High school students are focusing their learning on the Progressive Era (approximately 1900 – 1920) right now. They’ve learned about muckrakers, Presidential power, political changes, and other things in the past few weeks. On Monday, we created a list of the positives and negatives of Industrialization in late 19th century America. Students took into account as many facets as they could remember. One student even helped to organize the many aspects listed on post-its.

Today, students spent time examine primary sources in small groups. Now that they have an exam completed, they have a more clear understanding of the way primary sources can work to bolster arguments in essay responses, and they put that knowledge to work today. Each small group had rich discussions about the sources, the author’s perspectives, and the meaning they could extract. From here, they will practice making connections between sources to craft a coherent, convincing argument.