SOCIAL SECURITY? Designed by Richard Charlesworth, 11, Mandela High School, Elizabeth Haugen, 11, Oakland Technical High School and Maryann Wolfe, 12, Oakland Technical High School (2008 - 2009)
Background and Context of the Lesson The thematic focus of this year’s OUSD Teaching American history grant was to examine economic issues in American history. With this mind we thought an investigation into the Social Security Act of 1935 was topical and important. That students should have an understanding of how the history of this program, the controversy surrounding its adoption, and how is had become integral to American life today.
Grade 11
WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE DURING WORLD WAR II Designed by Jeff Durston (Skyline), Anya Gurholt (Skyline), Ron Pereira (Skyline), Michael Jackson (Media Academy @ Fremont H.S.) (2008 - 2009)
Background and Context of the Lesson It is widely recognized that women were an important part of the workforce during World War II. With so many American men involved in the war abroad, there was an extreme shortage of workers at home and women stepped in the fill those positions. But what kinds of jobs did these women perform? Did the images put out by the government during that time truly accurately display the diversity of the female experience in the workforce? It is important for students to answer the questions in order to broaden their understanding of the female experience during this time period as well as the overall perceptions and misconceptions of women’s contribution to the war effort and domestic economy.
Grade 8
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION Designed by: Abbey Atwood, 8th grade, Roots Middle School, Julie Greenfield, 8th grade, Edna Brewer Middle School, Katherine Suyeyasu, 7th & 8th grade, ASCEND Middle School, Emily Walton, 8th & 9th grade, Coliseum College Preparatory Academy and Ariel Ron, University of California, Berkeley, Department of History (2008 - 2009)
Background and Context of the Lesson
This lesson was created in order to provide background information for studying the Civil War as a part of the 8th grade American History curriculum. We found that students had limited knowledge of infrastructure, transportation’s role in the economy as well as the concept of economy itself. We wanted to enliven an often overlooked but nevertheless important foundational concept of economic history. We framed this lesson in the bigger context of the Transportation Revolution of the antebellum period.
