America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a instructional activity that focuses on speeches by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, as well as famous poems and works of art from American history.

Concepts

dystopian literature, the american dream, ronald reagan, john f. kennedy, john winthrop, langston hughes, the roman empire

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Design a cross-curricular unit between social studies and language arts, and include novels like The Great Gatsby or Raisin in the Sun to augment the materials

Classroom Considerations

• Lesson is designed for gifted learners, but is applicable to mainstream classes as well
• Requires use of video and audio for the speeches

Pros

• Well-rounded and applicable to both social studies and language arts curriculum
• Includes links to videos for the speeches and music videos
• Culminates in a project that emphasizes the central theme of the entire lesson

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.1 RL.9-10.2 RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.2 RI.9-10.3 RI.9-10.9