Goals & Objectives
Students will research the growth of popular culture in the 1920s.
Students will be able to analyze primary sources that are from the 1920s era, including pictures, music, and writings, and using these documents, will be able to compose an extended response explaining why the mediums of radio and motion pictures were influential to the popular culture of the 1920s.
Students will be able to analyze primary sources that are from the 1920s era, including pictures, music, and writings, and using these documents, will be able to compose an extended response explaining why the mediums of radio and motion pictures were influential to the popular culture of the 1920s.
California State Content Standards
11.5.6: Trace the growth and effects of radio and movies and their role in the worldwide diffusion of popular culture.
Common Core Literacy Standards
2. Interacting with others in written English in various communicative forms (print, communicative technology and multimedia)
10b. Write clear and coherent summaries of texts and experiences by using complete and concise sentences and key words (e.g., from notes or graphic organizers).
7. Condensing ideas Condense ideas in a variety of ways (e.g., through a variety of embedded clauses, or by compounding verb or prepositional phrases, nominalization) to create precise simple, compound, and complex sentences that condense concrete and abstract ideas (e.g., The epidemic, which ultimately affected hundreds of thousands of people, did not subside for another year).
10b. Write clear and coherent summaries of texts and experiences by using complete and concise sentences and key words (e.g., from notes or graphic organizers).
7. Condensing ideas Condense ideas in a variety of ways (e.g., through a variety of embedded clauses, or by compounding verb or prepositional phrases, nominalization) to create precise simple, compound, and complex sentences that condense concrete and abstract ideas (e.g., The epidemic, which ultimately affected hundreds of thousands of people, did not subside for another year).
Lesson Introduction (Hook/Access Prior Knowledge)
Students will be introduced to the popular culture of the 1920s by viewing Steamboat Willie, which was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, produced in 1928. This will help students to find interest in the popular culture of the 1920s, because it is a character they will recognize from their childhood, particularly since they have grown up in California, and near Disneyland.
Students will take notes on what they see as they are watching, then participate in a think-write-pair-share with a partner on what is different about this cartoon than modern day cartoons, and how they feel this cartoon is representative of the 1920s. |
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Vocabulary (Content Language Development)
Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance, Radio, talkies
Content Delivery (Method of Instruction)
Students will gain background information by reading a short article entitled “The Rise of Hollywood, and the Arrival of Sound” from Digital History.This will help them to understand the growth of the film industry prior to the 1920s and why it became so popular in the 1920s era.
I will help pass out the primary source analysis worksheets, and go through them with one example of a primary source for the students, to model what I would like them to do. We will use the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis tool, which can be downloaded from my Primary Source Toolbox page. The students will use this Primary Source Analysis worksheet to analyze the remaining primary sources.
I will help pass out the primary source analysis worksheets, and go through them with one example of a primary source for the students, to model what I would like them to do. We will use the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis tool, which can be downloaded from my Primary Source Toolbox page. The students will use this Primary Source Analysis worksheet to analyze the remaining primary sources.
Student Engagement (Critical Thinking & Student Activities)
Students will use the Primary Source Analysis worksheet to work through the various primary sources given to them. After participating in the first modeling of the primary source, students will work in small groups of 3-4 students to analyze the remaining primary sources. This will continue on to a second day of class.
The students will take the time to observe each document, then reflect on the document, and finally question it to help gain a deeper understanding of what is being portrayed about the 1920s popular culture.
On day two, after completing the analysis of the various primary sources, students will compose an extended response, using the primary sources to explain what they have learned about the growth of popular culture in the 1920s, and how movies and radio contributed to that growth.
The students will take the time to observe each document, then reflect on the document, and finally question it to help gain a deeper understanding of what is being portrayed about the 1920s popular culture.
On day two, after completing the analysis of the various primary sources, students will compose an extended response, using the primary sources to explain what they have learned about the growth of popular culture in the 1920s, and how movies and radio contributed to that growth.
This is a song that was sung by Bessie Smith, as well as many other 1920s jazz artists. It was one of the top songs in 1925. Students will complete the primary source worksheet while listening to this song. It will be played twice in class, and students will be expected to write down key phrases in order to determine what they believe this song is about.
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Lyrics:
I hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down I hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down It makes me think of all my left go 'round Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today I'll pack my trunk and make my getaway St. Louis woman with her diamond rings Pulls my man around by her apron strings Wasn't for powder and his store-bought hair The man I love, wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere I got the St. Louis blues just as blue as I can be He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me |
"Radio broadcasting is spectacular and amusing but virtually useless. It is difficult to make out a convincing case for the value of listening to the material now served out by the American broadcasters...Is the whole radio excitement to result, then, in nothing but a further debauching [morally corrupting] of the American mind in the direction of still lazier cravings for sensationalism?" --E. E. Free, "Rado's Real Uses", The Forum, March 1926 |
What is being expressed in this quote by E. E. Free? What do we see from the picture to the right? Analyze these to interpret how radios were viewed in the 1920s.
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This document is a news article from 1928 in The North American Review, talking about movies and Talkies. Students will take the time to read the document, and analyze it for information about the growth of the movie industry and how it was portrayed in the 1920s.
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Lesson Closure
We will spend the last 10 minutes of class going over what the students wrote in their extended responses, and discussing what they thought were the most important parts of how radio and movies expanded the popular culture of the 1920s. We will use cards to have students share what they have written in their discussions.
Assessment (Formative and Summative)
Formative- While students are working on analyzing the primary sources in groups, I will be walking around to check their progress, and see what they have learned. On Day 2, as the lesson intro, I will have students share what things they have noticed about various primary sources, and talk to students about how to group sources to formulate responses.
Summative- Students will compose an extended response, using the primary sources as their evidence for how the growth of radio and movies in the 1920s helped expand the popular culture at the time.
Summative- Students will compose an extended response, using the primary sources as their evidence for how the growth of radio and movies in the 1920s helped expand the popular culture at the time.
Accommodations for English Learners, Striving Readers and Students with Special Needs
EL- Students will sit in homogenous groups so as to encourage students who are ELs to work with students who have similar languages to promote engagement. The EL students will also be allowed to use a language dictionary to help them with composing their responses. When I am speaking, I will slow down to help these students with their comprehension.
SR- Striving readers will be given a dictionary to help them to look up any words that they are struggling with. They also will sit in homogeneous groups to help them with composing their responses.
SSN- Students with special needs will also be sitting in homogenous groups to help them to have support when analyzing documents, and researching their extended responses. They will be given extra time to complete their extended response.
SR- Striving readers will be given a dictionary to help them to look up any words that they are struggling with. They also will sit in homogeneous groups to help them with composing their responses.
SSN- Students with special needs will also be sitting in homogenous groups to help them to have support when analyzing documents, and researching their extended responses. They will be given extra time to complete their extended response.
Resources
Primary sources- Steamboat Willie Video, St. Louis Blues song & Lyrics, Pictures
Secondary Sources- Article on the Growth of the Hollywood Movie Industry
Primary Source Analysis Sheets for students
Secondary Sources- Article on the Growth of the Hollywood Movie Industry
Primary Source Analysis Sheets for students