The Progressive Era

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Everything students need to know about The Progressive Era!

TOOLBOOK: You need only one for the entire class!

Action-packed lessons – students perform in front of the class!
Lectures with graphic organizers.
Documents: quotations, speeches, political cartoons. Lotsa mapping.
Timelines: decorate with photos and political cartoons.
Rank the people from best to worst.
Games galore, including “The Gong Show.”
Group analysis and debates.
Projects: Students teach the class.
Homework on the internet.
Heavy on terms: “The ABCs of the Progressive Movement” (recall terms). “Can you talk like Teddy Roosevelt?” (define terms).
“Let your classroom BLOOM!” (Using Bloom’s taxonomy, explore terms in depth.)
Assessment: Learn the logic of a multiple-choice test by playing “Honk if you hate history!”
Concludes with the mother of all tests: 944 questions. [Reverse designers: give a test at the beginning of every class.]

    "The Progressive Era" toolbook covers the following topics:
  • What was the Progressive Era? Why was the middle class angry? The crisis of African Americans. The New Woman: Jane Addams and Hull House. “Name that woman reformer!”
  • Living & Working Conditions: Photos of sweatshops and tenement slums in New York City. Jacob Riis, “How the Other Half Lives.” The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. Political cartoons explain the meatpacking scandal. Photos of child labor. Protective legislation for factory workers. “Name that Muckraker!”
  • The Cities: Map the rise of industrial cities. Map a poem: Andrew Carnegie’s “Ode to Steel.” Interpret Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago – City of Big Shoulders.” Daily life in New York City. Map the music, especially the urban blues.
  • The Americanization Movement: The New Immigrants. The Melting Pot. Jane Addams and the Settlement House movement. Frances Kellor and the Americanization movement. Public schools, John Dewey and the Progressive movement. The Red Scare: denying civil liberties to immigrants.
  • Political Corruption: Lincoln Steffens, “The Shame of the Cities.” Political cartoons explain political corruption. Progressive reforms: initiative, referendum, recall – plus the direct primary, direct election of Senators.
  • The Trusts: What’s wrong with Trusts? Political cartoons explain the economic and political power of corporations. Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth.”
  • Social Darwinism: Social Darwinism v. the Social Gospel. What if your school were run by a Social Darwinist?
  • The Progressive Party: Teddy Roosevelt, the Trustbuster. Top Ten Reasons why the corporations needed government regulation. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, and landmark cases of the Supreme Court. Political cartoons explain the Election of 1912. Legislative impact of the Progressive movement. Woman’s suffrage. Income tax. Write a persuasive essay: “I am Teddy Roosevelt . . .”

Simple to use
One book for the whole class.
No learning curve: Lessons are ready to reproduce.

Saves time
All the facts are included:
There is no need to use a textbook or reference books.
Your students will zip through the material.
Each lesson is 20 minutes in and out. Perfect for block scheduling.

The Test
944 questions

1. The Topics
What was the Progressive Movement?
The crisis of African Americans
The New Woman
Living and Working Conditions
The Cities
The Americanization Movement
Political Corruption
The Trusts
The U.S. became major industrial power
Social Darwinism
The Populists
The Impact of the Progressives

2. The Lessons
Gobs of graphic organizers and memory aids.
Interpret maps, charts, photos, political cartoons, speeches, and documents.
Homework on the internet: We provide the web site, the questions, and the answers.
The lessons are action-packed: Students perform what they know in front of the class.

THE TRANSFORMATION
The Industrial Revolution was more than technology.
How industrialization and urbanization brought about a transformation of society.

Before & After Using a transparency, contrast life before and after the Industrial Revolution.

THE DEFINITION
What was the Progressive Movement?
What, when, where, who As you tell the story, students fill in the graphic organizer.
The Progressive Agenda As you tell the story, students fill in the graphic organizer.
The Progressive era involved political, economic, and social reform.
Create a mobile that hangs from the ceiling.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the Progressive movement?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of the Progressive Movement - and the Welfare State.

THE CRISIS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
The Progressive movement would tackle every major issue.
But they would not touch race.
W.E.B. Du Bois explained that race was the main issue of the 20th century.
Timeline The Gilded Age and Progressive Era were the heyday of racism.
The big event: Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
The Crisis Lecture: When the NAACP was founded in 1909, its magazine was entitled
The Crisis. That was no exaggeration.
Jim Crow Segregation in the South: How horrible was it?
Lynchings Teachers: Preview these photos before showing them!
The NAACP The first organization to struggle against segregation.
The Great Migration Lecture with graphics: Why African Americans moved to Northern cities.
David Letterman “The Top Ten Reasons Why Folks Left the South!”
The Great Debate "Resolved, Booker T. Washington was right.”

THE NEW WOMAN
Industrialization and urbanization gave rise to a new woman in the earliest days of the 20th century.
Who was the new woman? Lecture: The Women’s Christian Temperance League, the Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Consumer’s League.
Photos of Women, 1900 Women in the workforce, women at Hull House, the Temperance Movement, the birth control movement, Mary Cassatt’s paintings of wealthy women
The New Woman Readings: A variety of people comment on the women’s movement.
Frances Willard, Margaret Sanger, Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Booker T. Washington, and Grover Cleveland.
Famous Women Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students learn about women leaders of the Progressive Movement.
Students distinguish between Ida B. Wells, Florence Kelley,
Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, Frances Willard.

LIVING & WORKING CONDITIONS
Know the effects of industrialization on living and working conditions, including the portrayal of working conditions and food safety in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
Photos of the Slums There are 22 photos of life in New York City.
Each student takes one photo, examines it, and briefly explains it to the class.
Students learn definitions: Tenement, typhoid, public health, settlement house.
How the Other Half Lives The story of Jacob Riis: His life, brief readings, photos of life on the streets.
Life in the City A graphic organizer: The major questions and answers.
The Sweatshops Lecture: Women, children, and immigrants were cheap, unskilled labor.
Photos of Sweatshops Break into pairs. Each explains one photo to the class.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Lecture, photos, brief readings, and class discussion.
The Jungle Upton Sinclair’s novel: Photos, brief readings, video clips, class discussion.
Political Cartoons The Meat packing
Scandal: It led to the Pure Food & Drug Act.
Break into pairs and interpret one cartoon.
Worksheet: How to analyze any editorial cartoon.
Novels The Progressive Era produced a host of novels:
From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to Frank Norris’ The Octopus.
Photos of Child Labor Break into pairs. Each pair analyzes one cartoon.
The photographs are by Lewis Hine. We analyze every one.
Political Cartoons On Child Labor.
Break into pairs and interpret one cartoon.
Worksheet: How to analyze any editorial cartoon.
Protective Legislation Two graphic organizers.
Compare and contrast: Life before and after laws were passed.
Minimum wage, the Eight-Hour Day, Unemployment Insurance,
Workers’ Compensation, Social Security.
The Muckrakers Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students learn about novelists and journalists of the Progressive Movement.
Students distinguish between Jacob Riis, Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell,
Upton Sinclair, and Lewis Hines.
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of the Muckrakers.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the Muckrakers?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.

THE CITIES
Describe the changing landscape, including the growth of cities linked by industry and trade, and the development of cities divided according to race, ethnicity, and class.
Mapping Students map the cities that arose around industries -
textiles, garment, meat packing, steel, and wheat.
The role of transportation: How the Great Lakes and railroads helped build cities
An Ode to Steel Poem by Andrew Carnegie
How the location of raw materials determined the rise of Pittsburgh.
Growth of Cities Three reasons: Industrialization, the Great Migration, Immigration.
City of Big Shoulders Poem by Carl Sandburg.
A description of Chicago at the turn of the century.
Chicago! Lecture with photos and maps.
Railroads, shipping on the Great Lakes, meat packing and steel making,
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, immigration and Hull House, Sears & Roebuck,
the Columbian Exposition, neighborhoods divided by race and ethnic group.
What caused this spot . . . to become an industrial city?
Using the encyclopedia, students check off facts on the worksheet.
Pop Culture Lecture with maps. What was new in 1900? Trolleys, department stores,
tabloid newspapers, skyscrapers, public parks, vaudeville, and more.
Music: The Blues, Jazz, Tin Pan Alley, Ragtime, marching bands.
Art: The Ashcan School.

THE AMERICANIZATION MOVEMENT
How were millions of immigrants assimilated into American political and cultural life?
The New Immigrants Lecture: They were different in five ways -
Language, religion, rural, severe poverty, ethnic groups did not mix!
Jane Addams Lecture: The Settlement House Movement
The story of Jane Addams, Hull House, and naturalization.
Frances Kellor Lecture: The Americanization Movement
The Bureau of Naturalization & Immigration, 1906
John Dewey Lecture: Progressive Education
How it changed our public schools.
The Red Scare Lecture, followed by brief readings.
The Palmer Raids and the hostility toward the New Immigrants.
Political Cartoons The Red Scare.
There are 32 cartoons. Each student interprets one cartoon.
Worksheet: How to analyze any editorial cartoon.
The Results Transparency: The Results of the Americanization Campaign
Immigrants became citizens.
“The Melting Pot” Interpreting documents: Translate each quotation into your own words.
Five famous people tell their opinion of the “Melting Pot” theory of America.
The New Immigrants Graphic Organizer: The major questions (and answers).
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of the Americanization Movement.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the Americanization movement?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION
Analyze the effect of urban political machines and responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.
The Political Machine Definitions: Machine, spoils system, ward heeler, Tweed Ring, Tammany Hall
The Shame of the Cities Lincoln Steffens, brief readings, class discussion on the recall.
Political Cartoons Political Corruption:
The Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall
Break into pairs and interpret one cartoon.
Worksheet: How to analyze any editorial cartoon.
Political Reform The Good Government Movement
The secret ballot, city manager system, the recall, initiative, referendum,
direct primary, and direct election of U.S. Senators.
Students break into groups and analyze each.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the RECALL?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
Five Reforms Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students learn about concrete reforms of the Progressive Movement.
Students distinguish between recall, referendum, initiative,
the direct primary, and direct election of U.S. Senators.

THE TRUSTS
Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and cartels, and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.
The Power of Corporations Lecture with brief readings: The economic and political policies of corporations.
Definitions: Trust, merger, horizontal integration, free enterprise, laissez-faire,
Whiskey Ring, Credit Mobilier, Mark Hanna, campaign financing.
The Political Parties Graphic Organizer: Republicans, Democrats, Populists, Progressives, Socialists
Political Cartoons The Political Parties
Each student interprets one cartoon.
Worksheet: How to analyze any editorial cartoon.
Andrew Carnegie Brief Readings: Philanthropy and the Gospel of Wealth
What’s wrong with Trusts? Definitions: Trust, cartel, industry, unfair business methods, pooling, rebates,
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of the Trusts.
David Letterman The Top Ten Reasons Why Trusts Were Bad for America!
The Major Industries Graphic Organizer:
Railroads, oil, steel, airplanes, and the communications industry.
Survivor, 1900 A simulation: Who set up a monopoly in your industry?

THE U.S. AS A MAJOR ECONOMIC POWER
Trace the economic development of the United States and its emergence as a major industrial power, including its gains from trade and the advantages of its physical geography.
Timeline Imperialism in Latin America
Political Cartoons Latin America
Timeline Imperialism in the Pacific Islands
Political Cartoons The Pacific Islands
The March of the Flag Skit about Senator Albert Beveridge’s speech on U.S. imperialism.
The Great Debate “Resolved, imperialism was good for America.”

SOCIAL DARWINISM
Analyze the similarities and differences between the ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel (using biographies of William Graham Sumner, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody).
Social Darwinism Lecture, brief readings, and class discussion.
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of Social Darwinism.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of Social Darwinism?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
The Social Gospel Lecture: If God is within society, then we must help each other.
The story of the Salvation Army - which helps the poor.
What if your school . . . were run by Social Darwinists?
We pity anyone who must attend John D. Rockefeller High School!
Compare & Contrast Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students distinguish between Social Darwinism and the Social Gospel.

THE POPULISTS
Examine the effect of political programs and activities of Populists.
The Populist Party Lecture, brief readings, and class discussion.
Farmers were mad at banks and railroads, Populist platform, Mary Lease,
agrarian revolt, challenge to the two-party system, William Jennings Bryan
“Cross of Gold” speech, the Gold Standard
The Political Parties Compare & Contrast: Republicans, Democrats, Populists, Progressives
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of Populism and the Populist Party.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of Populism?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.

THE IMPACT OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
Examine the effect of political programs and activities of the Progressives: Federal regulation of railroad transport, Children’s Bureau, the Sixteenth Amendment, Theodore Roosevelt, and Hiram Johnson.
Teddy Roosevelt Lecture: Teddy Roosevelt, the Trustbuster
The public interest, federal regulation of Big Business, Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
TR takes on the railroads: Northern Securities Company v United States,
Interstate Commerce Act, Interstate Commerce Commission, Hepburn Act,
Mann-Elkins Act, Department of Commerce, Meat Inspection Act,
Pure Food & Drug Act, conservation.
David Letterman The Top Ten Reasons Why corporations needed government regulation!
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of federal regulation of Big Business.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of federal regulation?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
Supreme Court Cases Lecture: Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Northern Securities Co. v. United States , Hammer v. Dagenhart, Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., Lochner v. New York, Muller v. Oregon,
Schenk v. United States, Abrams v. United States, Gitlow v. New York.
The Election of 1912 Lecture with graphics: Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party.
The Political Parties Compare & Contrast: Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, Socialists
Political Cartoons The Election of 1912
Break into pairs: Each pair interprets one cartoon.
Famous Quotations Students interpret quotations from Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson,
Conservation Student research on John Muir, conservation, and our national parks.
Bloom! Using Bloom’s taxonomy, students break into six groups.
Group analysis of the Election of 1912.
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the Election of 1912?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
Progressive Achievements Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students distinguish between the Amendments - 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th.
Women’s Suffrage Map, photos, speeches
Political Cartoons Women’s suffrage
Each student interprets two cartoons.
Political Cartoons The Sixteenth Amendment (income tax)
Life is like a Rock Group What do you think of the Progressive Movement?
Students break into groups and consider this from five points of view.
Six Reforms Two Games: The Gong Show and The Great Race!
Students learn about concrete reforms of the Progressive Movement.
Students distinguish between the Hepburn Act, Children’s Bureau,
and the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Amendments.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT
As a teenager His life as a teenager, then you predict what he does as President.
Writing Speeches Break into groups of four. Each group writes a speech by Teddy Roosevelt.
In the process, students write four types of essays:
expressive, narrative, informative, and persuasive.
The worksheets show students exactly what to do.
This rewards students who are clever!

REVIEW
Name that gal or guy! Each student is assigned two photos.
Show the photo, give hints as to who you are, and try to stump the class!
Famous Quotations There are 53 quotations. Examine two:
Who said it? What is the topic? What is he or she saying?
The Progressive Era Graphic Organizers: The major questions (and answers)
The ABCs Recall terms.
Can you speak Progressive? Define terms.
The Great Debate “Resolved, the Progressive Movement was great!"
Mars/Venus One guy vs one gal: What did you remember?
Screaming Headlines We give you the headline in the tabloid. Your write one paragraph.
Rank! Examine the list of people who made the headlines.
Choose your top 5 favorites: The Hall of Fame
Choose your lowest 5: The Hall of Shame
Class Discussion: Who is on everybody’s favorite list?
Who is extremely unpopular?
Honk if you hate history! Students hear the test before they take it.
Stump the teacher This takes guts.
The Last Man Standing Based on a movie starring Bruce Willis.
Now take the test! It has 944 questions.
That’s fair: You state test has six versions.
Each test has 100 questions.
It is the mother of all tests on the Progressive Movement.