COACH BRAKEL
Lesson Plans – Unit 6
Roaring Twenties (10 days)
Overview and Purpose: The decade of the 1920s is
often characterized as a period of American prosperity
and optimism. It was the "Roaring Twenties," the decade
of bath tub gin, the model T, the $5 work day, the first
transatlantic flight, and the movie. It is often seen as a
period of great advance as the nation became urban and
commercial (Calvin Coolidge declared that America's
business was business). The decade is also seen as a
period of rising intolerance and isolation: chastened by the
first world war, historians often point out that Americans
retreated into a provincialism evidenced by the rise of the
Ku Klux Klan, the anti- radical hysteria of the Palmer raids,
restrictive immigration laws, and prohibition. Overall, the
decade is often seen as a period of great contradiction: of
rising optimism and deadening cynicism, of increasing and
decreasing faith, of great hope and great despair. Put
differently, historians usually see the 1920s as a decade
of serious cultural conflict.
United States History TEKS (Exit Level):
113.32.C.24.A - The student is expected to locate
and use primary and secondary sources such as
computer software, databases, media and news
services, biographies, interviews, and artifacts to
acquire information
113.32.C.01.C - The student is expected to
explain the significance of the following dates:
1898, 1914-1918, 1929, 1941-1945, and 1957.
113.32.C.04.C - The student is expected to
evaluate the impact of third parties and their
candidates such as Eugene Debs, H. Ross Perot,
and George Wallace.
113.32.C.05.A - The student is expected to
analyze causes and effects of significant issues
such as immigration, the Red Scare, Prohibition,
and the changing role of women.
113.32.C.15.C - The student is expected to
evaluate the effects of political incidents such as
Teapot Dome and Watergate on the views of U.S.
citizens concerning the role of the federal
government.
113.32.C.05.B - The student is expected to
analyze the impact of significant individuals such
as Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan,
Henry Ford, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
113.32.C.13.A - The student is expected to
analyze causes of economic growth and
prosperity in the 1920s.
113.32.C.20.B - The student is expected to describe
the impact of significant examples of cultural
movements in art, music, and literature on American
society, including the Harlem Renaissance
Objectives
Vocabulary
1. Explain demobilization and its effects on the American economy.
2. Analyze the causes for the labor strife in the early 1920s.
3. Identify the causes for the rise and the decline of the Red Scare.
4. Recount how the Red Scare led to the Palmer Raids.
5. Identify Sacco and Vanzetti and explain how the Red Scare contributed to their
executions.
6. Explain Warren G. Harding’s goals as president.
7. Summarize the events of the Teapot Dome scandal.
8. Explain what Calvin Coolidge meant when he said, “The business of America is
business.”
9. Recount Hoover’s platform in the 1928 election.
10. Explain the rise and subsequent decline of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
11. Analyze the relationship between Prohibition and organized crime in the 1920s
12. Explain the reasons for racism in the 1920s and the steps minorities took to combat it.
13. Summarize the causes of the 1929 Stock Market Crash.
- demobilization
- Palmer raids
- American Plan
- feminists
- Model T Ford
- planned obsolescence
- flappers
- blues
- jazz
- assembly line
- Prohibition
-speak easy
- bootlegger
- gangster
Teacher
Presentation
Student
Notebook (Most
of this work will
be completed in
class)
Assessment –
Unit 6
Day 1
Introduce Knowledge Rating Chart Vocabulary Definitions for the Roaring Twenties.
Introduce the mini-project, going through the project with students and giving specific due
dates for each Activity.
Day 2
Reading Notes – use “Postwar Troubles GO”
Day 3
Begin PowerPoint Presentation: “The Roaring Twenties.”
Have students take notes on the PowerPoint presentation using the illustrated outline
”The Red Scare and More Labor Unrest.”
Day 4
Finish PowerPoint Presentation: “The Roaring Twenties.”
Student Work Day
Day 5
Student Work Day Activities 1 and 2 due.
Day 6
Student Work Day
Day 7
Student Work Day
Day 8
Student Work Day – Student Notebook Activities 3-5 due today
Test Review
Day 9
Administer the test over the Roaring Twenties.
Student Notebook Activities
1. Sensory Figure – The Flapper
2. Advertisement – Boom Times
3. Circle ThinkingMap – Prohibition
4. Sensory Figure – Charles Lindberg
5. Double Bubble ThinkingMap – The Scopes Trial
Test: Unit 7 – The Roaring Twenties
Sequencing: Unit 7 – The Roaring Twenties
Unit Day
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Activities Timeline – 8 days
Laptops Needed
Warm Up – Define demobilization.
1. Have students share their answers with their table partners.
2. Illustrated Dictionary Definitions – The Roaring Twenties. Turn this in before you
leave the classroom.
Laptops Not Needed
1. Warm up – Read page 390-396 of the textbook. Define Red Scare.
2. Complete PowerPoint Presentation: “The Roaring Twenties.”
3. Complete the PowerPoint notes the illustrated outline
”The Red Scare and More Labor Unrest.” These are due at the end of the period.
Laptops Needed
1. Warm up – Define tariff and explain how the Tariff Act of 1924 contributed to economic
prosperity in the United States in the 1920s.
2. Student directed workday. Work on Student Notebook activities.
Laptops Needed
1. Warm Up: Define “flapper”
2. Student directed workday. Work on Student Notebook activities and turn them in at the
end of the period.
3. Complete the test review over Chapters 13 and 14 for homework
Test: The Roaring Twenties, Chapters 13 and 14.