SUBJECT: Social Studies

GRADE: Sixth

TECHNOLOGY: Internet

BY: April Bahen

Virginia Social Studies SOL

• 6.4 The student will describe the ideas and events of the 1920s and 1930s with emphasis on literature, music, dance, and entertainment; prohibition, speakeasies, and bootlegging;

TARGET GRADE/SUBJECT

This lesson is intended for a heterogeneous sixth grade class. It is assumed that students will have prior experience using the Internet. Students will also have studied American History up until the early 1900s.

According to Piaget, the 10-11 year old is in the cognitive stage of concrete operations, but is on the verge of moving into formal operations. That is, the child can think logically with some students still finding it difficult to grasp the abstract and some beginning to grasp more abstract concepts. The students will still learn new concepts and theories most easily when given concrete examples. This also means some children will only be able to answer questions and complete projects that are concrete and do not require abstract thinking while others may be able to move into the abstract. Instructional recommendations at this age will still include the use of concrete props and visual aids, allowing students to manipulate/test items, giving brief, well-organized presentations of new concepts, and the use of familiar examples.

Vygotsky suggests that the individual learns best when interacting with people and tools that come from his/her culture. Using familiar people and tools, and scaffolding by capable peers or teachers, the child grasps new concepts in the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Information processing proposes that new information is understood and remembered when it can be related to other known information.

Recent research supports the construction of knowledge by allowing students to build on their existing framework, manipulating that knowledge in new ways to bring understanding of the new concept. Inquiry will allow students to explore and manipulate knowledge in a manner that is meaningful to them and will assist them in their ZPD moving from concrete to formal operations.

In this lesson the students will focus on discovering information about the Prohibition of the early 1900s. Students will use the Internet to perform their inquiry after an introductory discussion on whether or not the government should make laws affecting our personal choice, and after viewing a printed material packet from the Prohibition era with cartoons, an ad, a song, and a flier.

The Internet is a well-known tool that is popular because of its visual stimulation, ease of use, and interactive capabilities. It is also a useful educational tool because of the wealth of information that is at the individuals fingertips. The students will be provided with a number of Internet sites to focus their search. In addition to answering concrete, convergent questions, the student will have some divergent questions to answer. The student will be able to share their answers with the class. These open-ended questions heighten motivation for the students because they allow the student to guide their own learning based on their interests.

The Anti-Prohibition cartoon sheet includes political cartoons found in various publications from the state of New York in the early 1900s.

• The Full Father and The Empty Stocking plate is Series G No. 17 from The American Issue Publishing Co., which was associated with the Anti-Saloon League. The Anti-Saloon League was a major force pushing Prohibition through print media and lobbying in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
• Pick Up the Club was a political cartoon drawn for and published in The American Issue, a pro-temperance publication sponsored by the Anti-Saloon League in the early 1900s.
• The Alcoholic Dogs Had More Feeble and Defective Puppies flier was printed by The American Issue Publishing Company and distributed by the Anti-Saloon League based on a research project looking at the Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem by Hodge in 1903.
• The song Onward, Temperance Soldiers!, by E.A. Hoffman, 1909, is based on the tune Onward, Christian Soldiers by James Rowe and Arthur Sullivan.

OBJECTIVES

1. Given cartoons, drawings, and songs from the Prohibition era, the students will use the printed media to derive relevant information for answering questions and creating their own questions.

2. Given four book marked Prohibition era websites, students will find information that directly relates to his/her hypotheses and student-derived questions, and will record additional information and questions about the Prohibition era.

MATERIALS

• A set of the same 5 cartoons, drawings, and songs from the Prohibition era for each group of three students
• A recording sheet for each student
• A computer for each student with access to the Internet

LESSON DESCRIPTION

Day 1

• Introduction
• The teacher will spark discussion around the debate that was at the core of the pro and anti-prohibition movement by providing questions and/or statements such as or similar to:
  • Our country provides (the protection for its) certain protections for its people, such as having a military to intervene in potentially harmful domestic or global situations.
  • And today there are certain federal agencies that oversee the safety of the food and drugs businesses provide the American people with (The Food and Drug Administration).
  • However, should there be laws mandating that people not cause conscious harm to their bodies through the intake of certain foods or substances?
  • There were and are no laws against eating lots of fatty and/or fried foods. There were and are no laws against smoking. There were and are no laws against taking certain prescription drugs that may have very terrible side effects.
  • How about trying to ban items from the market because of the moral impacts some people believe they have on people. Do we allow that today? Why not? Is there still debate in this area today? How would people react if a law was passed that prevented people from partaking of an item because it was bad for their health and for their morals?
  • In the early 1900s there were people in America who believed that there should be a Constitutional Amendment that banned the production or sale of alcohol. This movement was called the Temperance movement or Prohibition movement.
• Each suggestion provided by the students will be taken as possible and valuable.
• Inform the students that by researching authentic sources from this time period and information based from authentic sources the answers to our questions can be answered. In what types of sources would one need to look in order to find answers to our questions?
• Responses will likely include newspapers, political cartoons, speeches, and photographs and possibly include radio announcements, and posters. Pro and Anti-Temperance believers used various arguments to try to sway others.
• Inform the students that they will be looking at pieces of printed materials from the Prohibition era that used different reasons and strategies for their position.
• Distribute the political cartoons, song, ad, and flier.
• Ask students to look over the materials, discuss them with their group, and write their impressions on their worksheet under #1 and #2.

Day 2

• Have students find answers to the questions they generated on Day 1 by seeking out the appropriate sources on the Internet.
• Students will have the choice of searching through 4 bookmarked websites:
  • Temperance and Prohibition, http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/prohibition/
  • Anti-Saloon League 1893-1933, http://www.wpl.lib.oh.us/AntiSaloon/
  • History of Alcohol Prohibition,http://calyx.com/~schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.html
  • Gangsters & Prohibition,http://www.santacruzhs.santacruz.k12.ca.us/library/1920s/Gangsters.html
• Ask students to find answers to their questions and write down any additional information under item #4 on their worksheet.
• Have students share what they found. Encourage students to give specific information that supports any of their general ideas, hypotheses, conclusions, or inferences. Inform the students that if they feel differently than others on a topic, encourage them to share those feelings and support them with evidence found during their inquiry.
• Decide collectively what reasons were given for being Pro or Anti-Prohibition and what everyday life was like in the early 1900s.

EVALUATION

• Each student will be evaluated on the answers given on their worksheet.
• For the first three questions, the students will work in groups of three, and therefore the group members can have the same or very similar answers. T
• he students will use book marked Internet sites to answer question 4. Each child will answer this multi-part question individually.
• The teacher will walk around to assist and check students progress on their worksheets in their groups and individually during their Internet inquiry.
• The teacher will collect the worksheets recording impressions, questions, and documented research on the Prohibition.

A

Question 1, 9-10 Pro and Anti-Prohibition reasons identified from the printed materials

All suggestions for Question #2 are based on evidence from the printed materials

Question 3, 3 questions that have logical connections to and/or are logically extrapolated from the students answers in Question #1.

Question 4, Every suggestion under Questions #1& #2 is addressed with relevant information. Includes 4 pieces of additional information. Asks 3 additional questions.

B

Question 1, 7-8 Pro and Anti-Prohibition reasons identified from the printed materials

Most suggestions for Question #2 are based on evidence from the printed materials

Question 3, 2 questions that have logical connections to and/or are logically

extrapolated from the students answers in Question #1.

Question 4, Most suggestions under Questions #1& #2 are addressed with relevant information. Includes 3 pieces of additional information. Asks 2 additional questions.

C

Question 1, 4-6 Pro and Anti-Prohibition reasons identified from the printed materials

Some suggestions for Question #2 are based on evidence from the printed materials

Question 3, 1 question that has a logical connection to and/or is logically

extrapolated from the students answers in Question #1.

Question 4, Some suggestions under Questions #1& #2 are addressed with relevant information. Includes 2 pieces of additional information. Asks 1 additional question.

D

Question 1, 1-3 Pro and Anti-Prohibition reasons identified from the printed materials

Few suggestions for Question #2 are based on evidence from the printed materials

Question 3, 1 question that has a questionable logical connection to and/or logical

extrapolation from the students answers in Question #1.

Question 4, Few suggestions under Questions #1& #2 are addressed with relevant information. Includes 1 pieces of additional information. Asks 0 additional questions.

F

Question 1, 0 Pro and Anti-Prohibition reasons identified from the printed materials

No suggestions for Question #2 are based on evidence from the printed materials

Question 3, 0 questions that have logical connections to and/or are logically

extrapolated from the students answers in Question #1.

Question 4, No suggestion under Questions #1& #2 are addressed with relevant information. Includes 0 pieces of additional information. Asks 0 additional questions.

1)     Given the various printed materials from before and during Prohibition, what do you see as the reasons given for the Pro and Anti-Prohibition positions?

2) Based on the printed materials arguments for and against prohibition, what type of picture do you envision of everyday life in the early 1900s?

3) What questions do you have concerning other reasons that were given for and against Prohibition or what life might have been like just before and during Prohibition?

4.) Investigate your questions using websites book marked by the teacher, and research to see if your hypotheses to 1) and 2) were correct. Record your findings below.

Question:

Resource Consulted:

Information discovered relevant to question:

Additional information discovered:

Additional questions:

Time devoted to today's research: