Unit Plan: Chicago Studies. 2008-9: [updated 9.4.8]
Sessions: / Dates: / Themes: / Description:1-8
[8] / Sept. 5-
Sept. 26 / Introductory Unit: Chicago Today / •Chicago’s significance/ status
•Chicago as a case study for cities
•Living in cities
8-17
[10] / Sept. 26-
Oct. 28 / From Stinking Onion to Nature’s Metropolis / •geological and human origins
•first nature: waterways, prairie, forests
•second nature: grains, trains, lumber, pigs
•the city, the environment, the future
17-28
[12] / Oct. 28-
Dec. 9 / The City That Works, / •large-scale industrialization
•steel, meatpacking and other big industries
•impact on the city, people national history
•labor struggle/ immigrants/ urbanization
•first site visits and research
•work and industry in the 20th century
•African-American, Mexican workers
•Great Depression, New Deals, raw deals
28-35
[8] / Dec. 9-
Jan. 16
[spans Christmas break] / Jungle Books / •everyone picks her/his own novel from a range including The Jungle, Sister Carrie, etc.
•Chicago’s image in literature
•realism/naturalism and the Chicago School.
36 / Jan.
20, 21, or 22 / Finals
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••START SEMESTER TWO••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
37-47
[11] / Jan. 27-
March 4 / The [Broken?] Promised Land / African Americans in Chicago:
•the Great Migration/ the workplace
•race riots, segregation, white flight, public housing
•the legacy of Harold and other politicians
47-56
[10] / March 4-
April 1 / City of Neighborhoods / •myths and facts of Chicago’s famed neighborhoods
•neighborhood project/independent research
•fighting city hall
57-65
[9] / April 14-
May 12 / How it Got so Windy / Politics in Chicago:
•Boss, Richard the 2nd, Council Wars, etc.
•1968 and beyond
65-71
[7] / May 12-
June 2 /
Toddlin’ Town
/ The culture generated by our town:•Architecture [at last!]
•movie, art, theater, murals, ghosts, etc.
•parks and crime
72 / June
4, 5, or 8 / Finals