17.3: Mass Culture and Family Life

Chapter 17 Section 3: Mass Culture and Family Life

• Checkpoint (p.561): What were some reasons why consumer spending skyrocketed in the postwar era?
• Checkpoint (p.562): In what ways did family life revolve around children during the 1950's?
• Thinking Critically (p.563): #1 & 2
• Checkpoint (p.564): How did television reflect and reinforce the ideal of the nuclear family in the postwar period?
• Checkpoint (p.565): How did rock-and-roll gain popularity?
• Section 3 Assessment: #1 (consumerism and median family income), 4, 5, 6

17.4: Dissent and Discontent

Chapter 17 Section 4: Dissent and Discontent

Assignment:

• Witness History (p.567): Why did Mr. Brown believe that "colored people" had little hope of "deliverance"?
• Note Taking (p.567): Chart
• Why did many intellectuals and artists criticize American culture during the 1950s?
• Checkpoint (p.570): How did the federal government respond to the decline of American cities?
• Graph Skills (p.570): What percentage of Americans lived below the poverty line in 1965?  Why do you think the poverty rate remains higher among minorities?
• Checkpoint (p.571): What were some of the problems that minorities had to overcome in the postwar era?
• Section 4 Assessment: #2, 4, 5, 6

Chapter Assessment:

• Focus Questions: #5 - 8
• Critical Thinking: #9 - 15
• Document Based Assessment: #1 - 4

So how is poverty today? 

17.1: An Economic Boom

Chapter 17 Section 1: An Economic Boom

• NoteTaking (p.546): Chart
• Birthrate Graph (p.547): Why might there have been a spike in the birthrate between 1945-1950?
• Checkpoint (p.548): What did many Americans expect to happen to the American economy after World War II?
• Thinking Critically (p.549): #1 & 2
• A Truman Victory (p.550): What role should the media have in elections?
• Checkpoint (p.551): Why were workers dissatisfied during the postwar period?
• Checkpoint (p.551): Why did federal spending increase during Eisenhower's presidency?
• Section 1 Assessment (p.551): #1, 2, 4, 5, 6

17.2: A Society on the Move

Chapter 17 Section 2: A Society on the Move

• Note Taking (p.552): Chart
  
• Checkpoint (p.554): How did Americans living in the suburbs benefit from the "car culture"?
• Thinking Critically (p.555): #1 & 2
• Checkpoint (p.555): How did the Interstate Highway System spur the growth of the suburbs?
• Note Taking (p.555): Effects Chart
• Map Skills (p.556): #2 & 3
• Checkpoint (p.557): What motivated so many americans to migrate to the Sunbelt?
• Checkpoint (p.558): In what ways did American businesses change during the postwar period?
• Checkpoint (p.559): How did American education change in the years following World War II?
• Section 2 Assessment (p.559): #1, 2, 4, 5, 6

Extra Credit: Short Story

EXTRA CREDIT: Write a short story including U.S. History.  The type of story is up to you, but it should take place during the time we have been studying.  You could write a science fiction story (time travel, for example) or a story about a Jewish person living in Nazi Germany or Poland or a story about a Japanese American being put into a camp or a story about the wife of an American soldier being alone in America -- or anything else that connects your characters to history.  Write neatly so I can read your story.

To get into the mode of historical fiction, think about it like this:  You are entering a time machine to go and witness history during the era you have chosen. Close your eyes. Step into the time machine and listen to the machine's whirring hum as you are transported through space and time, back, back, to the most fascinating place you can imagine! This place and time has intrigued you...and there you are! You climb carefully out of the time machine. You look around. Whom and what do you see? What do you hear? What are people doing? What confuses you about your new surroundings? Remember as many details as you can, so that you can share your observations in a story about that time in history.

• Characters:All characters must behave in realistic ways.
• Problem:The characters are involved in a dilemma that is realistic for that period.
• Description:Places and events are vividly described.
• Setting:The setting is a definite time in history and a very real place.
• Plot:Real events are mixed with fictional happenings. The plot makes sense and ends with a logical solution.
• Dialogue:The characters' words reflect what people knew and thought about in those times.

Could you write a story about trying to change history?  A story about what it's like to be a child living during that time?  An alternative history where something changes the outcome [good or bad] such as Abraham Lincoln being saved, the South inventing better weapons to win the war, Germany developing the bomb first, etc.?  Maybe it's a love story or a drama about someone losing a family member?

• Today you will brainstorm and outline your story [or build upon what you already have]
• Rework your story to incorporate historical events from your text book
• Write out your story.  
• When it's finished, have a classmate read your story and write some notes/suggestions on your paper -- then have them sign next to their suggestions.  
• Students who leave feedback on a classmates paper [if I can read their signature] will receive Extra Credit.  
• If you get feedback from TWO of your classmates [or more], then YOU will get extra credit as well.
• Your homework is to take home your story and feedback/suggestions, and neatly rewrite your story.  [Make sure you attach your original with classmate feedback tomorrow!]

Be creative and start with some brainstorming.  I suggest using a Story Arc.

Another way of looking at it: