Teacher Resources

Unit Plans

Unit Plan II: Propaganda and Social Reform

Unit Plan III: Graphing and Interpreting Chart Information

Unit Plans

Unit Plan I: Temperance

Created by Kate Stencil, a teacher at the Doherty Satellite School, Worcester (Mass.) Public Schools

• Objectives
  Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
  • Develop a sense of what some of the reform movements were in the 1840s.
  • Write a compare and contrast essay.

• Duration
  Two - three days.

• Primary sources
  • The Tree of Temperance (1849)
  • The Victim of Ardent Spirits (ca. 1837-1841)
  • Be Careful Whom You Marry (1829)
  • Picnic Songs. Song for Independent Day (1842)
  • Scale of Temperance (18??)
  • Healthfulness of the Grape (1855)

• Homework
  Homework before starting unit: Ask students to collect and bring in advertisements and articles on alcohol and its abuse, drugs and their abuse, physical and mental abuse, child and slave labor. These will be needed for the third part of the lesson.

• Class work
  On the overhead or individual copies ask students to examine the cartoon The Victim of Ardent Sprits. Do they understand the different quotations and what they refer to? As a class or in small groups have the students brainstorm about how this cartoon relates to issues that society deals with today. Have things changed in over one hundred years? Why/Why not?

  People viewed temperance differently, from no drinking of alcohol at all to just not drinking to get drunk. Examine The Tree of Temperance and ask students for their reactions to it. Do they agree with what the tree is saying and to everything that alcohol relates to? Pre-writing activity: students should brainstorm, using the two cartoons, on whether things have changed since these cartoons were drawn.

• Homework
  Write a compare and contrast essay on the way society in 1850 and today handles the intake of ardent spirits. Bring in the advertisements and articles previously asked for.

• Class work
  Group students and make sure each group has at least one item per person.

  Students should discuss their primary documents and pick out the one that they feel is the best. Each group presents their best one to the class, detailing their reasons for picking it. Distribute one of the following 1850s literature to a group and have them examine it: Advice: Be Careful Whom you Marry!, Picnic Songs, Scale of Temperance, and Comments: Healthfulness of the Grape. Each group presents its document's information orally to the class. In class or for homework have the students create an advertisement for temperance in either the 1850s fashion or for today.

Unit Plan II: Propaganda and Social Reform

Created by Kate Stencil, a teacher at the Doherty Satellite School, Worcester (Mass.) Public Schools

• Objectives
  Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
  • Identify major social concerns in the early 1800s.
  • Recognize propaganda and determine the motivation behind it.
  • Compare social concerns of the 1830s with those of today.
  • Write a persuasive piece on an issue of concern to them.

• Duration
  One - two class periods.

• Primary sources
  • Effects of Drunkenness (18??)
  • Preface from Youth's Temperance Lecture (1841)
  • Excerpts from Youth's Temperance Lecture (1841)
  • Picnic Songs. Song for Independent Day (1842)

• Additional materials needed
  • Colored pencils
  • Drawing paper

• Class work
  1. Distribute copies of the Effects of Drunkenness or display the cartoon using an acetate copy and overhead projector. Discuss with students what is going on in the picture, why the title was chosen, and who would have published this cartoon in the early 1800s.
  2. Read aloud to the class the excerpt from Youth's Temperance Lecture, including the poem. Ask students to identify the author's point of view and to give specific examples from the reading to back up their answer.
  3. Distribute copies of Song for Independent Day. Ask for volunteers to read each stanza of the song. Since the tune should be familiar to all, sing the song as a class.
  4. Discuss with students the motivation behind the song. What phrases are clues to the authors point of view?
  5. Brainstorm a list of issues that concerns people today, i.e., smoking, the environment, etc.
  6. Instruct students to create a song written to a familiar tune to try to persuade people to take up a particular cause. Illustrations should accompany the song.

• Extension
  Students can create a public service announcement to go with their song. Students might record their message for a radio announcement or videotape their message for a television spot.

Unit Plan III: Graphing and Interpreting Chart Information

Created by Kate Stencil, a teacher at the Doherty Satellite School, Worcester (Mass.) Public Schools

• Objectives
  Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
  • Identify reasons people were committed to insane asylums in the early 1800s.
  • Make connections between social issues of the time period.
  • Analyze information in a table.
  • Represent information on a graph.

• Primary sources
  • Fourth Annual Report, State Lunatic Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts (1837)

• Additional materials needed
  • Colored pencils
  • Graph paper

• Class work
  1. Pass out the Fourth Annual Report, State Lunatic Hospital to students. Allow a few minutes for students to familiarize themselves with the chart.
  2. Instruct students to classify the reasons people were committed to the lunatic hospital. (Some reasons can be categorized together under a heading such as illness.) Using colored pencils and graph paper, students should create a bar graph showing the categories and numbers of lunatic hospital patients.
  3. Instruct students to study the marital status of the patients. They should calculate the percentages of single, married, and widowed people, and they should construct a circle graph to represent this information.
  4. Ask students to choose another topic from the table to show on a graph or circle graph. Students should be prepared to share their graphs with the class.
  5. Pass out the Questions for Discussion. Ask students to use the information on the table and on their graphs to answer the questions.
  6. After students write individual responses, conduct a class discussion using the questions as a guide.

• Extension
  Divide the class into two groups to debate the treatment of the mentally ill in the 1830s. One group should defend the practice of the time, and the other group should advocate for an alternative that would have been reasonable for the time.

• Questions for Discussion
  1. What were the main causes of people entering the State Lunatic Hospital in the early 1830s?
  2. How many of these people do you think actually had a mental illness?
  3. By whom were most of these people committed and why do you suppose this option was exercised?
  4. What other alternatives were there in the 1830s for treatment of the mentally ill?
  5. What does this report suggest about the way society treated the mentally ill?
  6. How does this compare to the way we treat the mentally ill today?
  7. What is the connection between intemperance and mental illness?
  8. Estimate what fraction of the people were foreigners. Why do you think these people were committed?
  9. How have issues concerning the mentally ill changed since 1830? How have issues remained the same?