Lesson Plan: Technology in the 1940s vs. Today

This week I began teaching my Death of a Salesman unit with my 12th grade class for the third year in a row. Just a tiny bit of background on how I started teaching this play, because anything published before the 1990s would not be my first choice of text typically: a few years ago the School District of Philadelphia came out with new, whole-text-centered curriculum, designed by district teachers. Sounds very cool, but there was mixed messaging on whether or not these texts were required, and I hate to be told exactly what to teach. I negotiated a deal with my assistant principal, that I would do some of the new curriculum and some of my curriculum I had made myself and had been teaching and refining for a few years. I sent my mom the list of books for 12th grade to see if she could help me make some of them work, and she suggested Death of a Salesman. At first I thought there was no way I could teach this. Who could be more unrelatable to my teenagers than a 60 year old white man from the 1940s? But through the fog of my misery over being forced to change my lessons, I heard my mom say, “This website says Arthur Miller was a socialist,” and I perked right up. I could definitely teach an anti-capitalist manifesto. It would be my pleasure. And here I am today, thrilled to be hanging out with Willy Loman for a third year.

The district curriculum has full lessons to accompany the texts, but as I said, I can’t stand to be told what to teach. If I don’t make it from scratch, I don’t understand it well enough to share it fully and deeply with kids. The previous two years, I launched this unit with a lesson on book bans. However, that topic has come up so much lately, I felt like we had already informally talked it out enough that they understood what I wanted them to understand about it. I thought back to my smartphone lesson from the beginning of the year, how successful it was, and how much it seems kids had forgotten about it, since I found myself back in the phone battle since I came back from my 3 month leave with my son. I didn’t want to come off too preachy. I just wanted to give the kids a reminder as to why I ask for a phone-free space, and I needed to tie it in with the unit so that it felt truly purposeful. The kids also needed context for the play, to understand what life was like in the 1940s so they could engage with the themes of the play in a way that’s relevant to both history and now. An overview of technological developments in the 1940s and 50s was the perfect bridge.

I know I said the background would be brief. Oops. Anyway, let’s get into the lesson progression. I'll walk you through it, and links to the materials are at the bottom.

Kids love to test their own knowledge, so I started off with having students guess what technology existed by the end of the 1950s. Death of a Salesman was published in 1949, but 50s technology is way more interesting than the 40s, so we start here and then move back to talk about which of these existed in the 40s (only television). Our historical discussion and reading about politics, technology, and media launches us into technology today. Students read about some prominent effects of smartphones today, from "decision fatigue" to toxic social comparison, the latter of which will be a main theme from the play that we'll engage with deeply in a few weeks. They discuss where they see this affecting people today, whether in themselves, their peers, or their families. Then they have three writing prompts to choose from:

1. Write about one thing you read or heard that surprised you today. Why was it so unexpected?

2. Write about one thing you read or heard today that you think will influence your thoughts or actions in the future. Explain what it was that resonated with you and how it will change your behavior.

3. Imagine you could write a letter to send back in time to someone from the 1940s. What would you tell them about today? Write it in letter format.

   
   

My favorite response had to be the one in which a student wrote a letter to Trump's mom encouraging her to get an abortion, but that's a side note. Mainly, I read responses in which students reflected on how exhausted they feel every day and had never considered that their phone might be the reason for it. I heard students discussing at what age they would give their own children smartphones and social media access, which for all of them was a much older age than when they themselves got access. ("So what y'all are saying is, your parents made a mistake," I asked, to which I got a resounding chorus of "Yup!") I did still have a couple kids who could not be convinced that cognitive multitasking is not real, but students were moved by what they read and wanted to make a change. I taught this lesson at the beginning of this week, and I noticed now at the end of the week that the students who were present for this lesson were less likely to take out their phones in class than the ones who were absent. Here's hoping it sticks!

Here are links to the materials! Slides / Paper

What do y'all think about the best age for smartphones and social media? When did you give your kids a smartphone, or if you don't have kids, when would you?