Teaching About the 20th Century

Kirsten 0:09

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.

lessing to thinking about the: 1900

All right, going into the: 1900

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.

ions that occurred during the: 1920

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.

very tumultuous decade of the: 1960

is about the: 1970

All right, going into the: 1980

f born not really born in the: 1990

ury, and also talks about the: 2000

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

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