Pathfinder:  American Decades

Step 1: Define your task: Look at the assignment/essential question. Scan the Time/Life Our American Century books to choose a decade.

Step 2: What materials might be useful for the project?   Books, Decades Encyclopedias, Online Encyclopedias..

Step 3: Find the material.

Books:  A number of books have been placed on the cart.  Look at the table of contents.  Some of the books are arranged chronologically.  Others have chronologies somewhere in the book.  Some books are arranged by topic.

Decades Encyclopedias:  American Decades is a great place to start. There is one book for each decade of the 1900s. There are sections on government, the arts, science, fashion, and more.

Suggestions for using  Subscription Research Databases:

• Grolier’s online encyclopedias:
  • Select Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. from the list on the left.
  • Click on the Timelines button on the left.
  • Scroll down until you see 1900-1950 or 1950- and click on one of the topics.
  • Find your decade
  • Encyclopedia articles about this time period are listed by date. 
  • The online encyclopedia is an excellent source of pictures
•   Gale’s Student Resources in Context:  
  • Type the decade of interest into the search box in the following format: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc.  Many of the entries shown are from the online version of DISCovering U.S. History or American Decades.  Choose entries that might answer the assigned questions.
  • Scroll down the page to see the many types of information that are available. Note the "On This Page" box, which is usually near the top on the right. Click on images, video, audio, and more..

ebooks (Use the eTable of Contents for a better understanding of these resources):

• UXL American Decades A more up-to-date version of the encyclopedia set. Includes articles, photographs, chronologies, charts, and more.
• American Decades A more detailed version of the UXL encyclopedia.
• American Decades Primary Resources Documents, letters, etc.
• Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America
• America in the 20th Century A Marshall Cavendish ebook. Click on "Narrative Order" for a listing of the articles by decade. There are many photos and diagrams with the articles. Click on the images to enlarge them before copying or printing them.

Websites:  The web is best used as a source of pictures. Use the image search feature on Google or Yahoo to find pictures. The following websites are useful as well:

 The American Memory at the Library of Congress :   http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html A great source of photos, audio clips, and more.

Picturing the Century: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/ From the National Archives. A great source of pictures.

Teaching with Documents: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/ Documents from the National Archives. Include some important historical documets in your presentation.

Vintage Ad Browser: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/ Search by decade (e.g. 1930s) or year. Use Boolean AND to narrow by topic.

The History Channel: http://www.history.com/ Search by decade (e.g. 1930s.)

Step 4: Use the material. Read it and take notes.  CITE YOUR SOURCES!!!

Step 5: Synthesize the information: Prepare and present  the product.

Step 6: Evaluate: Does the paper you wrote answer the essential question? Have you met the requirements for the assignment?

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