The American Journey © 2007

Chapter 28: America in the 1950s

Web Lesson Plans

Introduction
In this chapter students read about the continuation of the Cold War, television, the suburbs, and the baby boom. But what were the 1950s really like? In this activity students will take a closer look at important events, trends, and prices from the 1950s.

Lesson Description
Students will visit a Web site devoted to the 1950s. They will read detailed time lines devoted to the pop history of the decade. They will also compare prices throughout the decade. After answering several questions they will enter prices into a chart and then into a spreadsheet and create a graph.

1. The learner will be able to interpret information from time lines.
2. The learner will be able to describe several examples of pop history in the 1950s.
3. The learner will be able to compare prices throughout the 1950s.
4. The learner will be able to create a spreadsheet and a graph of prices from the 1950s.

1. U.S. population—150,697,361; world population—2.5 billion
2. Peanuts
3. Illinois
4. Ray Kroc started a fast food chain called McDonalds.
5. Students’ charts/graphs may vary slightly, but should accurately reflect the information from the Web site.