Unit: Exploring the Progressive Movement
Women, Children, Labor and the Progressive Era Unit
Nancy Deaton
AHTC 2006 Summer Fellowship
Illinois State Archives, Springfield
High School US History
Abstract
Students will explore the Progressive Era by examining how efforts to reform child and female labor related to many other Progressive reforms. Students will see how most of the Progressive reforms were interrelated and demonstrated overlapping desires for improvement in society. During the unit students will examine photos, letters, governmental reports, and charts to gain a broad understanding of the era. They will also do a short research project focusing on a specific Progressive reform. By the end of the unit students will be able to succinctly describe the goals of Progressives and analyze the Progressive Era reforms.
Essential Questions
· Why was there a need for reform between 1880-1920?
· What were the goals of the Progressive Movement and how did they overlap?
· Why might people have criticized Progressive reforms?
· What were the results of the Progressive Movement in Illinois and the nation?
Assessment
Formal Assessments
· Progressive Era Research Report
· Progressive Era Quiz
· Progressive Era Legal Timeline
Informal Assessments
· Photo analysis worksheets
· Discussion organizers
· Concept of definition maps
· Factory Inspector’s Report Worksheet
· Class discussions
Setting Purpose
Day 1 – Identifying problems of the Progressive Era
Analysis of Local Primary Sources
Day 2—Introduction to Vocabulary and Progressive Reforms
Day 3—Analyzing the Factory Inspector’s Report
Day 4—Goals of the Progressive Era
Day 5—Why Might People Oppose Progressive Reforms? (3 brief activities)
Day 6—Progressive Era Laws in Illinois and the Nation
Day 7—Closure of Unit
National Primary Source Ties
· Progressive Era Laws in Illinois and the Nation Lesson asks students to examine Illinois laws and compare them to nature and timing of national laws.
· Progressive Era Research Report asks students to explore and analyze a progressive reform on a local and national scale.
· The National Archive and Record Administration has complied a collection of Lewis Hine’s photos of child labor across the nation. Lewis Hine was an important photographer who documented the working conditions of men, women, and children working the farming, steel mill, coal mills, textile mills, and other industries just after 1900. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/ (Lesson on Child Labor photos)
· Digital History’s website has a Social History section that includes documents on a sweatshop girl’s story, immigrant recollections, resources on unions and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/social_history/social_history.cfm
Annotated List of Materials and Resources
Additional Resources Included (Not part of unit, but related to Progressive Era)
Attachments
· Concept of Definition Map—Graphic organizer used to help students learn a fuller definition of a complex vocabulary word.
· NARA Photo Analysis Worksheet—fill in worksheet for students to use when analyzing photos by the National Archives and Records Administration
· Sweatshop Women Descriptors Organizer—To hand out on Day 1
· Analyzing the Factory Inspector’s Report Worksheet—To hand out on Day 3
· Progressive Era Legal Timeline Directions—To hand out on Day 6
· Progressive Era Research Report—To hand out on Day 7
State Learning Standards
16.B.4 (US) Identify political ideas that have dominated United States historical eras (e.g., Federalist, Jacksonian, Progressivist, New Deal, New Conservative).
14.D.4 Analyze roles and influences of individuals, groups and media in shaping current debates on state and national policies.
14.D.5 Interpret a variety of public policies and issues from the perspectives of different individuals and groups.
14.F.5 Interpret how changing geographical, economic, technological and social forces affect United States political ideas and traditions (e.g., freedom, equality and justice, individual rights).
16.C.5b (US) Analyze the relationship between an issue in United States economic history and the related aspects of political, social and environmental history.
16.C.4c (US) Describe how American economic institutions were shaped by industrialists, union leaders and groups including Southern migrants, Dust Bowl refugees, agricultural workers from Mexico and female workers since 1914.