About a century has passed since the events at the center of this lesson-the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead Strike, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. In this lesson, students use primary historical sources to explore some of the questions raised by these events, questions that continue to be relevant in debates about American society: Where do we draw the line between acceptable business practices and unacceptable working conditions? Can an industrial-and indeed a post-industrial-economy succeed without taking advantage of those who do the work?

In this lesson, students will understand the economic, environmental, societal effects that various inventions had upon the population by researching key figures, events, documents, maps, photos, videos, and recordings. This project-based learning lesson plan attempts to develop collaborative and communicative skills as well as higher order thinking by having students work together on teams to research the industrial revolution using primary and secondary sources. They will then create a product or presentation that answers the driving question and present their work to the class.

Over a three day period students will examine the important foreign policy events since Vietnam.  The compelling question “Did presidents since 1975 succeed in making all Americans safer?” asks students to grapple with the challenges and achievements of six chief executives that led the nation through the unstable years after the Vietnam War.  This inquiry based project would ideally be included at the beginning or at the conclusion of Unit 8: Contemporary America. 

This inquiry uses the Industrial Age as a context for students to explore the compelling question "Is greed good?" In the Taking Informed Action sequence, students investigate the present-day issue of wealth inequality in the United States and whether or not government action on the issue would be worthwhile.

Students will be able to describe three specific moments in the Civil Rights Movement: the Freedom Rides, the 1963 Birmingham Movement, and the 1963 March on Washington; contrast the different roles of activists such as the Freedom Riders, demonstrators in Birmingham, and leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X; analyze and evaluate the relationship between civil rights activists and the Federal Government, specifically the Kennedy Administration.

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to study and analyze the innovative legislative efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in the social and economic context of the 1960s.

With this digital collection, students will review documents that focus on neighborhood and community life for workers such as the ones Sinclair portrays in The Jungle. Students will consider the following essential questions as they review the documents: 1. What did it mean to live in the neighborhood of the Union Stock Yard around 1900? What conditions did workers experience outside of the packing plants, in their homes and streets? 2. How did the Back of the Yards neighborhood compare to other Chicago neighborhoods at this time? In what ways was the neighborhood connected to or cut off from the rest of the city? 3. Who lived in Back of the Yards around 1900? What was the neighborhood’s demographic makeup? 4. How did researchers and reformers approach the stockyard neighborhood? What problems did they identify? What solutions did they propose? Does it matter that, like Sinclair, they came from outside the communities they wanted to change? 5. In what ways do the documents created by sociologists and urban reformers reframe or complicate Sinclair’s representation of the lives of meatpacking workers?

This lesson engages students in the debate over the Social Security Act that engrossed the nation during the 1930s.

This project-based learning lesson plan attempts to develop collaborative and communicative skills as well as higher order thinking by having students work together on teams to research the industrial revolution using primary and secondary sources. They will then create a product or presentation that answers the driving question and present their work to the class.

Students will analyze President Roosevelt's first 2 fireside chats and evaluate his proposed programs that outline the New Deal.This lesson is adapted from the NEH and EDSITEment.

With this digital collection, students will examine documents exploring several New Deal programs, highlighting how Chicago and Midwestern-based workers negotiated new welfare reforms. It provides a snapshot of how new agencies reshuffled family relations, mobilized immigrants, and sometimes reached across racial barriers. With a particular focus on labor and employment, these documents represent a broad range of responses to President Roosevelt’s policies, demonstrating the praise and protest elicited as policymakers established a growing welfare state. Students will consider the following essential questions as they review the documents: 1. Who benefited from New Deal labor reforms? 2. What effect did new social programs have on Chicagoans across class, racial, and ethnic divides? 3. How did the politics of the New Deal change ordinary Americans’ relationship to the federal government?

In this lesson, students will learn about the Panic of 1907 and the measures Morgan used to finance and save the major banks and trust companies. Students will also practice close reading to analyze texts from the Pujo hearings, newspapers, and reactionary articles to develop an evidence-based argument about whether or not a money trust—a Morgan-led cartel—existed.

In this activity students perform a role play of immigrant mothers and daughters arguing over who should get to keep the daughter's wages. This activity is used to teach with the film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl, but can be completed without the film.

In this lesson, students will complete a research assignment on a particular president. They will use the Library of Congress website to find the inaugural address of the president and then use the speech and additional research to identify accomplishments that the president made while in office.

In this activity, students examine three photographs of Floyd Burroughs and his family, all sharecroppers in Hale County, Alabama. The photos, taken in 1936 by Farm Security Administration photographer Walker Evans, paint a portrait of rural poverty. First, students examine the map, and ask the following questions: What do you notice about these photographs? What questions do you want to ask about these photographs? After discussing these questions, students learn more about the historical context of the Depression, and draw conclusions about the photographs and the photographer. (This activity is a professional development module that could be modified to serve as an activity for students.)

This series of lessons can be used when teaching about the Progressive era. In the first lesson, students will be able to define Progressivism and link it to past and present social issues. In the second lesson, students will learn about the formation of labor unions in the United States and how businesses responded. The third lesson provides background information about stikes in the United States during the progressive era, including the Homestead and the Pullman strikes. Lessons 4-7 focus on the coal mining industry and the lifestyles of those who worked in the mines. In the eighth lesson, students will examine problems between management and labor, and what happens when compromises cannot be achieved. In Lessons 9, 10, and 11, students learn about the Ludlow Massacre and examine the link between history and current events. Lesson 12 examines the long-term effects of the Progressive Era and labor strikes in the United States. In the final lesson, students analyze oral histories to better understand the Progressive Era.

This lesson requires students to analyze editorial cartoons focusing on progressive reform and further research the message of the cartoons. Questions accompany the editorial cartoons to guide student research. Students will compare their analysis and research before presenting the consequences of progressive reform. This lesson is designed to conclude with a discussion of the cost of reform leading to the creation of a national income tax through the passage of the 16th Amendment.

In this lesson, students explore the historical examples of trustbusting, enforcement of antitrust laws, and regulation of monopolies. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, students will review a modern antitrust case (involving Microsoft) and participate in a debate.

In this lesson, students examine Rockefeller's oil monopoly and the response from the United States government to that and other monopolies. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, students will research other highly successful American business people and report back to the class on how they made their fortune, what they did with it, and why.

In this lesson, students research the Triangle Shirtwaist factory using primary and secondary sources. Students will synthesize and interpret a wide array of information using argument, narrative or informative writing skills.