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This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know the southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. If I had a favorite, favorite topic, or set of topics to teach about, it's probably going to be what's in this episode, that is the 20th century, I have always always been fascinated with all of the different cultural changes, technological changes, political changes, and everything related to the 20th century. And so it was obviously something I was really passionate in. As a teacher, teaching fifth grade US history was something that was super, super exciting to me to be able to share with other students. One of the things I found is that it was really hard to find the right resources that didn't have too much going on, because I know High School, you got to get super in depth. But with elementary it is kind of that fine line between okay, what what are we going to talk about? What are we going to really go into depth with what are we not going to really go into depth with. And so it was really hard finding resources that covered just enough where I don't have to, you know, watered down the content itself. And that's part of why I created one of the units I did, which I'll talk about later in this episode.

So before we get to talking about how to teach about the 20th century, I want to share with you kind of where we're going as far as how this is going to be laid out, I'm going to be sharing with you the different lessons that I have in part of the guided curriculum unit that I have. And I'll share with you kind of a synopsis of this specific, what you would want to teach in this lesson. And then some activity ideas that you can do. So I'll give about two or three activity ideas for each lesson. So this is the one that I've created. It's the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries, it's a pretty hefty unit. It's a four week unit, and all kinds of really great slideshows and pictures, it was a labor of love. I'll say that it took a long time. But I think the way it turned out was just perfect. I think it was really great. And I think it's a really informative unit really fun unit for students. So I'm going to just share with you those 12 Out of the 15 that are in this unit, because it's all related to the 20th century.

So we've got lesson one, you're introducing the 20th century blessing to thinking about the 1900s 1910s lesson three World War One lesson for the roaring 20s. Lesson five, the Great Depression, Lesson Six, World War Two, Lesson Seven, the Cold War, Lesson Eight, the civil rights movement, less than nine, the 1960s, less than 10, the 1970s, less than 11, the 1980s and less than 1219 90s. Now I know there's still so many other topics, we could even go into depth with like the 40s In general, the 50s In general, the 30s. But I wanted to kind it was a lot of stuff I had to take out. But I think still you can cover as much as you need to just within these topics themselves. So starting with lesson one, we're thinking about for the first lesson, how you can just have an overview of the major themes and events and advancements that are defining the 20th centuries. You want to think about how you're painting the scene, thinking about plot structure, but like the exposition, you're setting the setting, what is going on here? Why is there so many changes between 19 119 99 Thinking about in general, there's number one, rapid changes in technology. There's globalization. There's a variety of social movements and also a variety of political developments that shapes the United States in the world today as we know it. So some ideas that you can utilize is having a timeline. You can have students work in groups to create timeline highlighting key events from the 20th centuries. They can use captions and images and just brief descriptions to illustrate the importance of those significant events. So they find. And another activity idea is to have some type of multimedia presentation, where you have each student or group of students a specific decade to research and they create a PowerPoint or a video that highlights the major events and technological advancements of that specific decade.

All right, going into the 1900s and 1910s. This is mainly thinking about the very early years of the 20th century, thinking about the political landscape social economic landscape leading up to World War One, also thinking about the rise of industrialization and the progressive movement and some a little bit of corruption, thinking about maybe some monopolies on some businesses and how they had to kind of cut that short, and also the rise of imperialism and the tensions that were brewing in Europe. So one really fun activity that you can do is have students give them some, you know, find a list of different events in the 1900s and 1810s. And give students a specific event or figure from the early 1900s, such as the sinking of the Titanic, or even the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the whole that whole event kind of cumulated into what World War One was, they can research this event and present their findings to the class and they can talk about the different causes and consequences of their specific topic. Another idea is to have some type of primary source analysis, give students some primary sources such as newspaper articles, political cartoons, and letters from the early 1900s. They can analyze these sources to understand the different perspectives and experiences of people living during this time period. And if you're looking for more additional resources on utilizing primary sources, I highly recommend you check out episode number 22, using primary sources to teach social studies. And I'll make sure to link that in the show notes.

Next, we're thinking about World War One. So with this, we want to focus on the causes, effects and consequences of World War One, you want to make sure you're thinking about the different geopolitical tensions, military strategies and social impacts of what is also known as the Great War on a more global scale. So a couple of activity ideas would be the first one being related to trench warfare, this was something that was very common on the Western Front. So maybe thinking about, I mean, there were a lot of diseases that came about, and just in general, how things were there were a lot of harsh conditions, when there were soldiers in the trenches, literally in the trenches. So it would be interesting to maybe show photographs that hopefully are, you know, not showcasing any deceased bodies or anything like that. But there are a good amount of photos that kind of showcase the conditions about trench warfare. And there are some sources out there, if you ever listen or watch any World War One documentaries, you can find firsthand accounts of what it was like in the trenches on the Western Front. So this could be something that you could maybe, you know, try to discuss with your students show photographs, and just kind of show like, this was something kind of new, and you can also kind of share with them any other technological equipment that was new at the time as well, such as tanks. All right. Also going into another activity idea is consider a document based question or DBQ gives students a selection of primary source documents related to World War One such as letters, photographs, and propaganda posters. Have students analyze these documents and respond to guided questions to deepen their understanding of the wars impact on individuals in different countries. I also like to note with maybe even showing like a map before World War One and after World War One and how specifically a map of Europe, how that changed so drastically, and the name, how the names of the countries changed and all of that. So that would be really interesting to get their perspective and just kind of have to see how much change happened after this conflict.

All right, let's go into lesson number three thinking about the roaring 20s This is thinking about the cultural, social and economic transformations that occurred during the 1920s. In this lesson, you want students to think about the rise of consumer culture, how much disposable income changed things, people could just buy things, whatever they want to their leisure, jazz music, the Harlem Renaissance and also the changing roles of women being able to vote with the 19th amendment. Something that would be really fun to do during this lesson is to have some type of Jazz Age playlist, introduce students to the music of the roaring 20s. By creating a playlist of jazz songs from the era, students can listen to the music and analyze the lyrics and the themes and discuss how jazz reflected the social and cultural changes of the time. Another fun interesting one would be a flapper fashion show invites students to dress up in attire inspired by the 1920s, and organize a fashion show in the classroom, and maybe even teach them how to do the Charleston if you want to do that as well.

Okay, going into Lesson five, the Great Depression, with all the highs comes the lows of the 20th century. This is just one of many. This specific lesson, the Great Depression is thinking about the causes of the Great Depression and the impacts of the Great Depression and responses to the Great Depression in the United States. This is known as one of the most challenging economic crises in modern history. And we also want them to know that this is not just taking place in the United States, this is something that's happening world wide. So one of the things you could possibly do is have some type of stock market simulation setup a mock stock market activity where students are participating in buying and selling stocks. And you can just do slips of paper if you want to do that, or some type of digital version of that. And as the simulation progresses, students are experiencing the volatility of the market and the impact of economic downturns on their investments. So however you want to do that, it's kind of just like, that's just an idea I'm throwing out there, maybe I need to create something like that. But I think it would be something really fun. Another activity idea was to do some type of find a video related to the dustbowl, because this kind of was in conjunction with the Great Depression. So make sure you're showing excerpts from videos and maybe some secondary sources on how the dustbowl affected American farmers and communities and cause a lot of people living in Texas and Oklahoma and other Midwestern states to move to other places because they could not grow crops. And you can have a discussion afterwards on the different economic and social factors and environmental factors that contributed to the decibel, and the effects of the decibel as well.

Going into Lesson Six, World War Two. This is a big lesson. There's a lot of moving pieces in this. And in this lesson, you're wanting to examine the causes of World War Two the events of World War Two major events and the outcomes of World War Two. This is known as one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. So there's a lot of different totalitarian regimes military strategies, such as we have the atomic bomb that we launched on to Japan, and that caused them to surrender so just different ideas and the global impact of the war on different individuals and groups of people. So one really interesting activity idea you can do is to have some type of World War Two artifact gallery walk so setup a gallery walk in your classroom with different photographs and documents and artifacts related to World War Two something you can find easily online there's plenty of sources on the Library of Congress and just different sources on websites related to World War Two history. Students are gonna go through the gallery examine each item and they can even in their you know, maybe on a sticky note or in their notebooks can reflect on the importance and understanding the wars impact based off of the different documents and artifacts you show them. Another activity idea would be to have some type of propaganda analysis. So give some examples of appropriate you know, for upper elementary appropriate wartime propaganda posters and films and even possibly, if you can find any radio broadcasts from both the Allied and Axis Powers. So both on the side with Great Britain and France and the United States and also on the side with Germany and Japan, students can analyze the messages and the imagery and the techniques that they used to manipulate public opinion and and try to rally support. So how what did Italy as part of the Axis powers? How did they kind of get people on their side and keep people thinking about how their side and their ideas are better than the other side?

All right, let's go into Lesson Seven, the Cold War. So this is a really interesting concept. We're thinking about a lot of geopolitical tensions primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union. So previously, earlier in the 20th century, Soviet Union and the United States were on the same side, and now completely opposite. And it's all related to the ideas of capitalism on the United States side versus communism in Soviet Union side, and there is this interesting stalemate, I don't even want to say stalemate, it's a cold war, because there isn't any active hot, you know, fighting with all of that stuff. There's a lot of different side effects from it, though, there's thinking about the space race, nuclear arms race, and just the global impact of the Cold War on society and culture. So one thing you could do is have some information about the Cuban Missile Crisis. So thinking about finding some type of video or text related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is something that was probably I don't know if it would be the pinnacle or the apex of the conflict, because there was other you know, there's proxy wars, like the Vietnam War, or Korean War. But this is interesting, because it's related to Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy, and Nikita Khrushchev, and just kind of how the different events that could have broken out and what did breakout and kind of how it resolved itself, and how the negotiations went by. So this is something that could be kind of touched on, as well as having some type of Cold War artifact analysis, you can show a variety of artifacts, such as propaganda posters, or spy gadgets, or Fallout Shelter supplies, and you can have students even a photo of students doing the ducking cover drill, which was very common in a lot of elementary schools and kind of like compared to kind of what we do with fire drills or tornado drills or active intruder drills. You know, that kind of thing. Compare that to what we do today when we have certain drills.

Alright, Lesson Eight is the civil rights movement. So this is examining the struggle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States. During the 50s and 60s, students are exploring key events, leaders and strategies of the civil rights movement as well as its lasting impact on American society. So you can have students create a timeline of the civil rights movement, thinking about key events such as Brown versus Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and students can help add to the timeline by researching different events and adding descriptions and quotes. Another great activity idea is having a civil rights music analysis. This is a really interesting one gives students the ability to explore the role of music in the civil rights movement, by analyzing certain protest songs such as we shall overcome and a change is going to come. Students can discuss the messages and the themes and impact of the songs and how it helped bring in support from a variety of races, not just African Americans for civil rights activism. Okay, we are over halfway done with talking about the 20th century.

Next, we're going to be talking more into the decades. So this lesson Lesson Nine is about the 60s this is thinking about the very tumultuous decade of the 1960s with the social upheaval Cultural Revolution, the counterculture political activism. So they're thinking you know, about anti war protest, advancements in civil rights and also technology such as television, so you could have students do some type of protest poster design. Just in the spirit of the 60s activism, students can design protest posters advocating for social change on certain issues such as environmentalism, or civil rights or women's liberation. So encourage students to incorporate symbols and slogans and imagery that would capture the spirit of the 1960s. Additionally, you could have some type of Vietnam War debate, you can divide your class into groups representing different perspectives on the Vietnam War, such as anti war protesters, military leaders, government officials, and then also Vietnamese civil Millions give them the ability to have a structured debate and present arguments and evidence to support their positions on the worst causes and conduct and also the consequences.

Lesson 10 is about the 1970s, thinking about the cultural, political and economic developments of the 70s. So a lot of different economic changes and challenges with stagflation, social changes, and also global dynamic shifts. So you would think about things like the energy crisis, Watergate, the rise of disco culture. So one really interesting activity you could do is have a disco dance party, and you know, have a disco ball costumes, classic disco hits, and they can even just kind of discuss and analyze the cultural significance of disco culture and its impact on fashion and music and social life in the 1970s. And one thing you can talk about is the Watergate scandal and like what that was all about, and how it led to the resignation of President Nixon, which is something that's very rare, not very many presidents resigned. So that could be a series of events that you can talk about.

All right, going into the 1980s, we've got two more lessons, the 1980s is thinking about the different developments of the 80s, such as Reaganomics, the rise of MTV Music, television, and the end of the Cold War, also just the major changes of how personal computers were more accessible and less expensive. And students will also think about how the politics kind of got more conservative, and just the cultural phenomena with, you know, very popular artists like Michael Jackson, and Madonna and Prince. So you could think about maybe doing some type of MTV Music, video analysis, this could be an interesting activity, find an appropriate if possible, 80s music video and think about how, you know, different iconic artists are thinking about their visual style and themes and impact and how it can impact music and fashion trends from the 1980s. You can also kind of talk to students about Reaganomics and the main ideas of Reaganomics in general. There's a lot you can go in depth with with Reaganomics, but we don't we just kind of want to do like an over level, okay, this is what Reaganomics is, and how it related to our economy, and how there were actually mixed results. So there were some positives, but there were also some negatives as well.

All right, the last lesson that you can talk about when teaching, of course, would be the 90s, we can't forget about the 90s. This is thinking about globalization, the rise of the Internet, and also even in South Africa, the end of apartheid. And while this is mainly going to be focusing on US history, it is important to think about other things happening not just in the United States, you could talk about whom Nelson Mandela was and kind of how he helped in that and how he was an important figure in their history. One interesting activity idea could be thinking about how the Internet was kind of born not really born in the 1990s, but boomed in the 90s. You can think about creating a timeline of key milestones in the development and popularization of the internet during the 1990s. And you can also share different events such as the launch of the worldwide web, and different websites, like maybe even if you can find a screenshot of what Amazon looked like in the 1990s, and eBay and Google. And I actually remember going to the library in elementary school in the 90s. And going on Google for the first time, my teacher like the way she said, Google, I like it. It's not it, I can't get it out of my head. It's just like, just kind of funny, but it was a really cool thing to see. Like, I can type in anything and find different things. And so that's what we were learning in elementary school is like utilizing the World Wide Web. And actually, you can go to one of the first web pages I'm going to so if you go to this website, this would be really cool to show your students is go to info.current.ch. So that's info dot C E R N dot C H. If you go to that website, you will see the first website and when you click on browse the first website, but if you want to use theLine Mode browser simulator, what it really looks like back in the day, then you can kind of see what the very first website looks like. So that could be a really fun attention grabber to see what the internet looked like back then and how it has changed today. All right, the next lesson activity idea I would share is just having some type of globalization debate. And you can divide students into groups that are representing different perspectives on globalization. So you can have one side that are supporters of free trade. One side, that is their critics of economic inequality, one side defends cultural diversity. So it's however you want to go about it. But you can have students think about different arguments and evidence to support their positions on the impact of globalization on society and the economy and culture. So I would definitely preface like, what is globalization in the first place and some examples of globalization before we go into the globalization debate.

So wrapping everything up, just to kind of get you even more into teaching about the 20th century, I, of course, have it all laid out for you, it's easy, easy for you to be able to implement. And while not all of the activities that I mentioned, are in the unit that I do have available in my TPT store, it is super low prep, you don't have to prep anything, as far as the notes, the slideshows are all there for you the practice activities, the exit tickets, all that good stuff. And one of the activities I happen to mention where students are really researching different decades, that is part of the unit project that I have for the 20th and the 21st century. So the unit that I have available in my TPT store, it goes beyond the 20th century, and also talks about the 2000s, the election of 2008. And a variety of different technological changes, political changes, economic changes, all of that in the 2010s, and even in the 2020s. So of course, it will be updated as things progress in the 2020s. But this is something that if you're like really interested in or you have to teach this particular century, in your classroom, and you want something that's aligned to Texas standards for fifth grade, I've got you, you can definitely check that out in the description. And if you want to also incorporate some of these lesson ideas that I shared with you on the podcast episode, in addition to what is in the unit already prepped for you, you can do that as well. I just kind of wanted to get your brain, you know, worrying and thinking about some really fun ways you can engage students about a very interesting, or at least in my opinion, interesting topic, which is the 20th century.

All right, so hopefully you enjoyed this episode, and I will be talking to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode. For more teacher tips and strategies