Alabama Social Studies SS24.US1.18b
The Standard
- SS24.US1.18
- Describe the emergence of the Populist and Progressive movements and explain changes brought about by individual reformers and organizations.
Assess the effectiveness of muckrakers’ use of literature, newspapers, photography, and other media to inspire change during the Progressive Era.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine how novels, newspaper reports, and photographs exposed problems during the Progressive Era. They use evidence of public reaction and government action to judge what changed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can link The Jungle to public concern about meatpacking and the 1906 food safety laws. They can explain why a law passed afterward does not, by itself, prove the book caused it.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume every shocking story led straight to a new law. They may treat one photograph as proof that all tenements looked alike. They may also confuse public outrage with lasting reform.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short passage from The Jungle and a summary of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act. Ask them to name one possible effect of the book and one reason its role is hard to prove.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed Jungle excerpt and a Jacob Riis tenement photograph; have them mark the problem shown and the audience each might reach.
Ask: Did The Jungle cause meat inspection laws, or add to pressure for them? Have students write two sentences using a 1906 law summary.
Run a four-card match: link Wells's newspaper reports, Tarbell's magazine articles, Riis's photographs, and Sinclair's novel to the problems they exposed.
Compare a Flint water crisis news photo with the 2016 federal emergency declaration; ask what evidence would show the photo helped prompt action.
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