AP US HISTORY

UNIT 7.1 THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

(UNIT PLAN BASED ON GAGNES NINE EVENTS OF INSTRUCTION)
EVENT 1 ATTENTION
Begin the unit with a tour through two New York area houses from the 1880s (seen below) the Vanderbilt Mansion on Long Island
and the immigrant tenements of Manhattan.

After discussing living conditions in the late 1800s, read an excerpt from Upton Sinclairs The Jungle while drawing a representation
of the meat factory being described.
There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back
from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white it would be dosed with borax
and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat
that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted
billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky
roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to
see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats.
These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them, they would die, and then
rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be
shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one
there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.

EVENT 2 OBJECTIVE
Post the following objective on the board and discuss with students. Ask students for root word of Progressive to help them
understand what they are being asked.
OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the success of the Progressive Movement from 1890 to 1920.

EVENT 3 PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Have students brainstorm a list of Gilded Age problems from the previous unit. The list can be created on the SMART Board by
having students come up to the front and writing a problem. They should be able to find at least 10 major issues from the previous
time period.
EVENT 4 NEW CONTENT
Begin a lecture/discussion as student take notes for the new unit. The notes should be organized in a way that clearly addresses
each problem of the Gilded Age to allow full access of prior knowledge. Lecture based off of the Power Point and notes outline
attached below.
EVENT 5 GUIDANCE
Assign each student a Progressive from the era. Each student will be researching their Progressive on the internet and answering
key questions to determine what type of reform they wanted. During this process the teacher will provide guidance to the students
by helping them locate information and asking them questions to help them determine what type of Progressive they are
researching.
Sample Progressive Sign-Up Sheet

EVENT 6 PERFORMANCE
After the research process is complete, students will come to class the next day in character as their assigned Progressive. They will
be met at the door by the teacher who will explain the task for the day in character as a random Progressive. Students will be asked
to meet several other Progressives and introduce themselves. As they meet and discuss they will be looking for Progressives from
social, political, and economic categories of reform, Progressives who agree with them, and Progressives who disagree with them.
This information will be recorded as they meet.
EVENT 7 FEEDBACK
Informal feedback will begin as students conduct their Progressive discussions in Event 6. The teacher will circulate and join
discussions as needed. Formal feedback will be given to students on the assignment that they turn in after completion of the
performance in Event 6.
EVENT 8 ASSESSMENT
The final summative assessment for this unit will be a writing assignment. Students will be asked to answer the prompt from the
objective in Event 2. The essay will be formatted as a Document Based Question using written sources from some of the
Progressives discussed throughout the unit. Students will be graded using a rubric that requires them to use and analyzes sources to
support their claim.

EVENT 9 RETENTION/TRANSFER
The next unit 7.2 Imperialism and World War I will start with Progressives being elected President and taking action. Students
will need their knowledge of Progressivism to determine if the actions of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson (both proclaimed
Progressives) were actually Progressive based on their foreign policy.