This lesson focuses on The Great Gatsby and its portrayal of the disintegration of the American Dream. It features a student response question asking students to consider their own American Dream and a link to a Great Gatsby Treasure...

Read inspiring quotes from famous Americans about how they perceive the concept of the "American Dream."

This is a collection of five videos of Novel Reflections on the American Dream including Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath," Ann Petry's "The Street," and Gish Jen's "Traditional American."

This unique online lesson explores the term "The American Dream," and applies it to Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun." Learners define what they believe is "The American Dream," and then modify that belief based on a thorough study...

Learn how Jim Crow laws impacted home ownership and the pursuit of the American Dream in this series of videos from the American Masters film, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart. Lorraine Hansberry's family was at the...

Using music, video and readings, students will explore their views of the American Dream, and use this information to create "Animoto" videos that express a personal opinion or take on the dream. Students will develop and support their...

Looks at the policies of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, both at home and abroad. Also examines changing gender roles in the 1950s, and the impact of suburbanization on America.

With the help of digitized primary documents -- pictures, photograph, recordings, and written accounts -- students will explore and define what the "American Dream" meant for people over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth...

This is an introduction to Act I of "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry which focuses on "how the social, educational, and political climate of the 1950s affected African Americans' quest for 'The American Dream.'" It features...

Information and analysis on the central concerns, characteristics, and distinguishing features of American literature, presented in timeline format. With synopses of classic works, biographical sketches, overviews of literary movements,...

Includes facts on Social Security, its history, problems, and possible solutions for the program.

Analyze the argument in articles about the American dream.

Students learn about the American Dream through various texts. They explore how foundational American literature treats the topic and consider different perspectives.

Use quotes from people in 1965 to talk about culture, the 1960s, and the American Dream. Students write about them and discuss their ideas in groups. The quotes are included on a handout, and there is a link that explains who said each...

This introduction to contemporary drama focuses on the elements or characteristics of drama and the theme of the American Dream. It features the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, which is set in the 1950s.

A learning module that begins with "American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality" by Ari Shapiro, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online...

This lesson is an introduction to the play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry, which is set in Chicago in the 1950s. It features links to two of Langston Hughes's poems that influenced the title of the play and a Lorraine...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a film guide for the film West Side Story (1961), the musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which is set in 1950s New York and incorporates themes around street crime,...

This exhibition documents the quest for utopian society through the literary works and manuscripts in the collection of Yale University's Beinecke Library, beginning with Thomas More's Utopia. With additional information on utopian...

Has the American Dream become jaded? Has it turned into a materialistic nightmare? The New American Dream center has information to keep the Dream alive and healthy.

Focused on immigrant life in the United States and how families sought the American dream, this unit offers students an understanding of how members of a culture meld into communities while trying to maintain cultural identity and honor...

This site provides a wealth of information about the American songwriter, Stephen Foster. This link leads you to the biographical information which is divided into five sections: beginnings, his life's work, the legend, the problems, and...

This media gallery from the American Masters film F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams explores how F. Scott Fitzgerald's work mirrored events in his life. Using video, discussion questions, organizers, and essays, students will take a...

This video [5:33] from the American Masters film F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams examines the valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby. Using the video, discussion questions, activities, and handouts in this resource, students will gain a...