48
NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2016
• Newspaper Articles:
• “Dr. Wiley’s Poison Squad Enlisted from Expert Topers,” The St. Louis Republic, December 6, 1903
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020274/1903-12-06/ed-1/seq-40/
• “Beef Trust is Bad,” Chicago Eagle, April 7, 1906
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025828/1906-04-07/ed-1/seq-6/
• “Debate on the Pure Food Bill,” The Salt Lake Herald, June 23, 1906
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058130/1906-06-23/ed-1/seq-10/
• “How the Beef Trust has Poisoned Peoples’ Food,” The Commoner, June 8, 1906
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/46032385/1906-06-08/ed-1/seq-7/
• “Pure Food Lesson in House,” The San Francisco Call, June 22, 1906
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1906-06-22/ed-1/seq-1/
Time: Three sessions of 45 minutes each
Materials:
• Activity 1: Close Questions for Reading The Jungle
• Activity 2: Close Reading Rubric for Newspaper Articles
• Activity 3: Writing Rubric
Lesson Preparation:
Activity 1:
• Print one copy of the excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle for each student.
• Print one copy of the Close Reading Questions for The Jungle for each group.
Activity 2:
• Download a copy of the political cartoon (optional: print a copy for each student).
• For each student, select and print one of each of the historic newspaper articles.
• Set the students into groups of 3-4 students each.
Activity 3:
• Make copies of the writing rubric included at the end of the lesson for each student.
• Choose the list of acceptable topics (Harvey Wiley, Theodore Roosevelt, Upton Sinclair) and decide how students select their
topic (free choice, random drawing, assigned topics).