Picturing America at the turn of the twentieth century

Students link together the literature and the history of the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Questions guide students as they study visual documents. Students also read the teacher's choice of two widely anthologized short stories and an excerpt from a best-selling novel of the period. Two exercises will raise student awareness of the impact that visual images have on their lives: one that is based on internet advertising and a second that results in a student-produced scrapbook.

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Scott Culclasure

Learn more

• Library of Congress American Memory

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Related topics

• Learn more about American history, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frank Norris, Hamlin Garland, Owen Wister, Populism, Progressive Period, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, hands-on, history, industrialization, language arts, literature, novels, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

• To familiarize students with historical interpretation through the use of primary sources
• To reinforce student understanding of the period
• To help students appreciate how literature and history can be linked
• To encourage students to ask critical questions of the visual images that bombard them as consumers

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

8 hours

Materials/resources

Resources from American Literature electronic texts;

• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
• Hamlin Garland’s “Under the Lion’s Paw”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Additional electronic texts of American literature for this period:

• Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie
• Frank Norris’ novels, and short stories
• Owen Wister’s The Virginian

Technology resources

• A computer lab (or stand-alone computer with presentation station) capable of internet access
• Plug-in software to view downloaded motion pictures
• Diskette for each student

An alternate unit plan also has been written for teaching situations where an internet-connected computer lab is unavailable.

Pre-activities

• The concept map (JPG) lists the historical documents and shows how they are related to aspects of picturing America at the beginning of the twentieth century. The map is appropriate both for teachers desiring an overview of the project and for students who wish to see the relationships of the materials they are studying.
• New and Improved is an internet exercise that requires students to select five advertisements found on the web (or in magazines) and identify the advertising appeals. It also uses an internet site to examine how web advertising differs from traditional formats. This exercise requires one to two class periods.
• Students will be assigned to read a combination (student and/or teacher choice) of the short stories “Under the Lion’s Paw” by Hamlin Garland and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Chapter 14 of the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Each selection is available as an electronic text that can be accessed from this unit plan. (See Materials/Resources.) The readings can be done in two class periods and also would make appropriate homework assignments.

“Under the Lion’s Paw” appeared in Garland’s 1891 collection Main-Travelled Roads and is set on a Dakota farm. Although published in 1892, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” suffered many years of neglect. Sinclair’s The Jungle caused a sensation upon its publication in 1906 and helped lead to the passage of federal pure food and drug laws (although Sinclair saw it more as an appeal to workers for the need to unionize). Garland’s Timothy Haskins, Gilman’s Jane and Sinclair’s Jurgis Rudkus suffer at the hands of impersonal forces almost beyond their comprehension, but in vastly different settings. (See Materials/Resources for additional online examples of the era’s literature.)

Activities

1. After reading the literature selections (see Pre-Activities), students examine the historical documents that are listed in Using the documents. This guide draws on digitized documents located in different online collections at the Library of Congress American Memory website. Students visit each collection and locate the specified documents. They are then asked questions about each document (which are primarily visual) with the intention of fostering an understanding of how they can be interpreted. This activity requires two to three class periods.
2. A response sheet called What do you think? is provided as an attachment. Students use the questions on the sheet to record their responses to four documents that they choose. The responses can then be used as a basis for class discussion and/or a further written assignment of the teacher’s design.
3. Students are now ready to match historical documents with the literature of the period. Illustrating the story directs students to search three American Memory collections they have already examined to find an image that would appropriately illustrate the literature they have read. The attachment lists keywords that aid in the search, but students may think of other ones that would be as useful. When they have chosen an image for each of the literature selections, they label the illustration by using a brief quotation they have chosen from the literature. (A photograph showing the starkness of a Dakota farmstead, for example, might be matched with a quotation from “Under the Lion’s Paw” about the harshness of life on the prairie.) This activity requires one class period.
4. In the final activity My scrapbook, students return to their contemporary world by thoughtfully responding in a variety of ways to the advertising messages that bombard them daily. This activity is designed for both electronic and paper-and-paste formats. This activity requires two to three class periods.

Assessment

Assessment is through a portfolio of assignments, with a suggested rubric being attached to the plan. Assignment instructions and supporting materials are provided in the attachments to this lesson plan.

Supplemental information

Use the title for any additional materials you create to accompany this unit.

Comments

Many other teaching ideas utilizing digitized collections of the Library of Congress can be found at the Library’s American Memory website.