The American Dream: Past, Present, and Future
Interpreting the American Dream at the Turn of the Century:
Ragtime, Grovers
Corner, and Spoon River
Created By: Marty Sierra-Perry, Centennial High School (Champaign, IL)
Introduction:
This mini-project
introduces the student to the ideas of the American Dream at the turn
of the century. This mini-project will initiate a semester inquiry about
the following:
- How have diverse groups
in the U.S. population participated in the institutions of democratic
life?
- What have been the processes
and consequences of migration for people of the United States?
- How has the United States
changed from an agrarian, rural society to an industrial, urban society?
- What effects have the shifts
in population, changes in American social life, and influences of world
events had on the development of American culture and literature?
- How has the American Dream,
American Morality, and the American Hero evolved through the decades?
Objectives:
After completing this mini-project, students will:
- Define, present and defend
their ideas on the American Dream at the turn of the century through
a person characterized in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.
- Analyze, interpret, and
conduct research using digitized primary source documents.
- Interpret the late 19th
Century and 20th Century social life in the United States using digitized
documents from Teaching
with Digital Content and the American
Memory collection.
- Relate what they have uncovered
from inquiry and research through an illustrated obituary in the form
of a pamphlet or brochure using contemporary technology.
Text:
Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
Background information:
Ragtime by Doctorow
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Online Resources:
Teaching with Digital Content
http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/TDC/Index.htm
American Memory Collection:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/finder.html
Spoon River Anthology,
Edgar Lee Masters
http://www.bartleby.com/84/index.html
Software:
Microsoft
Word brochure template
Directions:
Read through
Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. Select ten of the epitaphs.
Summarize their stories. Select one to focus your interpretation. Your
completed brochure will include the epitaph, your illustrated obituary,
and works cited information.
University Library