Oklahoma Social Studies USH.C.2.4.A
The Standard
- USH.C.2
- Analyze the social, economic, and political changes that occurred during the American Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, and reform movements.
- USH.C.2.4
- Analyze and compare the personalities, actions and policies of presidents during the Progressive Era.
Describe the efforts of President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, including the promises of the Square Deal, Meat Inspection Act, trust-busting laws, and support for conservation.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · USH.C.2.4
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain the Square Deal as Roosevelt’s promise of fair treatment for workers, businesses, and consumers. They connect meat inspections and action against trusts to problems people faced. They describe how his administration protected forests and other public lands.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can match unsafe meat to federal inspections, the Northern Securities railroad trust to antitrust enforcement, and forest loss to protected public land. They explain how these actions fit the Square Deal.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Roosevelt created the Sherman Antitrust Act, though it passed before his presidency. They may think meat inspections covered all food, or that conservation banned all use of public land.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Name one Roosevelt administration response to unsafe beef, one to the Northern Securities railroad trust, and one to shrinking forests. Explain how one response fits the Square Deal.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cards labeled unsafe meat, railroad trust, and forest loss; have them match each to a Roosevelt administration action and explain the match.
Ask students to write: Who benefited from federal meat inspections, and how did that fit Roosevelt’s promise of a Square Deal?
Play four corners with cases about unsafe meat, a railroad trust, forest loss, and a coal strike; students choose and defend Roosevelt’s response.
Have students find a USDA inspection mark on a meat package and compare its purpose with the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.
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Related Standards
- USH.C.2.4.B
Examine President William Howard Taft’s trust-busting agenda, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and formation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
- USH.C.4.3.C
Analyze the controversies arising from New Deal economic policies, including charges of socialism and the effect of President Roosevelt’s court packing plan on ...
- USH.C.3.1.F
Assess the foreign policy of President Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Diplomacy and his Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, influencing the acquisition and construction ...
- USH.C.2.4.D
Describe the work of President Woodrow Wilson’s administration, including the promises of “New Freedom” and passage of the Federal Reserve Act.
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