Teacher Web
1920's Magazine
What a creative and engaging project to incorporate into your studies of the 1920s! Your young historians will work in groups to design a magazine discussing the political and cultural topics of the decade, each member writing one...
Curated OER
Advertising and Consumerism of the 1920's
Eleventh graders discover the impact of advertising in 1920's America. In this 20th century history lesson plan, 11th graders complete KNU charts as they research marketing techniques that were used during the decade to promote consumerism.
Curated OER
Advertising Through the Decades
Twelfth graders compare and contrast advertising styles and motives from 1920 to present. Using internet research and print advertisements students make comparisons and inferences about the function of marketing. At the culmination of...
Curated OER
1920s Consumer Culture
Young scholars are immersed in the following goals of learning: The importance of consumerism in the 1920's. Also have learners recognize the connections between commodities and culture in the American past and present. Finally the...
Curated OER
The 1920s: The Rise of Consumer Culture
Students examine economic, social, and cultural aspects of the 1920s. They provide a brief political history of the 1920s, focusing on the death of Warren Harding (Was he poisoned by his wife?) and develop skills in analyzing...
Global Oneness Project
Deconstructing Consumerism
A short, engaging video provides a critique of the hyper-consumerist mentality that many think have taken over the Western world. After watching the video, pupils reflect on their own habits and use evidence...
Curated OER
Talk Back
Students study print and TV ads and search for examples in which advertising companies rely on negative stereotypes or misleading information to market their products.
Curated OER
The American Trail System
Students research a trail system. They create a display board of the trail system, generate a map of the trail system, and develop a commercial advertising of the trail system. They design a display board featuring facts about the...
Curated OER
The Generation Gap as a Result of Media Use
Students compare digital natives and digital immigrants. In this media usage instructional activity, students read "The Generation Gap is Not New" and then compare today's generation gap with the generation gap of the 1920's.
Curated OER
Animation
Students describe what ways did the motion picture industry influence American lifestyle in the 1920's? They evaluate the role of motion pictures in people's lives leading up to the Great Depression.
Curated OER
Roadside Attractions (6)
Follow the highways of the 1920s and 1930s, exploring the whimsical, extravagant architecture that came with American auto culture.
Curated OER
That was Then, This is Now-House and Home
Eleventh graders discover the appreciation of the importance of visuals in exploring different aspects of society past and present. They collaborate on comparing and contrasting information. Students look at what life was like during the...
Curated OER
Thank You, Mr. Edison
Students read a letter to Thomas Edison and search for advertisements of the period. They review primary sources and photographs of items made available in the 1920's. They interact on the American Memory Collection website.
Global Oneness Project
Deconstructing Consumerism
To increase awareness and launch a discussion of consumerism, class members view What Would It Look Like, a 25 minute film of images that capture the global effects of the consumption of goods. Viewers make a list of the images that...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Cultural New Orleans
Students observe the PBS film, "New Orleans," to explore such topics as race relations, cultural history, and urbanization. After examining n interactive map displaying the city at various dates in its history, students role-play as...
Library of Congress
Loc: Prosperity and Thrift: Merchandising and Advertising in the 1920s
Read about the advertising strategies used by various companies during the 1920s. Includes many links to related businesses and topics.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Bee's Knees of the 1920s
This is a culminating activity to an American history unit on "The Roaring 20s." Students will work in groups to research notable individuals from the 1920s and apply that knowledge to create a digital poster using Glogster. This poster...
Other
New Brunswick Museum: Advertising Through the Decades
In this activity, students compare advertisements from 1920s New Brunswick with present day ads.
Canadian Museum of History
Cmc: The Last Best West: Advertising for Immigrants to Western Canada
Government claims to lands in Western Canada was one matter but maintaining sovereignty over these lands was quite another. Sir John A Macdonald's approach to maintaining sovereignty in western Canada by not losing the land to American...
Other
For Many, One: Don't Fuss, Mother, This Isn't So Fast.
Over the course of the 1920s, flappers became "modern young women." Trace the transformation by reading a series of ads from an ad campaign and seeing how even music changed minds.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Com'on Down to Eatonville, Florida
You are Mayor Joe Starks from the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and you want more people to relocate to Eatonville, Florida. Identify five amenities that may make Eatonville attractive to African-Americans...
PBS
Pbs: People and Discoveries: Kdka Begins to Broadcast 1920
This site from PBS details the history of radio and KDKA (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) the first radio station to offer programming. Mentions: advertising, NBC Radio, mass culture.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: A Consumer Economy
The booming economy of the 1920s introduced new products and ways of paying for those products. Read about the increase in the kinds of household appliances, places to buy the appliances, and the financing of all those new consumer goods.
University of Virginia
Miller Center at Uva: u.s. Presidents: Warren G. Harding: American Franchise
Read about American culture and the culture of the Harding presidency in the beginning of the 1920s.