Social impact of technology and mechanization in 1950’s
U.S.
Course: US History
Theme:10 Technology and Social Change: Social and Cultural Issues 1945 to
the Present
Focus/Big Idea(s):
Enduring Understanding(s):
Causes and effects of excluding some groups from the affluence
of the 1950s, then and now
Students will identify and examine 8 groups in American society
excluded from the affluence of the 1950s. They will understand the
causes and effects through reading, viewing video excerpts, tables,
graphic organizers, role playing, essay writing.
Culminating Assignment:
Culminating Assessment:
 Critical Response
 DBQ
 Essay
 Imaginative Writing
 Project
Prompt or directions for the product:
What are the ramifications for U. S. society of
limiting opportunities for some citizens?
Formative/summative assessments:
Essay, project to outline and address the causes and
effects of poverty in the 1950s; critical response
Essential Question(s):
1. Why were some Americans kept from achieving the American dream?
2. How were some groups caught in a “culture of poverty?”
PPS Standards:
Historical Perspective: HS06.1 Assess and interpret how individuals, issues, and events changed or significantly influenced the
course of U.S. history after 1900
Academic Vocabulary: (Content to Know)
Skills to learn:
Culture of poverty
Affluence
El barrio
The American Dream
Appalachia
Racism
Prejudice
Discrimination
Technology
Mechanization
Bracero program
1953 U.S. government termination policy
Working poor
Agribusiness
Social Science Exit Criteria 3. Comprehend
material, identify perspective, analyze point
of view, construct responses based on a
variety of sources.
Cause and effect
Compare and contrast
Essay
S.S.Exit Criteria 4.
Ask
Acquire
Apply
Analyze
Time Frame: (in Hours) 10-15 Hours
Marilyn Drichas, 3/3/2016
1
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Social impact of technology and mechanization in 1950’s
U.S.
Instructional Design: Outline of lessons, in step-by-step progression. Attach additional pages.
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Ask students if they know of people who are struggling to survive, i.e., the working poor. Have them speculate as to
the causes and effects.
Ask Essential Questions: Why were some Americans kept from achieving the American dream? How were some
groups caught in a “culture of poverty?
Students read about each of the 8 groups: poor children under age 18; elderly Americans; Appalachian coal miners;
small farm families; African Americans; Mexican American migrant farm workers; Puerto Rican immigrants; Native
Americans.(U.S. History Text, Unit 12, Chapter 43, “Two Americas”)
View excerpts from videos on Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez; West Side Story movie.
Discuss and review the material, then construct a cause and effect table for the 8 groups as a class activity
Role play: Congressional Committee hearing on poverty.
Write an essay describing your life as a member of one of the above groups.
Testify before a U.S. Senate hearing on poverty (using their essays) and tell what you need to break the cycle of
poverty.
Resources and materials: (Text, links, videos, speakers, etc.
Please note if available district-wide)
U. S. History text (new, PPS, 8/07)_Chapter 43, “Two
Americas,” TCI
American Odyssey U.S. text ,Ch 18, Sect.3,”Poverty and
Plenty”, Glencoe
American Odyssey, Reteaching workbook graphic organizer
Video:The Century,America’s Time: 1950s (History channel)
The Other America, Michael Harrington
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Movies: West Side Story
_______ Blackboard Jungle
American Indian Movement (AIM) www.aimovement.org
Marilyn Drichas, 3/3/2016
Additional supports and extensions: (TAG, SPED, ESL, etc.)
Extension: Compare and contrast 1950s 8 poverty groups then
and now._(U.S. text has limited, but current info for short
report.) A related research assignment comparing and
contrasting same groups, 1950s and today.1
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