George Washington's Farewell Address

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What factors or choices do you believe lead to a successful nation? Explain your answers thoroughly and cite examples when possible.

Teaching Suggestion: Consider allowing students to share ideas with a partner before engaging in a quickwrite in response to the prompt. You might want to give students at least 5 minutes to develop their answers. Then, discuss the prompt as a class. Alternatively, you might invite students to take turns writing one idea on the whiteboard or use an app like Poll Everywhere to have students share ideas digitally.

If students are hesitant to share answers, consider using the invitation “Share one thing you or your partner came up with during your discussion.” This often helps students feel more comfortable sharing ideas.

• “How Can You Measure What Makes a Country Great?” from the BBC discusses modern standards for a nation’s success.
• “The World’s Most Innovative Countries” (2019) from Forbes ranks the top 12 countries for innovation.

2. Consider what you know about why the colonists fought against Britain to become their own country. What changes did the colonists want that defied the expectations of their previous British rulers?

Teaching Suggestion: Before having students write out their thoughts, consider listing as a class the various British Acts that led to the American Revolution. From there, students can choose the act(s) they want to reference in their quickwrite before going further to discuss the changes the colonists desired for their new country.

• “British Acts & Taxes (1764-1774)” is a 4-minute animated video from History Heroes reviewing some of the British Acts that led to the American Revolution.
• “What Were the Townshend Acts?” is a 3-minute video from the History Channel detailing the Townshend Acts and their varying consequences.
• “1764-1765 Timeline” from the Library of Congress gives a brief overview of the various British Acts during this two-year period.

Short Activity

“George Washington’s Farewell Address” focuses primarily on four categories: political parties, the national economy, domestic tranquility, and foreign affairs. While Washington details his opinion on how the new nation should approach each area, those who succeeded him had differing ideas.

Divide a piece of paper into four sections—one for each category Washington discusses. Then, with a partner or in a small group, discuss your opinions on how the government should be run in relation to these ideals. In each section, write bullet points or a few sentences with your ideas and explanations.

Afterward, share the ideas from your discussion with the class.

Teaching Suggestion: You might create definitions of the four categories as a class, or use the following definitions, to make certain that students fully understand the meaning of each:

1) Political parties: groups made up of people who share an ideology and pursue specific political interests

2) National economy: the wealth of a nation, including how raw materials and goods are attained or manufactured, transported, bought, and sold

3) Domestic tranquility: the level of peace within a nation

4) Foreign affairs: a country’s involvement with other countries

• “The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies” is a guide and podcast episode written by Cult of Pedagogy author Jennifer Gonzalez providing 15 ways to structure a class discussion.
• “Policy Issues,” provided by the US Department of State, lists and briefly explains current US policy stances. This can be a helpful jumping-off point for students as they decide on their own positions.

An optional extension would be to split the room into two sides: agree and disagree. As students share their statements about the four categories, allow them to move to the side of the room that aligns with their beliefs. Create a class discussion from there.

Differentiation Suggestion: To help with accessibility for ELL students, you might provide definitions for academic terms. For those with fine motor skill or organizational difficulties, consider distributing a pre-made graphic organizer.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Prompt Option 1: Have you ever listened to a president’s farewell address? If so, what have you noticed about their message? Consider the speaker’s message, word choice, tone, etc. Do you think that a succeeding president has an obligation to listen and follow the warnings provided by the previous leader? Why or why not?

Prompt Option 2: Consider what you know about American society today. Do you believe that the nation is united? Related to that, do you believe that the current government works to preserve liberty for all people? Why or why not?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider showing a brief clip of a contemporary president’s farewell speech to provide some context for students.

• “The Final Minutes of President Obama’s Farewell Address” and President Trump’s “Farewell Address” (beginning at 17:40) give brief examples of the purpose and tone of this type of political speech. These videos may also be useful in a comparison activity.

Differentiation Suggestion: To help visual learners more easily comprehend the speeches, or for students with auditory impairments, consider providing visual transcripts or captions for the videotaped speeches.

For students who struggle with writing assignments, you might provide sentence starters such as the following:

1) Something I noticed about these farewell addresses is ______.

2) I believe the purpose of a president’s farewell address is ______.

3) I do/do not believe that a succeeding president is obligated to listen and follow any warnings provided by the previous leader because ______.

4) I believe we are/are not united as a nation because ______. For example, ______.

5) Today’s government has/has not preserved liberty for all people because ______.