C U R R I C U L U M    M A T E R I A L S

Jason P. Klien

Overview

Main Ideas
At the start of the twentieth century Chicago was a hotbed for the burgeoning Progressive movement. Edward Dunne, mayor of Chicago and later governor of Illinois, attempted to institute Progressive solutions to city government in spite of Chicago's rough and tumble politics, which were already well-established by the turn of the century. By this time, Chicago was home to an unwieldy series of streetcars operated by a number of different companies. Dunne sought to bring all of the streetcars into one unified system that would be operated under the city of Chicago's auspices. While Dunne's plan failed, the proposal and the politics surrounding it offer important lessons for today's political world.

Connection with the Curriculum
This article can contribute to increased student achievement of the Illinois Learning Standards through its use in a number of interdisciplinary and integrated units (See Table 1). For example, one could include the article in a unit on the Progressive Era, or it could become a key extension activity for students after they have read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. This single article could even serve as the centerpiece for an entire problem-based learning unit on the improvement of public transportation or on an economics-based unit that examines the role of public and private ownership in the free market economy. The activities included here may meet the following Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science: I.B.3,1.B.4,1.B.5; 4.A.3, 4.A.4, 4.A.5; 4.B.3, 4.B.4, 4.B.5; 5.A.3, 5.A.4, 5.A.5; 5.B.3, 5.B.4, 5.B.5; 5.C.3, 5.C.4, 5.C.5; 14.B.3, 14.B.4, 14.B.5; 15.A.3, 15.A.4, 15.A.5; 15.E.3, 15.F.4, 15.F.5; 16.C.3, 16.C.4, 16.C.5.

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Teaching Level
Grades 6-12

Materials for Each Student
If one utilizes this article in conjunction with other research, it will be necessary to supplement the article with time for student research using print and on-line materials. That notwithstanding, the activities included here require that students have:
• A copy of value inventory
• A copy of rubric
• A copy of debate preparation organizer
• A copy of debate questions

Objectives for Each Student
• Each student will be motivated and prepared to read the article as a result of doing the pre-reading activities (Activity 1).
• Each student will collaborate in groups (Activity 2 and Activity 3).
• Each student will demonstrate comprehension of the article through creation and presentation of a play of the article.
• Each student will demonstrate competent oral presentation and dramatic skills through presentation of a play (Activity 2) and performance in the debate (Activity 3).
• Through his work on the play (Activity 2) and the debate (Activity 3) each student will analyze the decisions made by historical figures.
• Each student will analyze the interaction between economics and politics through his work on the play (Activity 2) and the debate (Activity 3).

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING THE LESSON

Opening the Lesson
Activity 1
Before benefiting from reading anything, whether for purpose or pleasure, individuals must have some reason to want or need to read the document. A great deal of reading is presented without any reason for reading it other than the simple requirement of needing to know what is written for a test. Teachers can turn this educational tradition on its head with the use of simple, and brief, activities that invite students to engage in ideas related to the piece prior to actually reading it. There are two options provided for the opening activity depending upon the curriculum of the course in which this article is being used.

• Defuzzing Wheel: The first pre-reading activity that can be used to build interest and thought before reading the article is the defuzzing wheel. The defuzzing wheel can contain any type of important idea, concept, or theme that relates to the reading. Using a transparency or simply drawing the wheel on the board, one asks students to share everything that comes to mind when they see and think about the word or phrase at the center of the defuzzing wheel. The circle containing the word politics becomes the hub, and the students' ideas are then written out as spokes. An activity such as this can take no more than ten minutes, and it will serve as the basis for rich discussion and higher-level thinking after students have read the article.

• Value Inventory: This activity engages students in the reading by asking them to evaluate whether or not they agree or disagree with a number of statements. After students have completed this short individual exercise, their answers can become the source of class discussion before, during, and after the reading. Like the defuzzing wheel, this pre-reading activity will allow for the creation of a classroom environment in which students are expected to engage in high-level critical thinking about the article as they compare, synthesize, and evaluate information from the article with their own beliefs and those of their peers.

These brief in-class, introductory activities can be useful for enhancing the motivation, interest, and success of students when they read an article such as this. While these are extremely important instructional tools, it is not necessary to formally assess students' work in these activities in terms of grading. At the same time, such activities are extremely important assessment tools for teachers to gain an understanding of what students already know and believe about the world.

Developing the Lesson
Activity 2
For reading to become an exciting, enriching experience for students, it must be purposeful. To this end, students must not only comprehend what has been read, but they must also have the opportunity to use the information in a meaningful, real world context. Nevertheless, students cannot successfully access information from written language if what is written is not understood by the students. This fact, coupled with the realities of high-stakes testing and the growth of the Internet, requires schools to continue to focus on comprehension not as an end in and of itself but as a means to an end.

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Activity 2 is designed to help students comprehend what they have read from this rather complex story with its sizeable cast of characters and intricate details. In this activity, students collaborating in groups will turn the article into a play. Groups will write scripts, and each group member will take on the role of one or more of the people discussed in the article. Individual classroom teachers can determine what degree of poetic license students will be allowed. While all groups would use this same complex article as a foundation for their play, groups may re-examine this story of Chicago politics in very different ways. For example, some groups may choose to undertake some additional research. This may lead to larger roles for famous names mentioned in the article, such as Jane Addams, William Jennings Bryan, or Clarence Darrow.

This project can be a one-day activity, or it can become an elaborate multi-day or even multi-week lesson. The long-term version of this project might include the following lessons/activities:

• Students could research characters for more detailed background information.

• Groups can be formed that include all students who will perform a specific role. For example, there would be a group of students portraying Dunne who would meet with one another to become experts on Dunne and how best to perform that role.

• The class can analyze various historical movies or plays. Students would evaluate how historical truth and dramatic interpretations have been balanced, successfully or unsuccessfully, in those productions.

Activity 3
A final activity is a series of classroom debates. This collaborative activity would place students on opposing teams of four to five members. In a typical class, three debates would take place, with each student participating in one of the debates. Students would be assigned to one of two sides of the debate. One side consists of advisors to Charles Yerkes of the West Chicago Railway Company and the North Chicago Railway Company. The other side is made up of Mayor Dunne's advisors. The debate would focus on a number of questions that are all delivered by a moderator. Each side has the opportunity to respond to the other's comments on each question.

Format of the Debate

• Setting: The two opposing sides sit together at the front of the classroom facing one another and the audience (rest of the class).

• Assigning Student Roles: Prior to the debate, the teacher has chosen the order in which team members will respond. This can be assigned so as to support individual strengths and weaknesses, or it can be assigned randomly. The debate format, though, is designed to support differentiation for the relative strengths of different students.

• Order of the Debate:

1. The debate begins with each team stating its general position on the public transportation conflict with a two- to three-minute position statement.

2. Following the introductory comments, the first question is delivered to Mayor Dunne's advisory team. Team members have one minute to confer before the first speaker is required to answer within a two-minute time period.

3. Yerkes's advisory team, then, has the opportunity for a two-minute rebuttal. The student chosen by the teacher to speak first for the team must give this rebuttal.

4. Following the rebuttal, the second question is asked of Yerkes's team, and this question will be answered by the team member assigned to speak second.

5. The second speaker from Dunne's group has the opportunity to speak in response to the second question and rebut the comments of the Yerkes group.

6. The debate goes back and forth throughout the question asking period or until time has run out.

7. Following the questions, answers, and rebuttals, each side has the opportunity to make a closing statement.

Concluding the Lesson
At the end of the debate, audience members can be asked to vote on which team won the debate by arguing its position more convincingly. Additionally, audience members can also be asked to provide supportive and constructive feedback to their classmates on what each team did well during the course of the debate and on those areas that would benefit from continued improvement.

Extending the Lesson
Activity 2 and Activity 3 can be extended by increasing the amount of outside research that occurs and the level of expectations for the quality of the final product. Additionally, either of these activities can be extended by differentiating

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for the needs and interests of individual learners. One might differentiate for different students by providing specific requirements to some students that require more or different analysis. Simultaneously, one might differentiate for other students by limiting the number of characters in the play or by focusing the debate on the key concepts that the class has studied related to the article. The most profound extension of the lesson would be to create a real-world, problem-based learning unit around this article (see Table 1).

Assessing the Lesson
Activity 2-Assessment
Whether this activity is completed within a day or two, including student performances, or over a multi-week period, assessment is a vital and often overlooked component of instructional design. There are a number of areas in which students can be assessed through this activity These include:
• Reading comprehension
• Accurate historical content
• Oral presentation skills
• Collaborative work skills

A traditional history class might only assess the second of these four areas, yet businesses continually cite these other skills as among the most important for employees today and into the foreseeable future. In order to assess these varied items, a rubric is a useful tool. A sample rubric for Activity 2 follows. This activity is an appropriate opportunity to teach and assess these skills that have traditionally been regarded as secondary.

Finally, real world assessment need not simply come from the teacher's red pen. There are a number of other ways in which the rubric can be used to assess this activity.
• The teacher can assess student performances using the rubric.
• Students can evaluate one another with the aid of the rubric.
• Students and groups can evaluate their own performances. Videotaping performances can be extremely useful in allowing students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses.
• Teacher, peer, and self-evaluation can be combined to form a comprehensive assessment of the activity.

Activity 3-Assessment
The debate itself, like Activity 2, would be appropriately evaluated with a well-designed rubric. A discussion in which students share their reactions to each debate is another natural and meaningful assessment that can be employed. Students can also complete daily evaluations of their group members' abilities to work collaboratively. At the end of a major project such as this, it also would be worthwhile to provide students with an opportunity to reflect upon what they did well and in what areas they need to improve.

Table 1
Municipal Ownership; A Problem-Based Learning Unit Stage Description Activities

Stage 1	Meet the Problem	Students read article. Through debriefing, the class formulates its challenge in its own words.
Stage 2	Expert Teams	Students first become experts at their job as the research elements that are specific to an understanding of their expert team. Then, expert teams formulate the one best solution from their own perspective.
Stage 3	Product Teams	Students are placed into new groups, and each of these groups has a member from each expert team. Using the various perspectives shared by the "experts," product teams must then consider the various, and often competing, perspectives to create the best possible solution. Once a well-developed solution has been outlined, product teams must create and refine a professional presentation.
Stage 4	Present Solutions	Solutions are presented to a panel of "real-world experts." Oftentimes, these are actual working experts who can influence a particular policy or practice, but in the case of a historical unit such as this, this role can be played by a variety of adults.

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Rate the following statements with this scale:

SA	A	D	SD
Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree

___The most important component of business is making as large a profit as possible.

___Government must have a laissez-faire attitude toward business. It must not regulate business.

___The public regulates business by how it chooses to spend its money.

___Government must protect the average citizen from the power of big businesses.

___Politicians are concerned about the welfare of individual citizens.

___Politicians favor certain people when they are making decisions about policies.

___Politicians support policies based on whether or not they think the policy is a good idea.

___Political parties control the actions of individual politicians.

___The media has great control over the opinions and actions of politicians and the public.

___All citizens have an equal right to public transportation.

	4	3	2	1
Reading Comprehension	• All important events and characters from article are accurately portrayed • Production is chronologically accurate	• Most important events and characters from article are accurately portrayed •Production is chronologically accurate	• Some important events and characters from article are accurately portrayed • Production is chronologically accurate	• Few or no important events and characters from article are accurately portrayed • Production is not chronologically accurate
History	• All historical facts are accurate • Interactions between characters are realistic - based on the historical record • Adaptation to play does not result in any gross misinterpretations of history	• Most historical facts are accurate • Interactions between characters are realistic - based on the historical record • Adaptation to play does not result in any gross misinterpretations of history	• Some historical facts are accurate • Most interactions between characters are realistic - based on the historical record • Adaptation to play does not result in any gross misinterpretations of history	• Few historical facts are accurate • Interactions between characters are not realistic -based on the historical record • Adaptation to play results in gross misinterpretations of history
Oral Presentation	• Stays in character throughout performance • Appropriate volume throughout performance • Expresses mood and tone of characters throughout performance • Dress represents character	• Stays in character throughout most of performance • Appropriate volume throughout performance • Expresses mood and tone of characters throughout performance • Dress represents character	• Stays in character for some of performance • Appropriate volume for most of performance • Expresses mood and tone of some characters • Dress represents character	• Does not stay in character throughout performance • Inappropriate volume • Rarely expresses mood and tone of characters throughout performance • Dress does not represents character
Collaborative Skills	• Worked positively with other group members • Regularly involved in group goal setting • Regularly divided tasks among group members • Completed tasks for the group efficiently and with high quality	• Worked positively with other group members • Often involved in group goal setting • Often divided tasks among group members • Completed most tasks for the group efficiently and with high quality	• Worked respectfully with other group members • Somewhat involved in group goal setting • Occasionally divided tasks among group members • Completed some tasks for the group efficiently and with high quality	• Developed negative relationships with other group members • Rarely involved in group goal setting • Rarely divided tasks among group members • Rarely completed tasks for the group efficiently and with high quality

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Circle One

Advisor to Charles Yerkes		Advisor to Mayor Dunne
Describe the problems with the current public transportation system.	| | | | | | | | | | | | |	Describe your plan to improve the current public transportation system.

Describe how your plan addresses political and public opinions about the issue.

List the major benefits of your plan.

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All questions are written as if the debate is taking place around 1905.

1. Explain your beliefs on the rights of citizens to have access to public transportation. Does public transportation in Chicago allow citizens this level of access?

2. What are the roles of the government and the traction companies in developing a plan to improve public transportation in Chicago?

3. Explain the major problems of the Chicago rail system. How does your plan address these problems?

4. What do you think is the proper role of public opinion in the decision-making process on an issue such as this?

5. What role should government have in the management of Chicago's public transportation system?

6. Explain how your plan is acceptable to a majority of politicians in Chicago.

7. There is a rich tradition of corruption in Chicago politics. How does your plan prevent politicians from corrupting the public transportation system?

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