Information for Teachers: How People Lived
Learning Objectives: As a result of participating in these activities, students will gain an understanding of how the lives of the elite (e.g., Potter and Bertha Palmer) differed from the lives of immigrants and working-class citizens. In addition, students will gain knowledge about efforts to improve the lives of immigrants by Jane Addams and others.
Anticipation Guide for How People Lived: For each of this unit’s student pages, you may choose to have students complete an Anticipation Guide and conduct a follow-up whole-class discussion prior to beginning work on the student page activities.
Video Clip from City of the Century (PBS, The American Experience): The work of Jane Addams and Hull House is described in a 12-minute clip beginning at approximately 3:18 to 3:30 (Part 3). It is followed by an 8-minute clip about the importance of the church to the immigrant community narrated by Dan Rostenkowski.
Student Activities for How People Lived
Note: During this part of the unit there is no writing task. Instead, you should introduce the Culminating Project topic and format choices, and students should begin to gather information for their individual projects.
The first two activities of this part of the unit require students to examine two types of data sets: tables of demographic statistics and maps. The demographic statistics are from the appendix of Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, and students respond independently to questions on a data analysis activity sheet. The maps were first produced in the very early 20th century and depict immigrant settlement and infant mortality. Students may work independently or with a partner to answer the Questions for Map Analysis worksheet. A follow-up whole-class discussion should focus on possible causes of health problems, etc., of immigrants.
In order to obtain an understanding of how the elite of Chicago lived, partners examine photographs of the interiors of the PalmerMansion and of the Palmer House Hotel. They will complete a Photograph Analysis Worksheet (National Archives) for each. The partners will also discuss how the term “Gilded Age” is related to these interiors.
A read aloud from Richard Peck’s Fair Weather is appropriate at this time. Mrs. Bertha Palmer is a minor character, and she is described on pages 90 to 92. In addition, the students may read an excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, which depicts the life of immigrants in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
Students will next read about two different approaches to helping the immigrant and working-class population; both included the idea of improving lives through beauty, art, music. First, Jane Addams’s efforts to provide “great art” to the immigrants served at Hull House will be examined and discussed. Next, the paternalistic efforts of George Pullman in his utopian workers’ village will be examined and discussed. Students will respond to specific questions in their Learning Logs. An excerpt from Jane Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull House can be used for a teacher read aloud.
This part of the unit ends with students reading about a politician who was mayor of Chicago for much of the time period. Carter Harrison, Sr., was elected mayor in 1879, 1881, 1883, 1885, and 1893. His 1893 inaugural address reflects his understanding that all groups should share control of the city.
Assessment: The assessment of students’ work during this part of the unit should be informal. The ability to discuss the differences in living conditions of immigrants and working-class citizens vs. such Chicago elites as the Palmers is important, as is the students’ ability to see that immigrants and working-class citizens did not necessarily want “charity.” What they wanted, more often, were opportunities for themselves and their children.