Hello, my name is Maria Bonaddio and welcome back to my teaching blog! If I were to teach 5th graders, I would like to teach them about the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age was a cultural period and movement that took place in the 1920s within America. This era is when both new styles of music and dance emerged. I would love to teach students about the culture of this era including the history of flappers, musicians, filmmakers, athletes, entertainers and more. During this time, the people of America went through many social and political changes. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms and the economic growth had gone up immensely. One book I would love to teach would be The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald. I believe this book is very perceptive about what life in the 1920s was like during this time. It also gives children more insight into how the American economy soared and brought prosperity to the nation.

I imagine teaching about the Roaring ’20s in a way that gets students involved and really hands-on. One idea I have is to have students do an autobiography about someone famous during the 1920s. They could then present and dress up and pretend to be the person they chose for the autobiography. Doing an autobiography would be a verbal/linguistic style of teaching that’ll not only help with verbal skills but also with speaking in front of an audience. Speaking to yourself and practicing is a good way to organize and process information learned. Another idea I have would to create literature circles (groups of 4 or more students, depending on class size) with packets students would fill out after each chapter being read. Having literature circles is an interpersonal style of teaching that would be great for having students learn with each other. What’s also beneficial is that working with others through problems can help students gain insight and feedback. Another objective you could include would have slides about inventions, films, and images from the ’20s and have students observe and write about their favorites. This would be a great lesson for students that are visual/spatial learners, so this way the information is presented visually to them. I hope you fellow future educators enjoyed and use some of these ideas!