Embedded Files
Week 20
Monday-Wednesday
Working in groups of three, students create a newspaper from the industrial era (1865-1900). The newspaper must have a total of nine (9) articles--six must be “hard news” and three can be “soft news.” Because a newspaper does not cover three-plus decades, each group must select a narrower time frame (no more than a five year window). The newspaper should:
Approximate the style and contents of a modern newspaper as closely as possible but be based on information from the Gilded Age
Be historically correct
Have at least one item on each of the following topics: labor or management relations, technology, immigration, African American rights.
Have articles, editorials, and letters to the editor that are relevant to issues of the time period
Be accompanied by an extensive bibliography that follows Chicago Manual of Style specifications.
Essential Questions Addressed:
How did industrialization affect the political, social, and economic fabric of late 19th-century America?
How successful were unions in effecting change for workers in the late 19th century?
How did a new wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe and Asia challenge the idea of what it meant to be American?
How did the rise of big business and government corruption result in calls for political, social, and economic reform in the late 19th century?
Thursday-Friday
Riis, “How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements in New York”;
“Lincoln Steffens Exposes ‘Tweed Days in St. Louis’”;
“Upton Sinclair Hits His Readers in the Stomach”
Davidson & Lytle, Chapter 10: “USDA Government Inspected” - See Class Handout
Formative Assessment -
Following the second discussion above, students revisit their initial response to the prompt from the preceding activity: What role did muckrakers play in raising social awareness of societal issues? Students must use at least two pieces of evidence to support their position.
Week 21:
Monday - Tuesday - Maybe Wednesday:
The Crash of 1929 Video
Fernlund, Chapter 23, part 12: “Herbert Hoover’s Plan (1931)”
We begin by analyzing charts of economic boom and bust cycles in the 20th century (from the textbook). Students discuss what they notice in the charts. Then, over a two-day period, they play a stock market game simulating several years during the 1920s. There are announcements and secret deals that benefit some players at the expense of others. The game ends in 1931 with the Great Depression firmly in place. We discuss the outcomes and the reasons why stock values changed as they did. Finally the students watch excerpts from The Crash of 1929, an excellent documentary on warning signs ignored that lead to the October crash. The activity concludes with students reading Herbert hoover’s Plan and responding to guiding questions.
Playing the Stock Market Game
Wednesday - Maybe Thursday:
Harburg and Gorney, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime; Lyrics
Having completed the reading (Pageant Chapter 32-33) prior to class, students listen to “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” and do a quickwrite on the meaning of the song--both the lyrics and the tone of the melody. Students conduct an “i-search” (a quick research project in small groups of two or three) on one part of Roosevelt’s New Deal that ties together the three Rs: Relief, Recovery, Reform. Each group of students focuses on one theme of the three Rs (e.g., banking, work/employment, development), researching a program from each category to highlight that theme. Students conclude with short presentations that provide an analysis of how each of those programs came together to work as a unit in the New Deal.
Thursday - Maybe - Friday:
Students write a one-page response to the following prompts:
Compare and contrast the Roosevelt administration’s policies to address the Great Depression with that of the Hoover administration.
What accounted for these different approaches?
Students use information from the final two lessons of the module to provide a brief comparison, citing relevant historical evidence to support their analysis.
Week 22
Monday:
Video: Jazz, Episode 3
Hine, Hine, and Harrold, Chapter 17: “African Americans and the 1920s,” pp. 405-415
Henretta, Brody, and Dumenil, Chapter 23: “Modern Times, 1920-1932”
We begin by defining the Harlem Renaissance. What evidence can students use to back up their definition? Next, we watch two segments from the third episode of Jazz. (Start about 1:03:00) The first is on Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club; the second is about Woody Herman and Artie Shaw. I lead students in a discussion about the role African Americans played in shaping the popular culture of the United States. In the discussion, we grapple with the contradictions within the 1920s America regarding the place of African Americans in society and their role in shaping popular culture.
Tuesday:
Brinkley Reading;“Between the Wars: Fear of Dissent”
Nelles, “Seeing Red: Civil Liberty and the Law in the Period Following the War”
“Put Them Out & Keep Them Out” - Image
“Speeches by Sacco & Vanzetti to the Court at The of Sentencing”
I provide context for the lesson by explaining how, following WWI, there was an increase in nativism along with a fear of communism due to the Russian Revolution in 1917. Students form pairs to analyze the document set regarding the case against Sacco and Vanzetti. Focusing on the claims within Vanzetti and Sacco’s sentencing statements and the tenor of the other documents, students assess how this particular case might be “the perfect storm” regarding convergence of fears surrounding immigration and anti-communism in the wake of WWI. Groups must cite evidence to support their position.
Want even more info on this event click here.
Wednesday:
“An ‘Un-American Bill’: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas”
“‘Shut the Door’: A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restriction”
Working in small groups, students investigate the debate over immigration and immigrants in the post--World War I period. One group of students reads and analyzes the perspective of Clancy, the other Smith. Students then move into group of four --two students per document -- to debate/discuss which speaker had the most effective argument on the issue of immigration. Students must present evidence from the materials to defend their position.
Thursday:
Davidson 7 Lytle, Chapter 11: “Sacco and Vanzetti” - See Handout in class.
Formative Assessment - Students read “Sacco & Venzetti” and write a three- to four-paragraph historical analysis of the event as if it were to be included in a U.S. history textbook. The entry should reflect the tensions of the period, particularly immigration, the Red Scare, and the case against Sacco and Vanzetti. The goal is for students to practice making a historical argument and defending those choices with appropriate evidence. This assignment is peer reviewed and returned with comments by the reviewer. Students make revisions to the assignment and submit them to me with their peer’s comments.
Friday
Website 1; Website 2; Website 3;
Henretta, Brody, and Dumenil, Chapter 22: “War and the American State, 1914-1920
Hine, Hine, and Harrold, Chapter 16: “Conciliation, Agitation, and Migration: African Americans in the Early Twentieth Century,” pp 378-388 - See Mr. P for this handout.
Weekend Homework: Students will visit three websites to gain information about the living conditions of African Americans between 1905 and 1920. Students should research as to why so many left their homes to go North. Students then should read the primary sources found in The African-American Odyssey and America’s History. Students analyze the excerpted letters for reasons why African Americans would leave the South and why they would feel conflicted about no longer living in the South. Additionally, students consider the challenges facing African Americans moving north, based on the letters and excerpted article from a management magazine. (working on that source yet).
Formative Assessment: Students complete a quickwrite addressing the following prompt: Based on the materials studied, what were the primary motivations for the Great Migration, and what were some of the challenges African Americans faced when they arrived North? This quickwrite is meant to help students summarize the day’s work.
Week 23:
Monday:
Students read the textbook assignment prior to class. I begin with a photo of a WPA mural from the local post office that depicts the immigrant experiences of Pittsburgh. ( See WPA.com for list of MN murals). Students analyze the image through the prism of migration and discuss its relationship to the migratory experience encountered in the previous lesson (Great Migration). We then shift our focus to the migration caused by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl by analyzing the photo “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange and Woody guthrie’s song “Goin’ Down the Road feeling Bad.” Students compare and contrast the messages of both sources regarding migration during this time period.
Wednesday:
Prior to class, students read the chapters on the causes and effects of migration and the Dust Bowl during the 1930s. Two groups of three students debate the following issue: Resolved: Despite John Steinbeck’s geographical challenges, his depiction of the issues facing migrants during the Great Depression is accurate. Students not part of either debating team are required to have done their own reading and prepare two questions that challenge each side’s position.
Formative Assessment - Students write an essay that responds to the following questions:
What factors caused people to migrate within the United States during the early part of the 20th century?
What challenges did these individuals face when they arrived where they were going?
The essay enables students to pull from various points in the module to respond to the prompt. It lets me (the teacher) see how well students can from a historical argument on a broad subject.
Thursday:
Working in small groups, students are assigned one aspect of the U.S. expansion overseas during the period 1890-1920 and the arguments for or against it. Topics include the annexation of Hawaii, the Spanish American War, the Philippines, Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy, the “Open Door” Policy in Asia, “Dollar Diplomacy,” The U.S. intervention in Mexico, and U.S. involvement in World War I. Each group creates a poster that explains the topic and represents their position (for or against foreign involvement). Students then take a gallery walk and take notes on their presentations.
Friday:
Continue to work on project. Final product due Monday.
Week 24
Monday - No School
Tuesday - Students lead a whole-class discussion on how U.S. foreign policy has changed over the period 1890-1920, where it remained the constant, and what factors determined those observations.
Wednesday
WWI Activity - Directions: Find at least three (3) primary sources such as photographs, letters, journals, and government documents that highlight American propaganda from World War I. You should then complete a Primary Source Analysis Tool (Directions) for each source you select.
To locate your sources use one of the following digital collections:
Thursday
Henretta, Brody, and Dumenil, Chapter 22: “War and the American State, 1914-1920”;
“Primary Documents -- Henry Cabot Lodge on the League of Nations, 12 August 1919”;
“Reading 2: The Collision of Ideals and Policies”; Wilson, “Fourteen Points Speech (1918)”
Formative Assessment - Working in groups, students analyze one of the documents related to the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, using guiding questions provided by me. Groups share their responses with the whole class and question one another about their interpretation of the document. The activity concludes with a quick write in which each student explains which argument of the three presented was most persuasive, which was least persuasive, and why. Students should cite two examples for each.
Friday - Link to Assignment
Henretta, Brody, and Dumenil, Chapter 25: “The World At War, 1939-1945”;
“From Neutrality to War: The United States and Europe, 1921-1941”;
Lindbergh, “Neutrality and War”
Students create a timeline of major foreign policy decisions made by the United States from 1930 to 1941. In their work, students note which trends can be observed during this time period and the extent to which the U.S. was interventionist or isolationist at the time. Next, small groups of students work with different document sets provided by the Web sources that support either intervention or isolation as Europe and Asia plunge into world war. Students create a persuasive argument that defends their position. In a whole-class debate, students discuss whether the United States should get involved in the conflict overseas.
HWK: Students write a three-minute speech that defends their group's position (from the previous activity)
Week 26
Henretta, Brody, and Dumenil, Chapter 25: “The World at War, 1939-1945”; “Atlantic Charter”; “A Decade of American Foreign Policy 1941-1949: Declaration by the United Nations, January 1, 1942
We begin by discussing the relationship between the United States and Great Britain before the U.S. formally entered World War II. Students then compare and contrast the Atlantic Charter and the “Declaration of the United Nations,” and they debate how these statements might affect U.S. involvement in the European conflict. Finally, students consider competing interests in the war. Working in small groups, they evaluate one particular perspective. In a whole-class discussion using a Venn diagram, students compare and contrast the national objectives of the United States and Great Britain as they enter a “Grand Alliance” to defeat Germany and to decide whether and how these tensions between the two allies affected the war effort.
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