CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

Lesson Title: The Rise of Consumer Culture Date: 5/11/2017

Account for the rise of consumer culture in the early twentieth century.
Unit Central Historical
Explain the various methods of advertisements and their significance in
Question(s):
shaping traditional gender roles.

Subject / Course: Modern U.S. History

Grade: 11
Lesson Duration: 55

Content Learning Objective (content and product):

e.g., students will be able to [content analysis] by [product and activity].
Students will be able to account for the rise of consumer culture in the early twentieth century, explain the
various methods of advertisement and the role of consumerism in shaping traditional gender roles through a
warm up activity, analyzing a 1920 Ford T Model ad, followed by a mini lecture and finally an inquiry
based group activity in which students will use the historical thinking skill, evidence and interpretation to
fill in their daily dialect journal and answer supplemental questions based off five primary source text with
100% accuracy.

Historical Thinking Learning Objective (thinking skill and product):

e.g., students will be able to weigh [historical thinking learning objective] by [activity].
The students will be able to recognize the 1920s as the era in the rise of consumerism culture in America
and the different viewpoints of consumerism in the 1920s through various forms of advertisements i.e.
print, radio, film.

Historical Thinking Skill, California Content, and Common Core Standards Addressed:
List the historical thinking skill(s) addressed.
-Comparison
-Analyzing Evidence: content and sourcing

List the old California Content Standard addressed (10.4.??)

11.5 Students analyze the major political, social, economic, technological, and cultural developments of
the 1920s.
11.5.6 6. Trace the growth and effects of radio and movies and their role in the worldwide diffusion of
popular culture.

Common Core Standards Addressed

Reading Standards for Informational Text 612
Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative,
 CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over
the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10). (See grade 1112 Language
standards 46 for additional expectations.) CA

Narrative Summary of Tasks / Actions:

Warm up (10 min) As Students walk in, they will be asked to take a seat and answer the prompt on the
projector based on the 1920s Ford T Model car;
1. How is the advertisement persuading American consumers to buy the product?
2. To which social classes may this advertisement appeal to?
Students will be given the option to work individually or in pairs.

Mini Lecture (15 mins) The teacher will provide a short lecture to give an overview of the technological
advances and innovations that helped to grow advertisement in the 1920s.
Included in the mini lecture are short video clips of advertisements in radio and film as well as print ads that
demonstrate how advertisment progressed in the 1920s

Inquiry Based Group Activity (20 mins) In groups no larger than 4, students will be asked to analyze four
(4) sources and use the dialect journal worksheet to pick quotes that demonstrate a main idea. They will be
asked to provide their interpretation of the quotes, connections, and questions. After they have organized
their analysis, they will be asked three (3) questions that create a dialogue between the sources;

1. How would William Chenery, editor of Collier's, have replied to Chase and Frederick?
What were the benefits of advertising for which consumers should be grateful?

2. How would William Chenery, editor of the Colliers have replied to the Andy
Consumer ads in Life magazine?

3. How would you describe the Andy Consumer ads in Life magazine? Did it make you
want to buy more? Condescending? Straightforward? Manipulative?

Materials / Equipment:
1. Powerpoint
2. Document Packet
3. Timer

Inquiry-Based Lesson Plan for History-Social Science

 CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

1. Anticipatory Set Time: 10 min

As Students walk in, they will be asked to take a seat and answer the prompt on the projector based on the
1920s Ford T Model car;
1. How is the advertisement persuading American consumers to buy the product?
2. To which social classes may this advertisement appeal to?

Students will be given the option to work individually or in pairs.

The activity does not require previous knowledge.

2. Central Historical Question for Lesson Time:

How did advertisements during the 1920s influence consumer culture in America?

3. Teacher Input (delivery of historical context) Time: 15 mins

The teacher will provide a short lecture to give an overview of the technological advances and innovations
that helped to grow advertisement in the 1920s.
Included in the mini lecture are short video clips of advertisements in radio and film as well as print ads that
demonstrate how advertisment progressed in the 1920s. The mini lecture will introduce the topic of
consumerism in the 1920s and therefore students will have the brief information to complete the inquiry
activity.

4. Student Activity and Investigation (w/

Time: 20 mins
differentiation)
Inquiry Based Group Activity (20 mins) In groups no larger than 4, students will be asked to analyze four
(4) sources and use the dialect journal worksheet to pick quotes that demonstrate a main idea. They will be
asked to provide their interpretation of the quotes, connections, and questions. After they have organized
their analysis, they will be asked three (3) questions that create a dialogue between the sources;

1. How would William Chenery, editor of Collier's, have replied to Chase and Frederick?
What were the benefits of advertising for which consumers should be grateful?

2. How would William Chenery, editor of the Colliers have replied to the Andy
Consumer ads in Life magazine?

3. How would you describe the Andy Consumer ads in Life magazine? Did it make you
want to buy more? Condescending? Straightforward? Manipulative?
 CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

5. Lesson Assessment (w/ differentiation) Time: 5 mins

Following the inquiry based group activity, the teacher will ask each group to share their findings regarding
the three question. The teacher will begin to facilitate a class discussion. Each group member will be
responsible for their own worksheet and each member must turn one in at the end of class period.

6. Closure Time: 5 mins

The teacher will then pose the self -reflective question; Does 1920s consumerism culture reflect todays
consumer culture?

Document A.
Samuel Strauss Things Are in the Saddle The Atlantic Monthly November 1924
Samuel Strauss, journalist, publisher, and cultural commentator, criticizes America's increasing
dependence on expanding consumer demand for national economic health.

This is our proudest boast: The American citizen has more comforts and conveniences than kings
had two hundred years ago. It is a fact, and this fact is the outward evidence of the new force
which has crossed the path of American democracy. This increasing stream of automobiles and
radios, buildings and bathrooms, furs and furniture, [ocean] liners, hotels, bridges, vacuum cleaners,
cameras, bus lines, electric toasters, moving pictures, railway cars, package foods, telephones,
pianos, novels, comic supplementsthese are the signs.

Production has played many parts in history; it has taken various forms. The form which it takes in
this, the Machine Age, is strange and new. Consumptionism is a new necessity. Consumptionism is
a new science. Through the centuries, the problem has been how to produce enough of the things
men wanted; the problem now is how to make men want and use more than enough things the
CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

science of plenty, it has been called ....Consumptionism is the science of compelling men to use
more and more things. Consumptionism is bringing it about that the American citizens first
importance to his country is no longer that of citizen but that of consumer.

Document B.
Stuart Chase Prosperity: Fact or Myth? 1929
Economist and consumer activist Stuart Chase published several bestselling works on consumer
culture and the social effects of technological innovation, all based on extensive research into the
realities of modern American life.

Mass consumption has also dealt a body blow at the time-honored doctrine of thrift. We are urged
on the highest authority to spend rather than to save. Only by spending can we make the wheels of
industry turn. We are urged deliberately to waste material. Throw away your razor blades, abandon
your motor car, and purchase new. This strange doctrine would have horrified our grandfathers and
alas, has an excellent chance of horrifying our grandchildren

Document C.
William Chenery Messenger to the King Colliers, May 3, 1930
Editor of Colliers magazine, founded in 1888 was launched as a magazine of "fiction, fact,
sensation, wit, humor, and news", and became known widely for investigative journalism and social
reform-seeking values.

The successful advertisement makes you crave new things. The motive is frankly commercial but
the consequences reach far beyond trade. Though the purpose of an advertiser is primarily to sell his
goods, the byproducts of his efforts have had predigious effects upon our opinions, our standards of
taste, our habits, and even upon our picture of a good life.

Document D.
Christine Frederick Selling Mrs. Consumer 1929
Long known as a champion of modern efficient housekeeping, home economist Christine
Frederick published her first book in 1929, speaking directly to advertisers who needed, she
argued, to take seriously the modern woman consumer.

Twenty times as responsive to new offerings, inventions and improvements by industry! That is a
mighty makeweight in the balance of progress in America, both for individual health and happiness
CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

and for business. The American womans relation to American manufacturing is positively startling
to foreign eyes but a commonplace here. She writes letters to Home Service heads employed by the
manufacturer, and secures a woman-to-woman reply. She attends household lectures and secures
free education. She is supplied with general household information, recipes and housekeeping aid
that is only indirectly connected up with the manufacturers product

Document E.
Life ad, Advertising and Selling, May 5, 1926
Life magazine Andy Consumer ad series. Ads on the series in Advertising and Selling, 1926.

National advertisers have spent more than fifteen million dollars for space in little old LIFE. Well,
said we, a few months ago, seems as if we ought to make some sort of gesture of appreciation.
Naturally, having received fifteen million dollars for advertising space, we regard advertising as a
fine thing. it occurred to us that we might thank national advertisers for their years of patronage by
telling the great public (out THERE) what a fine thing advertising is for THEM. Instantly we
invented Andy Consumera typical consumerand put the profound doctrine of advertising
economics on his idiomatic tongue. Some say it is the best advertising that advertising has ever had.

Quotations from the Text My Response

(sentences, phrase(s), or passages) (connection, appreciation, question,
interpretation)

Samuel Strauss Things Are in the Saddle The

Atlantic Monthly November 1924

Stuart Chase Prosperity: Fact or Myth? 1929

William Chenery Messenger to the King

Colliers, May 3, 1930
CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template

Christine Frederick Selling Mrs. Consumer

1929

Life ad, Advertising and Selling, May 5, 1926

Directions:
Using the documents, answer the following questions

1. . How would William Chenery, editor of Collier's, have replied to Chase and Frederick?
What were the benefits of advertising for which consumers should be grateful?

2. How would William Chenery, editor of the Colliers have replied to the Andy
Consumer ads in Life magazine?

3. How would you describe the Andy Consumer ads in Life magazine? Did it make you
want to buy more? Condescending? Straightforward? Manipulative?
CSULB History Social Science Lesson Plan Template