Oklahoma Social Studies USH.C.4.1.E
The Standard
- USH.C.4
- Analyze the cycles of economic boom and bust of the 1920s and 1930s on the transformation of the United States of America’s government and society.
- USH.C.4.1
- Examine the transformations between the World Wars.
Identify new forms of cultural expression (e.g., radio, Hollywood films, comic books), including the significant impact of African American culture as exhibited by the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · USH.C.4.1
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify radio, Hollywood films, and comic books as ways Americans shared stories and entertainment. They explain how Harlem Renaissance writers and jazz musicians shaped American culture.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can identify a radio listing, film poster, and comic cover as examples of popular media. They can name a work by Langston Hughes or Duke Ellington and explain how it contributed to American culture.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think the Harlem Renaissance was only jazz. Some assume jazz began in Harlem or that radio invented it, rather than helping it reach more listeners.
How to Assess It
- Show a 1920s jazz radio listing and a short excerpt from Langston Hughes’s “I, Too.” Ask students to name the medium in each example and explain one way African American artists shaped American culture.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups a 1920s radio listing, a Hollywood film poster, a 1938 comic cover, and Hughes’s “I, Too” to sort by medium.
Play Duke Ellington’s “Black and Tan Fantasy” and ask: How might radio have spread his music beyond Harlem?
Play artifact bingo with cards labeled radio, film, comics, poetry, and jazz; call clues about broadcasts, Hollywood, Superman, Hughes, and Ellington.
Compare a 1920s jazz radio listing with a current jazz playlist on a phone; list who could hear each and where.
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