Name Date 8th grade Social Studies Period Social Studies Lab Packet Urbanization Introduction: Author, Charles Dickens traveled to America twice, recording his strong but finally mixed impressions in his letters, his travel book AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION (1842), and his fiction, especially MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT (1843‐44). Dickens was particularly interested in seeing public institutions, such as prisons, madhouses, and institutions for the blind, as well as factories and mills to examine working conditions. (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dickens/life_journeys.html) Through a pioneering blend of investigative reporting and documentary photojournalism, Jacob Riis helped to expose the horrible conditions of the slums in which the lower classes of New York City lived. Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1870 at the age of 21, and he knew what it was like to be desperately poor and live in substandard tenement housing. In 1890, Riis published his most famous work, How the Other Half Lives, a book that used revealing photojournalism and detailed analysis of the housing problems afflicting poor immigrants to argue in favor of reforming New York's tenements. (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/riis.html) Compelling Question: Step One: Hunch Step Two: Examining the Evidence Source I
What reforms were needed by the turn of the 19th century? Look at the question above. What is your hunch before looking at any documents? Examine the pieces of evidence. Is it a primary or secondary source? What is the source telling us? What is the gist? Is it a primary or secondary source?
This is the place; these narrow ways diverging to the
right and left, and reeking everywhere with dirt and
filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruit as
elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors
have counterparts at home and all the world over.
Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old.
See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how
the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly,
like eyes that have been hurt in drunken forays.
What place is this, to which the squalid street
conducts us? A kind of square of leprous houses, some
of which are attainable only by crazy wooden stairs
without. What lies beyond this tottering flight of steps,
that creak beneath our tread?—a miserable room,
lighted by one dim candle, and destitute of all comfort,
save that which may be hidden in a wretched bed.
Beside it, sits a man: his elbows on his knees: his
forehead hidden in his hands. ‘What ails that man?’
asks the foremost officer. ‘Fever,’ he sullenly replies,
What is the source telling us? What is the
gist?
Is it a primary or secondary source?
Summarize the first paragraph in a sentence.
Summarize the second paragraph in a
sentence.
© George Grobusch
without looking up. Conceive the fancies of a feverish
brain, in such a place as this!
Here too are lanes and alleys, paved with mud kneedeep … ruined houses, open to the street, whence,
through wide gaps in the walls, other ruins loom upon
the eye, as though the world of vice and misery had
nothing else to show: hideous tenements which take
their name from robbery and murder: all that is
loathsome, drooping, and decayed is here.
-Charles Dickens, 1842
Source II
Is it a primary or secondary source?
Summarize the first paragraph in a sentence.
What is the source telling us? What is the
gist?
Hint: Why are these boys attending night
school?
Night School in the Seventh Avenue Lodging House Source II
Is it a primary or secondary source?
What is the source telling us? What is the
gist?
Jacob Riis - A downtown "Morgue" (unlicensed saloon)
c. 1890
Source III
Is it a primary or secondary source?
What is the source telling us? What is the
gist?
© George Grobusch
Jacob Riis, "Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street
Tenement--'Five Cents a Spot'
Source IV
Is it a primary or secondary source?
What is the source telling us? What is the
gist?
Jacob Reese's photograph of Bandit's Alley.
Step Three: Develop a Claim Step Four: Cite Evidence Supporting Your Claim Based on the evidence write a claim statement. What specific evidence do the sources provide that support your claim? © George Grobusch
Step Five: Communicating Your Conclusions – Extended Response Be sure to begin your paragraph by identifying your claim and then support your claim with evidence from the sources. © George Grobusch
© George Grobusch
© George Grobusch
© George Grobusch
© George Grobusch