The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)
- The Compromise of 1877 (1877)
SAVE 50% and cover all your Social Studies needs with this Mega Bundle available on TeachersPayTeachers.com:
U.S. History Mega Bundle of 43 Readers Theater Scripts for Grades 6 to 8
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