Muckraker Café Lesson Plan - Mr. Stott



Muckraker Café Lesson Plan

Lesson: A high school junior level activity in which a meat meal is served, the concept of a Muckraker is introduced, and a part of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle is read and analyzed.

Objectives: Compare the conflict between big business and workers from the early 1900’s to today. Explain the hardships of people in the early 1900’s and why they formed political parties. Compare the political trends of the Populist and Progressives to today’s current political trends.

Materials Needed: A hot-dog cooker, hot dogs, summer sausage, napkins, paper plates, potato chips, pencil or pen and paper, Muckraker Café menu, The Jungle excerpt and “Welcome to the Jungle” analysis sheet. Students will also need their textbook.

Preplanning: Accumulate all materials, make sure students know not to eat lunch in the cafeteria beforehand (or not eat too much) and review of The Jungle.

Instructional Input: A menu will be created and given to students (Muckraker Café). Two-page excerpt from The Jungle will stand alone and be read by students while they eat their meal.

Activity: Students will answer analysis questions which will help them understand the role of a Muckraker and the problems confronting the people of the Progressive Era. Some of the analysis questions require students to use their text to discover more Muckrakers—Jacob Riis, Maria and Bessie VanVorst, Lincoln Steffans and Ida Tarbell.

Check for understanding: Analysis questions will be handed in by the end of the class period. These questions will show the instructor what students got out of the exercise.

Closure: Before students leave, a “Rake, Rake, Rake the Muck” assignment will be handed out. This assignment requires students to watch a television program doing modern Muckraking. In addition to providing quality news viewing time for students, this exercise requires them to look for bias in reporting, identify affected groups and compare modern Muckraking to that used by Progressives.

Assessment/Evaluation: Certain important aspects of the material covered will be on a test. Also, activity questions will be turned in so that the teacher may evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson.

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