Keeping the Peace

This worksheet helps students in Grades 5, 6, and 7 build reading comprehension, historical understanding, critical thinking, text-based analysis, and evaluation skills through a focused passage about the Missouri Compromise. Students read an accessible informational text explaining how leaders attempted to ease tensions between free and slave states, then respond to questions that target key details, interpretation, and deeper historical judgment.

Learning Goals

• Historical Reading (Grades 5-7) – Understand how the Missouri Compromise addressed sectional conflict through legislation
• Text-Based Evidence – Identify and cite details about Henry Clay, Missouri and Maine’s admission, and the 36°30′ line
• Comprehension & Interpretation – Answer questions that require both literal understanding and inferred meaning
• Critical Evaluation – Analyze whether the Compromise truly resolved the issue of slavery or only delayed conflict

Instructional Support

• Teacher-Created Passage – Written by educators to align with upper elementary and middle school social studies standards
• Structured Questions – Includes a mix of recall, interpretation, and evaluative prompts
• Cross-Curricular Skills – Reinforces ELA reading strategies alongside historical content
• Flexible Use – Ideal for guided reading, independent work, homework, or homeschool lessons
• Supports Deeper Thinking – Encourages students to move beyond facts to historical reasoning

This Keeping the Peace worksheet helps students practice close reading, evidence-based responses, and thoughtful evaluation of historical solutions. By examining how the Missouri Compromise attempted to reduce sectional tension-and questioning its long-term effectiveness-learners strengthen comprehension, historical literacy, and critical thinking. It’s a practical, no-prep resource for both classroom and homeschool settings focused on meaningful engagement with U.S. history.

This worksheet is part of our Missouri Compromise Worksheets collection.