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Straight from the Source Close Readings for Elementary Social Studies

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Straight from the Source Close Readings for Elementary Social Studies Straight from the Source Close Readings for Elementary Social Studies National Highways Map of the State of Massachusetts Grade Level: 3 MA Standards: On a map of Massachusetts, locate major cities and towns, Cape Cod, the class’s home town or city, and local geographic features and landmarks. Common Core Standards: RI3.4, RI3.7; W3.1, W3.2 Image Source: National Highways Map of the State of Massachusetts Showing One Thousand Miles of National Highways Proposed by the National Highways Association, Washington, D.C. (1914) http://maps.bpl.org/id/12686 Abstract: Students explore and read the text of a map of proposed highways created in 1914. While becoming oriented to the locations of major geographical features of the state, students also discover that the map is a persuasive text, meant to convince residents that the highways shown would link Massachusetts towns to each other and neighboring states at federal expense. They also compare the highways map to a railroad map of 1879 and a highways map from 2012 to see overlap and changes over time. They learn key vocabulary and geographic features, and practice making inferences from the visuals and text provided. Straight from the Source: Historic Map of Massachusetts Rationale and Source Context: The National Highways Association published the 1914 National Highways Map of Massachusetts as part of its effort to make the case for the construction of a broad system of national roads. The map provides a strong foundation for Massachusetts geography and future map studies, as well as cultural insight into the time period during which the map was made. Before the early 1900s, cars were a luxury item. However, with the invention of Henry Ford’s more- affordable Model T in 1908, the automobile became a key feature of American transportation. As cars grew in popularity, the demand for more and better roads naturally increased, and various organizations were established to advocate for national highways. One such organization, the National Highways Association, was founded in 1911 by Charles Henry Davis, a civil engineer and business associate of Henry Ford. The Association’s slogan, “GOOD ROADS EVERYWHERE,” underscored its mission: to advocate the creation of a high-quality national highways system. The association believed that, when built, “national highways will increase the wealth, the power, and the importance of this country as nothing else can do besides that which has brought civilization to the saved, wealth to the poor, and happiness to all—GOOD ROADS.”1 Realizing that “nothing was ever accomplished without a beginning being made somewhere,” the Association published maps of its proposed 50,000-mile National Highways system. The proposed network of roads would be built, owned, and maintained by the national government and would consist of six main highways, thirteen trunk line highways, and forty smaller link highways. The goal was a road system that would cover the country with “almost a spider-web tracery of highways.”2 Regardless of its goals, and despite the continued and dedicated efforts of Davis, the National Highway Association’s plan was never put into action.3 Instead, the highways and interstates that cross and connect the U.S. today are a result of a long and sometimes contentious process that began when President Warren Harding signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. This act provided for Federal aid for state-run highways (a portion of which were to be “interstate in character”) for one year, plus a smaller amount of funding for forest roads and trails. While public demands for transcontinental highways gathered momentum in the 1930s and 1940s, it wasn’t until Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956 that the groundwork was laid to build today’s interstate highway system. The bill, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, authorized the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System, with the national government and state governments sharing the cost of building and maintaining the 1 “Good Roads Everywhere: Charles Henry Davis and the National Highways Association.” U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/davis.cfm 2 Ibid. 3 The article cited above provides detail about Davis’s life and his work to garner support for a national highway system. Straight from the Source: Historic Map of Massachusetts roads.4 Unfortunately Davis, who passed away in 1951, did not live to see the passage of the bill or the construction of the transnational highway system. The purpose of the National Highways Map of Massachusetts was not only to inform residents and decision makers of the Association’s proposed network of roads (and to receive feedback regarding the optimal location for roads, as indicated in the “note” on the map), but also to make the case for the creation of a national highway system. This was done in numerous ways. First, the map and associated text stressed the percentage of the state’s population that would theoretically be served by the proposed highways. This was done by arranging the names of cities and towns on the map to make it appear as though each runs directly into the next, and depicting nearly all as directly on the highway (see the circles indicating towns); by including a table of “population served” statistics beneath the map; and by emphasizing the “contiguous” and “adjoining” nature of populations and counties in Massachusetts. 5 The map also underscored – repeatedly – that the highways would be a federal expense, costing the state of Massachusetts and its taxpayers nothing at all (even though the federal income tax became a permanent feature of the U.S. tax system in 1913). Introduce this map near the beginning of the year as a starting point for studying maps and their key features. Use it to familiarize students with the shape, features, and cities of Massachusetts, as well as the state’s location within New England and bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Use it to help students explore history by making inferences about and researching cultural, economic, and political life in the U.S. and Massachusetts 100 years ago. Help students compare and contrast the proposed national highways for Massachusetts with the current highway system and to consider the factors that influence where, when, and how roads are built. Use this map in conjunction with other maps (such as the current highway map or railroad map) or with the readings and images suggested below. Original Source: National Highways Map of the State of Massachusetts Showing One Thousand Miles of National Highways Proposed by the National Highways Association, Washington, D.C. (1914) http://maps.bpl.org/id/12686 Text Complexity (Grade-Level Edited Text)* ATOS Degrees of Flesch-Kincaid Lexile Reading Power 6.9 n/a** 6.2 890L *The readability measures listed here refer to the adapted grade-level edited version of the text, not the original text. **Degrees of Reading Power needs 150 words to calculate a measure; the edited student text is fewer than 150 words. 4 Weingroff, Richard F. “Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating the Interstate System.” U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/96summer/p96su10.cfm 5 Note that some of these nuances have been removed in the grade level version of the map and text. Straight from the Source: Historic Map of Massachusetts Suggested Guidance for Teaching Close Reading of Text with Accompanying Materials Pre-Reading 1. Review with students these map features and locate them on the National Highways (http://maps.bpl.org/id/12686) and Railroads (http://www.loc.gov/item/98688495/) maps (note: neither map includes a Compass Rose; discuss with students what other clues exist for determining direction on the maps). a. Title b. Compass Rose c. Legend or Key d. Latitude and Longitude Lines/Grid e. Scale 2. Ask students to locate the following on the map: a. Cape Cod b. Boston c. Lowell d. Worcester e. Springfield f. Their hometowns 1st Reading: 3. Introduce the National Highways map. Students will need both the Key Ideas cropped version with grade-level-edited text (handout) and access to the and Details zoomable version online (this can be projected to the whole class or viewed on individual computers/tablets) so that they can read the small print and see details on the map. Give students time to examine the map and to read the edited text. Ask them to underline any words or phrases they do not understand from the edited text. Focus on these questions for the first reading: a. What is the title of the map and what does it mean? What does the map show? b. When was the map made and who made it? (1914; John C. Mulford) c. What does mean on the map? What does mean on the map? d. How many miles of National Highway does the National Highways Association want to build in Massachusetts? e. According to the text, who would pay for building and taking care of the National Highways? f. How many different National Highways enter Boston on this map? What are some other cities where roads intersect or meet? g. What clues does the map give about the land and water features in Massachusetts? (it shows mountains/hills, islands, rivers, Massachusetts Bay, Cap Cod Bay, Boston Bay.) Straight from the Source: Historic Map of Massachusetts 2nd Reading: 4. Focus on these questions for the second reading of the text: Craft and a. Why are some of the words in the map’s title larger than others? Structure (They indicate the main purpose or most important information on the map.) b.
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