Journalism Progressive Era New inventions

Notable Muckrakers Effects of trusts New leisure time

Effects of Muckraking Congress New ways to shop for
investigation goods
The Jungle
Sherman Anti-Trust

Muckraker Progressives
Turn of the
s Century
Civil War Lifestyle
amendments
Separate Car Plessy
Act Turn of the
v century
Plessy case Fergus
Segregation
Jim Crow Laws
Robber Immigrants
Barons
Origin of term
Influx of European
immigration
Famous Robber
Ellis Island
Barons
New immigrant
Tactics of Robber
experience
Barons
Chinese exclusion act
Content and Relevance
This unit aligns to the following CDE state standards.
- History 1a; 1b; 2e; 2g; 2h
- Economics 1a; 1d; 2d; 3b
- Civics 1c; 2f; 2g
For this unit, I have planned to discuss the changing lives of Americans during the

turn of the century. I have made sure that the unit is broken up into subsections that

are easily relatable to each other upon consistent review. In other words, the

conditions of the poor, working class, and immigrants are a common theme in this

lesson. As students gain more and more knowledge about what happened during

that time, they can put together an accurate picture of the working class and their

struggles, rather than cramming all the information in in one day. The unit is full of

visual input; this is especially important because this unit focuses heavily on

economics, which is a hard topic to cover without visual assistance. When teaching

economics, graphs and charts must be used along with accompanied explanation.

The lessons (albeit brief) in economics allow students to access the points of view of

the richer Americans such as the Robber Barons. When juxtaposed with the exposes

written by muckrakers like Upton Sinclair, students have both sides of a relevant

and even still commonly debated issue; the rights of workers to be treated fairly.

Another relevant issue with two sides is immigration, one addressed frequently in

this unit. Students can use political cartoons and propaganda as well as primary

sources like the Chinese Exclusion act and compare it to the conditions of

tenements and city slums in order to draw their own conclusions about the rights of

workers.

Students who learn this unit successfully will be able to intelligently discuss the

impact of economics and wages on workers, describe the origin of modern labor
laws, and infer the origins of the Civil Rights Movement. They will also be able to

describe medias role in lawmaking.