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Lesson Plan
The Roaring 20s
1920
Goals- Students will understand how society adjusted to rapid social change during the
1920s.
Resources- PowerPoint, 1920s celebrity game with people, Videos, 1920s music, 1920s
articles.
Bell Ringer- What are things that define our culture today??? Write down at least 10
things.
Objectives- Students will be able to describe the changes in attitudes and social roles in
the 1920s, and they will be able to analyze the impact of the growth of the nation’s mass
media. (standard 5, objective1&2).
Instructional Input Talk about Bell Ringer
 Celebrities of the 1920s
 1920s Articles
 Lecture/ Introduce 1920s, culture, society, mass media, jazz age
 Video of 20th century/Cinderella Man clip
Checking for UnderstandingModelingGuided PracticeClosureExit Slip- Why do you think it is often called the Roaring 20s?
Cinderella Man clip- beginning of movie
1920s Articles
Create groups of 7. Have each group member read their own article. Then share what
they read with each other.
Write down notes about each topic, and then we will write them on the board together as
a class.
The Roaring 20s
After just having a tragic WW1 America enters a new and exciting period of time. The
1920s is an exciting time in American history and many of the new trends that were
started then have remained with society and even characterize our way of life now…(The
1920s set in motion much of modern America) one big example is Hollywood!!! So
many new things start out in America during this time,
The automobile becomes available to the masses
Hollywood starts
Movies
Buying on credit/ the stock market
Jazz
Electricity
Industries flourished
We get our first celebrities
Society in the 1920s
The first big change
This change would definitely be the transformation of the women in society. Women
could be defined as Flappers- described the new type of women as young, rebellious,
fun loving, and bold. Described as
“Breezy, slangy, and informal in manner; slim and boyish in form; covered in silk and fur
that clung to her as close as onion skin; which carmined (vivid red) cheeks and lips,
plucked eyebrows and close fitting helmet of hair; gay, plucky and confident.”
Even though the flapper represented a small number of American women it widely
impacted fashion and manners during the 1920s. Stood as a symbol to break the past.
The Flapper Image
Women started to wear shorter dresses, hemlines rose from 6 inches above the ground in
1919 to knee-length or even higher by 1927. Dresses and blouses become much simpler
and the average amount of fabric used to make a women’s outfit shrank from 19.5 yards
to 7 yards. Young women bobbed their hair instead of following the old tradition and
having it long. Often called helmet hair, matching hat!!!
They even starting wearing makeup, which had once been considered a sign on
immorality.
Their manners changed too!
Before the 1920s women rarely smoked or drank in public, but by the end of the decade
many women were doing both. I bet that you wouldn’t be surprised if I told you that the
number of cigarettes produced during this time more than doubled. Women and men
were both smoking now.
Women Working and Voting
More women did start working, but the majority of them were single, and when they did
get married they were forced to quit working once they become pregnant. Because of
this women were seldom trained for higher positions or paid on the same scale as men.
Women in politics changed only a little too. In 1920 women could vote because of the
19th amendment, but only about 35% of all women voters actually went to the polls to
vote, (why do you think this was so???)
They also tended to vote in similar patterns to men (because of their husbands), they did
effect local elections more. Women started to seek and win state and national political
office. Jeannette Rankin of Montana started the trend when she was elected to the House
of Representatives in 1916, becoming the first women to serve in either House of
Congress. By 1928 there were 145 women in 38 state legislatures.
Another change in Society is Cities and Suburbs
The 1920s saw many demographic changes as well. Demographics are the statistics that
describe a population, such as data on race or income. This biggest change of this type
during the 1920s was a movement away from the countryside. During the decade some 6
million people moved from rural areas to the cities.
Growth of the Suburbs
They increase greatly during this time, and trolleys, buses, and automobiles helped
facilitate the transportation need to get into the big cities for work. New York city is a
good example of this demographic change that was taking place during the 1920s,
because the number of residents decreased in Manhattan, the heart of the city, while the
suburbs like Queens doubled
Migration
One group was African Americans seeking job opportunities offered in the North because
of all the new business that were starting. In 1860 93% lived in the South. By 1910 it had
only dropped to 89%, and by 1930 it had fallen even more to 80%.
Immigrants from Europe lessen, but immigrants from Mexico and Canada
increased. Filled most of the low-paying jobs. Developed their own cultures within a
culture. An example was the Mexican developed barrio, or Spanish speaking
neighborhood.
Another New Trend in Society was to have American Heroes
These heroes ranged from sports stars to experts in aviation.
Some of these heroes are;
Lucky Lindy- 25 year old Charles Lindbergh flew his plane Spirit of St. Louis and flew
non-stop from New York to Paris.
Amelia Earhart- Another flyer, in 1932 crossed the Atlantic alone, also from Hawaii to
California, attempted to fly around the world.
Jack Dempsey- A famous boxer who won the fight with the record high ticket sales
taking in $1 million. He become the heavy weight champion of the world.
George Herman AKA Babe Ruth- This hero generated most of the excitement. He set
records in hitting, pitching, outfielding that stood for decades. In his career he hit 714
home runs a record that was unbroken for almost 40 years.
Gertrude Ederle – Famous for winning the gold medal in the 1924 Olympics for
freestyle swimming. She was also the first women to swim the 35 mile-wide English
Channel, and her time beat the men’s record by nearly two hours.
Helen Wills- A tennis star
Americans in general started playing more sports because of their growing leisure time.
Who are some of our modern day heroes???
Michael Jordan
Muhammad Alee
Bill Gates
Harrison Ford
Tom Cruise
Mother Teresa
Lance Armstrong
Mass Media and the Jazz Age
Along with new forms of entertainment like the radio, movies, and Jazz this decade
was an especially creative time period for music, art, and literature.
Growth of Hollywood
Read page 358 Before 1900, few outside of Los Angeles…
Mass Media
Hollywood’s new fame reflected a major trend of the 1920s. Before the 1920s U.S didn’t
really communicate with each other regionally and interests, attitudes, and tastes varied
greatly from each other. But the 1920s changed all that. A national culture started when
films, nation wide news gatherings, and the new industry of radio broadcasting became
common. This is all known as Mass Media- Print and broadcast methods of
communicating information to large numbers of people.
Movies
One major form of mass media that arrives in the 20s is movies. Movies were first
started in the 1890s, but their popularity grow in the 1920s.
Fun Facts
Between 1910 and 1920, the number of theaters rose form about 5,000 to about 22,500
By the end of the 20s theaters were showing movies to 100 million Americans each
week, (At a time when the total population was less than 125 million)
4th largest business in the country
Before 1927 movies were silent
Newspapers
Newspapers helped create a common culture because people were sharing the same
information, reading about the same events, and were influenced by the same ideas and
fashions. Newspapers during the 1920s increased in their size and in their number of
readers.
Fun Facts
1900=17 pages mid 1920s=more than 50 pages a day
Newspapers were getting bigger, but the number of them was declining, newspaper
chains started to buy out or merge the single companies. William Randolph Hearst was
an example of this… He was the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner and the New
York Journal… gained control of newspapers in 20 cities. ( like Newsies)
Radio
Before the 1920s only about 20,000 Americans had radio sets, all homemade.
Fun Facts
First radio station for profit was Pittsburgh’s KDKA in 1920
By 1922 more than 500 radio stations were on air
Many individual stations were linked together and Americans were again like the
newspapers sharing the same info, they were listening to the same jokes, commercials,
music, sports events, religious services, and news
The Jazz Arrives!!!
The radio combined with the great African American migration to the cites helped
produce JAZZ!!! Jazz features improve, when musicians just make up music as they are
playing it. Also an off beat rhythm called syncopation. Ragtime and the blues also
inspired its creation.
It soon became the nation wide craze, younger people especially loved to dance to the
new music. (what are some of the types of music that you like now). Jazz was first
looked down upon, but soon won over the nation. There were even Jazz Clubs were you
could listen to Jazz and dance too. The 1920s came to be called the Jazz Age
Listen to Jazz music
Lost Generation
A set of writers during the 1920s that gained this name because they believed that they
were lost in a greedy, materialistic world that lacked morals and values. Were also
people who left America because they were discontent with society. Famous writers are:
Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, F, Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway wrote the Sun also
Rises, Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise.
Harlem Renaissance
Was a literary awakening for African Americans. Called Harlem Renaissance because
many AA lived in Harlem, New York. It was their culture capital and the center for Jazz.
Many famous AAm writers arose like Langston Hughes. Common themes of their
writings are; African American culture, being black, being American, being a women.
Video- 20th century 1920s beginning
ClosureExit Slip- Why do you think it is often called the Roaring 20s?