Progressive Era Webquest

Introduction

The Progressive Era was a time of incredible and rapid change in the United States. Many societal problems were identified and brought to the forefront, and many people demanded change in order to make life better for all in the United States. A lot of the pressure for change was put on the federal government. The prevailing thought was that the United States government had both the power and responsibility to enact sweeping societal change with the goal of improving the quality of life for all, especially those in the lower classes stuck in poverty. The issues of focus were wide-ranging, including things like living conditions, urban conditions, child labor, unions and workers' rights, political corruption, health standards, and poverty, among others. There were many people at the time that were unaware of the change needed, slow to accept the change that was needed, or outright oppositional to the change that was needed. Your journalistic skills will be put to the test to not only identify major problems plaguing society during the Progressive Era, but also to communicate those issues to the public at large in an effective way.

Task

Your task is to research critical issues of the Progressive Era as if you were a journalist or reporter. During the Progressive Era, many of these journalists were referred to as "muckrakers." You can use a variety of resources, whether it is articles, photographs, videos, interviews, etc. You will write a front-page newspaper article about your findings to communicate the severity of the issues to the broader public.

Process

1. Consult the resources given to you on the Resource section. You may also use other relevant resources not given, such as your textbook or other credible resources found on the internet through your own research. Make sure any resources found on your own on the internet are properly vetted for credible information as we have talked about in class.

2. As you consult various resources, you should be taking notes about pertinent information that will help you write your article. You should be writing down specific facts, feelings that are evoked as you read stories or look at photographs, and any other relevant material that can be used to justify the positions you take in your newspaper article.

3. As you take notes and compile the information for your article, make sure you are citing the sources you use as well. You will need a minimum of five sources cited in your finished newspaper article.

4. Your project is to write a feature newspaper article that would appear on the front page of a major newspaper highlighting key issues of the Progressive Era. You should focus on two key issues to highlight in your article that are affecting your city and many of the citizens. You can choose any two issues that you have researched through the provided resources. Your article should be a minimum of 800 words in length, and include at least two pictures to go along with your article.

5. Your article should be typed on a Google Doc or Word document, with your pictures included. You should also have a bibliography page with the resources you cited in your article. You will turn it in to Google Classroom when you are finished.

Evaluation
4 Student meets all requirements of the project (word length, pictures, citations, etc.). Writing is sharp and creative with basically no grammatical errors. Clear evidence of extensive research and effort into the newspaper article. Final product could be used as a class example.
3 Student meets most requirements of the project. Some minor details might be missing. Overall it's evident that student put a decent effort into research and understanding the content. Acceptable effort with room for improvement.
2 Student put some effort forward but missed on most or all of the key requirements. Article is finished, but short of the length and citation requirements. Evident that more research into the content was needed. Finished the project but minimal effort was put forth.
1 Basically no effort put forth. Student demonstrated no understanding of the content. Incomplete final project and nowhere close to meeting the basic requirements of the project.

 

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now learned a lot more about the Progressive Era in the United States and many of the issues that were plaguing society. You have honed your writing and research skills to demonstrate understanding of the subject. To finish up, I want you to reflect a little bit on what you have learned from this project. In at least one paragraph (five sentences minimum), please reflect on what you learned from this project and how it felt learning about the issues of the Progressive Era. What stood out to you and impacted you the most from this time period? How might your life be different from today if you were living in the Progressive Era? Please post your response to Google Classroom.

Credits