Students will understand how America changed during the 1800s, focusing specifically on the Industrial and Transportation Revolutions, Southern Economy/Slavery, Immigration/Cities, Reforms/Abolitionism, and Women’s Rights. Students will be divided into teams that will research one of these specific areas. This project will take about five weeks. Through this lesson, students will not only gain a deeper understanding of how/why America changed during the 1800s, but also develop critical thinking, communication, presentation, research, and technology-based skills.

Objective(s)  1. 8.6.3. List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and the Great Irish Famine). 8.6.4. Study the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded schools and churches to advance their rights and communities. 8.6.5. Trace the development of the American education system from its earliest roots, including the roles of religious and private schools and Horace Mann’s campaign for free public education and its assimilating role in American culture. 8.6.6. Examine the women’s suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony). , 2. 8.7.1. Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin. 8.7.2. Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region’s political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey). 8.7.3. Examine the characteristics of white Southern society and how the physical environment influenced events and conditions prior to the Civil War. 8.7.4. Compare the lives of and opportunities for free blacks in the North with those of free blacks in the South. Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass). Discuss the abolition of slavery in early state constitutions. , 3. 8.9.6. Describe the lives of free blacks and the laws that limited their freedom and economic opportunities. , 4. 8.12.4. Discuss entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, commerce, and industry (e.g., Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford). 8.12.5. Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement). 8.12.6. Discuss child labor, working conditions, and laissez-faire policies toward big business and examine the labor movement, including its leaders (e.g., Samuel Gompers), its demand for collective bargaining, and its strikes and protests over labor conditions. 8.12.7. Identify the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism. 8.12.9. Name the significant inventors and their inventions and identify how they improved the quality of life (e.g., Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright).

NETS: 

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology., CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others., COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media., COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats., COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

RESEARCH AND INFORMATION FLUENCY: apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information., RESEARCH AND INFORMATION FLUENCY: plan strategies to guide inquiry., RESEARCH AND INFORMATION FLUENCY: locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

CRITICAL THINKING, PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING: critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources., CRITICAL THINKING, PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING:plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology., DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity., DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning., DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS: demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology., TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS: create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

Technology Tools Google Docs, Internet Research, Presentation Software, Online Forms

Procedures - 1. Students are to be grouped into teams, with each team consisting of five to six students. Teams are then given an opportunity to choose one of the six topics, preferably the one that they are most passionate about (however, once a topic is picked, a group must choose a different topic). The project is to be completed in five weeks. Teacher should check progress of student throughout each stage of the project. , 2. Week 1: Teams assign specific questions to each member to research and gather information. Students are also to collect/save pictures related to their topics for use with their digital presentation. , 3. Week 2-3: Students edit down their notes using Google Docs to facilitate collaboration with their team and teacher. The information now needs to be organized and reworded in the students’ own words in a “script form.” Students continue to collect/save pictures., 4. Week 4: Teams start putting their presentation together. Need to create PowerPoint/Keynote slides as well as note cards for presentation. Practice presentation.

Assessment Week 5: Start presentations (teacher assessment of the project), one team per day. Groups are also to need to complete the online "Group Evaluation" forms.

 

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