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North Carolina Era 8: Early 20th Century – 1900 - 1929 Lesson Plans

Flood of 1916

LESSON: Flood of 1916
UNIT: Era 8 – Early 20th Century – 1900 - 1929

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Learners will read and analyze newspaper accounts of the Western North Carolina flood of 1916.
• Learners will develop a timeline of events from their analysis.
• Learners will concentrate on one human interest story from the description in the newspapers and use that role to explore the human impact of the event.
• LEARNING TARGET: I can explain the events of the 1916 flood and describe the impact on a person involved.

TEACHER PLANNING:

• Time needed: overnight assignment, 10 minutes in class
  Materials/Equipment: digital copies of the Brittain collection of newspapers about the 1916 flood. Moodle would be a good way to get these to students.

PROCEDURE:

1. Assign students to read the newspaper articles concerning the 1916 flood in Western North Carolina.
2. They are to make a timeline of the events of that day.
3. Explain that they are to choose one human interest story from the newspapers. They are to take on the role of that person (or a relative if that person did not survive the event) and write a letter to a friend or relative from out of town explaining the flood and its aftermath.
4. In class the next day, have the class do a community timeline on the board or newsprint.
5. Ask for a few volunteers to share their human interest person.

ASSESSMENT:

• Collect the timelines and letters. These can be assessed for completeness. The letters should be factual, but can have some creative components.

Extension/Differentiation Activities:

• This could be an opportunity to examine some other natural disasters and their effects on people in different regions.
• Another disaster that could be discussed shortly after this lesson could be that of the Influenza Pandemic 1918-1920. It has generally been forgotten in a case of historical amnesia.

Lesson Materials:

• Flood of 1916 Lesson Materials can be found here:
  • Newspaper Article 1
  • Newspaper Article 2
  • Newspaper Article 3
  • Newspaper Article 4

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Craft in Carolina Lesson

LESSON: Craft in Carolina
UNIT: North Carolina Era 8: Early 20th Century (1900-1929)

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Students will understand how people in Western North Carolina held artistic craft occupations to supplement income and created goods for utilitarian purposes.
• Students will understand the origins of many contemporary craft traditions in Western North Carolina.
• Students will work cooperatively.
• Students will engage in critical thinking.
• LEARNING TARGET: “I can analyze pictures to understand how people lived during certain time periods.”

TEACHER PLANNING:

• Time Needed: 15 Minutes
• Materials/Equipment: Copies of photographs detailing regional crafts from the mid-1910s.

PROCEDURE:

1. Ask students “what sort of jobs did people of Western North Carolina have during the early 20th century?” and “can craft work be more than just an artistic hobby?”
2. Divide students into groups (no more than four).
3. Students will work together in groups to examine photographs of artisans from the mid-1910s making their goods.
4. Students should consider what why people would make things like pots, brooms, or clothes, and what they could do with their finished product. Students should also examine the people themselves.
5. Class should reconvene together to discuss their hypotheses and share what they think of the purposes for crafting during the early 20th century.
6. Review the utilitarian purposes for works of craft like pots, brooms, and clothes, and connect contemporary mountain craft tradition with their utilitarian origins.

ASSESSMENT:

• Informal assessment based upon group and class discussion.

NORTH CAROLINA CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT:

• 8.H.1, 8.H.3, 8.E.1, 8.C.1

Lesson Materials:

• Photo of George Donkel loading dried pots into the groundhog kiln he built at Reems Creek Pottery can be found here.
• Photo of George Donkel with one of his pots can be found here.
• Photo of George Donkel wedging the clay in preparation for turning can be found here.
• Photo of Molly Quinn weaving a basket. Photograph taken near Candler, North Carolina, ca. 1915 can be found here.
• Photo of Cindy Warren weaving on a traditional mountain loom. Mt. Pisgah, North Carolina, ca. 1915 can be found here.
• Photo of  Mrs. Warren using a great wheel, or walking wheel, to spin the wool into yarn. The spinner turns the great wheel by hand and moves back and forth while collecting the pulled and twisted fibers onto a spindle. Mt. Pisgah, North Carolina, ca. 1915 can be found here.