Change

The student will be able to compare and contrast two major reform movements that took place in the United States between the 1840s and 1930s.

Illinois Language Arts Standards: 1.C.3d,  3.B.3a,  3.B.3b,  3.C.3b,  5.A.3a,  5.B.3a,  5.B.3b
Illinois Social Science Standards: 14.F.3b,  16.A.3b,  16.B.3c,  16.C.3b,  18.B.3b
National Educational Technology Standards: 2a,  3c,  3d

1. Students should get a “refresher” on how to write a bibliography for various resources.

2. Public and school librarians should be contacted at least one week ahead of time, so librarians can gather age-appropriate books on the topics below.

3. Sign up for laptop carts or computer lab time for days 5 – 7 (Internet research) and days 19 – 21 (word processing) of this unit.

After the social studies unit on the Progressive Era (1890 – 1920) the student will choose two reform movements that s/he wants to learn more about. The final product will be a comparative expository paper.
Each paper should include: what each movement hoped to change, who the major players were, when the movements took place, who was against each movement and why, if there was any overlap in participants, what were similarities between the two movements, what were major and minor differences, if the movements were successful.
The choices are:

•  Child Labor Reform
• American Labor Movement
• Abolition Movement
• Temperance Movement / Prohibition
• Women’s Suffrage Movement
• Muckraking Journalism
• Education Reform
• Utopian Community Experiments
• Trust-busting
• Early American Conservation Movement

*Not all of these reform movements fall strictly into the Progressive Era, but they are included because they follow the spirit of the progressive movement and they give the students more choices.

Day by day directions for writing workshop.

Students receive grades for:

1. one paragraph essay (credit or 0)
2. their notes (credit or 0)
3. their outline/graphic organizer (credit or 0)
4. having their first draft ready for an adult review (credit or 0)
5. having their second draft ready for a peer review (credit or 0)
6. writing comments, suggestions and additions on their peer’s paper (credit or 0)
7. the actual paper - 33 possible points: see rubric
8. the bibliography (credit or 0)

The student will compare a progressive reform movement to a reform, change or revolution from another era in American history.
Other possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• rebellions that took place in Boston leading to the American Revolution
  
• pre-Civil War reforms (prison reform, education of deaf and blind, public school)
• the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s  (Brown vs. Board of Education, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides)
  
• Equal Rights Amendment (1970s - present)
  
• promotion of the abolition of capital punishment (present)

 

The student will show his/her understanding of two reform movements by creating characters, dialogue and journal entries of two people caught up in a reform movement.

To show the students' understanding, within journal entries, their characters should refer to their hope for change, the leaders of the movement, the year and what else was going on that year, how people who were against the movement acted toward them, what they read in the papers, if their leaders also participated in other social movements, their reaction to the movement at its historical climax and their reflection on the movement 20 years later. The dialogue between the two characters should focus on the similarities and differences of the two movements.

Create a daily task for your students' writing. Example:

Day one - Write a journal entry for character A. S/he just had a normal day, but s/he is preparing for something big to happen next week.

Day two - Write some dialogue between character A and character B. They just met, and felt obliged to speak to one another for some reason (your call). They may or may not discuss the social reform movements they are involved in upon their first meeting. Keep in mind that depending on when the reform movements took place, there may be a huge age discrepancy between the two characters.

Day three - Write a journal entry for character B. This could be a past, present or future entry (compared with character A) depending on what reform movements you have chosen. It's a normal day, but the character B is preparing for some big event next month.

I have hard copies of this Character worksheet for my students to fill out before they start writing.