Decades: Explore Modern America

1. Decades:Explore Modern America Your Name Date due Class period

2. Objective The decades following the Civil War brought many changes in society, culture, economics, politics, industry, and technology. Domestically, the West closed, industrialization surged, and the American lifestyle and landscape changed dramatically. On the international front, America abandoned isolationism, fought six wars abroad, and became the world’s lone superpower.

3. Assignment Over the next few days, you will: • explore the changes of a particular decade of U.S. history and report those changes to your class through a combination of research and presentation. • research the music, dances, clothing, housing, average salary, transportation, employment opportunities, inventions, popular culture, leisure activities, politics, important legislation, U.S. economy, world events and U.S. involvement. • complete this PowerPoint. Your PowerPoint should reflect a theme of the decade through font style and size, color, background, transition, and pictures. Eighty percent of the grade will be completing the minimal requirements listed throughout this PowerPoint. Twenty percent of the grade will be awarded for creativity and thematic interpretation with possible extra points available. • disseminate the researched information in a formal whole group presentation. Your presentation must include the PowerPoint, one musical selection from the time period, and two additional visual aides (a collage, a short video, clothing, etc.). Additional visual aides must be pre-approved. • review one time period for additional study as a whole group project. Based on the individual presentations, the class will recreate a social event from that decade.

4. Let’s begin… Research the subjects headlined on the following pages. Remember that the websites you utilize should be hosted by education (.edu), organization (.org), or government (.gov). Any other website must be pre-approved. The material you present should be applicable to the decade you are assigned. Add links to websites, photos, video, and/or .wav files.

5. Music In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

6. Dance In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

7. Clothing In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

8. Housing In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

9. Average Salary and Price of Goods In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

10. Transportation In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

11. Employment Opportunities In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

12. Inventions In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

13. Popular Culture In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

14. Leisure Activities In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

15. Presidents and Important Political Figures In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

16. Important Legislation In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

17. U.S. Economy In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

18. World Events and U.S. Involvement In a well-developed paragraph of six-to-eight sentences (topic sentence, broad overview of subject, specific examples), summarize the subject above in your own words. Be careful to avoid plagiarizing. Insert links to sources here.

19. Explanation Please explain the theme of your project, how the theme demonstrates the mood of the decade, and how the creative elements of your PowerPoint project reflect the theme through font, color, background, transition, pictures, et cetera. Answer each question as a restatement of the prompt.

20. Works Cited Do this last. Document at least five of your sources using proper MLA citation.

21. Rubric 400 points total for the research, PowerPoint, and presentation. Eighty percent of the grade will be completing the minimal requirements listed throughout this PowerPoint. Twenty percent of the grade will be awarded for creativity and thematic interpretation with possible extra points available.

22. Feedback If you have time, please include feedback about the project. What did you learn? What did you like and/or dislike? How can the project be improved? Other comments and analysis would be appreciated.